We have BIG news!
We are adopting a child!
We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption-related costs can easily total up to $35,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of [insert amount] to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.
Here is the story that lead us to make this decision.
Our adoption story starts with our childhood. Life was great for both of us as we were raised in Christian families, involved in our church families, and enjoying a wonderful childhood. Except for Valerie who at age three was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Diamond Black Fan Syndrome. This caused my body to have blood anemia and a few genetic issues. At birth, I was born with a hole in my heart where it did not belong. At age three I had open-heart surgery to repair it. The rest of my childhood continued with blood tests and steroid medication which led me to live a very healthy young life. I continued on with my Christian education through college where I fell in love…or at least I thought I did. My ex-husband and I got married and after three years of marriage, we decided to try and get pregnant. These first three years were not easy for us, so we decided to move out of state for a new start. Once settled in our life in Vermont we decided to try and figure out why we were not pregnant yet. After a visit to my primary care doctor, an abnormal hormone test, and an appointment at the infertility specialist, I was told the news that would change my life forever, that I am not able to have biological children . After walking out of my appointment stunned and feeling like the world around me was falling apart, I slowly went into recovery mode. My lifetime dreams of becoming a mom were being ripped from me and there was nothing I could do. The next few years continued to be challenging as my Ex and I learned to cope with the news. I turned to God and dove deeper into my faith becoming a stronger woman in Christ. After three different Christian counselors, a year of me living in a lonely and loveless marriage my EX husband abanded me. My parents rescued me, moved me home, and helped me rebuild my life. God blessed me with an easy divorce and lots of family and friends who surrounded me with love and my life started to turn around.
While Val struggled to keep her head afloat and her dreams of a family alive, Ethan became a homeowner at age 18, focused on his work, and continued to pray that God would bless him with a wife and family. The journey was long and hard for both of us, but God finally brought our paths together. All it took was one short message on the Christian mingle dating app and it was love at first sight. We have been married for a year and feel very blessed to have found each other and long to have a family. This began our decision to answer God's call to adopt a child. We have chosen Bethany Christian Services as our agency and have applied for domestic infant adoption. And even though we have tightened our budget, eliminated all unnecessary expenses, and vacations we still need to raise $35,000 to make our dreams come true. Only Our Lord and Savior can move mountains….and we know he will. Therefore, we are asking our friends and families to help.
Pray, Pray and Pray…we need lots of prayers to make our dream a reality. Check our page often for updates and specific ways to pray.
Please consider donating to our cause. You can donate here on our adopt together page, and through fundraising events. Check your mailboxes and inboxes for more information.
Please Help our dreams come true…. together our God will move a mountain!
Ethan and Valerie Niemeyer…..Dad and Mom-to-be!
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.
Hello family and friends,
We hope you are all enjoying this Beautifull spring weather and have been able to get out and soak up the sunshine.....when mother nature decides to cooperate and treat us with spring weather...lol.
Sp[ring means Garage sale season and We are busy getting ready for our garage sales. We have been collecting items since last fall and have a small thrift store of items collected in Val's parent's basement. We are having our first sale on Saturday, April 30th ( weather dependent ) from 9 am- 3 PM. Come on out and check out all the items we will have for sale. Some items will be marked with prices but most of the items will be marked by donation. We will also have for sale cookies, brownies, candy, lemonade, and bottled water for sale at a small donation as well. Our sale will be held at Val's parent's house in Holland: 242 Orlando Ave Holland Mi 49423.
Here is what you can do to help:
1. We are still collecting items to sell, so if you have any gently used and in good condition home goods, tools, toys, electronics, small furniture items, decorations, sporting good items, or anything you would donate to good will. Please consider donating to our sale. We are available this weekend to pick items up ( if you live in the greater Holland area) or you can drop items off at our home or Val's parents.
2. Please pray that God will bless us through this sale but most importantly that he will use us to be a blessing to others and that will shine God's light too everyone who stops by.
3. Please continue to pray for our home study and our approval process, and peace for us both as we continue to walk down this emotionally draining and difficult home study process.
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support, it means so much to us!
Ethan and Valerie
Hello family and friends,
We have made it to spring....or at least the calendar says it is spring. This post is not an easy one so, let me start by saying that adoption is mentally, and spiritually hard and this past week has been no different.
On March 8 our home study was scheduled to be complete. We waited all month and scheduled more meetings and completed more paperwork for our agency and then we finally received word this week that our home study is on pause. This means our approval is dependent on more paperwork and an 8-week parenting class we will be taking in May and June. Our agency is extremely confident that they will be able to approve our home study in July.
This is not a "No" just another delay...which is what we are getting used to with our journey,
This news was heartbreaking, and it felt like our dreams were being shattered. Many of you may not understand why this is so hard so let me try and explain. All we want is our dreams of becoming parents to come true, but we have to fight and prove to a few select people ( who have laws to abide by) that we will be good parents. Adoption is our best first choice for becoming parents because I ( Val ) am unable to have biological children. Therefore we feel God has chosen us for this long and difficult road of adoption and will continue on even when its hard.
This was a huge setback for us but we are doing our best to be hopeful, to hang on to God, and trust that he knows what he is doing. We could give up and say this is too hard but we are not. We are trusting in God and hanging on to our caseworker's hopeful words of encouragement as we continue down this approval process.
Here is what you can do to help us in the next few months.
1. Be our prayer warriors: Not getting the approval we hoped for when we expected was a shock. Please pray for God to encourage us as we continue down this approval process, that we will continue to fight the devil off both mentally and spiritually and that we won't give up.
2. ( This may get personal ) Many of you know my story and may remember that April and May consist of a very hard time of year for me. ( Val ) This month marks the 6 year anniversary of finding out about infertility, my Grandmothers death (mom's mom), and the 4 year anniversary of my past marriage coming to a devastating end. This is all in my past but the pain is still very real and part of my story. And the news of our home study being on pause makes this time of year harder to fight off difficult feelings from my past. Therefore please pray for my spiritual and mental strength for myself so God can get me through yet another hard season. That I will get up each day and focus on god blessings and good things in my life and remember where God has taken from and where he is leading me to.
As we continue on in our difficult approval process we are staying busy by completing projects around the house. Our basement remodel is coming along nicely, Ethan is starting up his lawn care business for the summer and Val is thankful to run a business she loves. We celebrated Niemeyer Family Childcare being open for a full year on March 29 and finding things to be thankful for every day. Ethan and I are blessed to have each other and are leaning into each other and God during this difficult journey. We are thankful for all of you who are a part of our village. your sensitive encouragement, cards, and kind words keep us hopeful and moving forward with our journey. We truly could not do this without all of you coming behind us, your prayers do more than you know. This coming month we have a weekend away planned to destress and get our minds off the home study, we are preparing for our camping season to start in May...SO EXCiTED, and are continuing on with our garage sale fundraiser ( more details coming soon ).
I will end with this reminder from my sister Ashley this week...my story is not done yet, and God is not done with me yet. ( thank you Ashley for this important reminder) We are holding on to God, trusting in his plan, and trying every day to fight off the devil.
Hope you all have a great Easter,
Ethan and Val
I have attached a file of one of our favorite worship songs...God will see us through this!
