Friends and Family,
As many of you may already know, we are adopting a child (or multiple children)! We are so excited to be growing our family through adoption as we believe it is a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and we invite you to be a part of this process.
As we look back over the past 5 years of infertility, it is certain that Christ Jesus was with us all along. After various interventions and procedures to become pregnant, 30+ negative pregnancy tests, and multiple doctors and endocrinologists telling us "No," life just felt hard to navigate. There were moments of heartbreaking fear and doubt, but in the end Christ has prevailed and made us whole and renewed by His spirit. Only God can do that! We are just so thankful that God has given us this opportunity to expand our family through the gift of adoption and we feel that there is no better way to express our faith than by the expression of a life lived out through love. We have always expressed a desire to adopt (even while dating!) and we are thrilled that this dream is becoming a reality!
Adoption can be a very long, emotional, and expensive journey! We are thankful to be working with an agency just outside of Atlanta by the name of Faithful Adoption Consultants, or FAC. What drew us to FAC is that they walk alongside Christian families seeking to adopt domestically, and they also provide intentional love and support for birth mothers who are making this brave and sacrificial decision. Another draw to FAC is that the average wait time is just 4.5 months! We have our HomeStudy on December 7th, and our hope is to be active at the beginning of 2018!
As we mention above, we would love for you to be a part of this journey. You may be asking how? Well, we would love to tell you!
1. Pray. Pray for the little one(s) that we are adopting, and for the birth mother. As beautiful as adoption is, it is also painful, so we ask that the Lord protect the hearts of all involved. Pray also for the paperwork, fundraising, and upcoming HomeStudy. We know this is all in the Lord's hands and desire him to orchestrate this whole process. We also ask that you pray for us as we prepare to become first-time parents.
2. Give. Adoption is an incredibly expensive process, and can at times be overwhelming. The cost can be up to $50,000 in some circumstances, and we have set a goal to raise $20,000. This money helps cover the cost of medical expenses for the birth family, legal fees, agency fees, travel, paperwork and HomeStudy fees, and much more. Your gift will be tax-deductible through Adopt Together. In addition to this $20,000, we are also applying for grants, doing fundraisers, and relying on the Lord to provide exactly what we need.
3. Share. We would love for you to pass along this information and invite others to be a part of this journey. Feel free to share this link through email or Social Media.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as he/she grows up.
Ephesians 3:20-21 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Love, Stephen + Hope Moore
