We have BIG news! We are adopting a child from Bulgaria!
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 started this crowdfunding campaign to help ease some of the financial burden. It may surprise you to hear that international adoption related costs can total up to $45,000 or more.
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.
Please prayerfully consider joining us our adoption process!
Adoption Update: We've completed the first part of the adoption process and have an approved Home Study! We started the process 5 months ago and since had to complete multiple trainings, gather around 50 various documents, decide what type of medical conditions our family is capable of managing, and get finger printed about 4 times!
Now our focus is completing dossier documentation and getting pre-approval from the United States Customs and Immigration to bring our child from Bulgaria home. With the leadtime of the Home Study we were able to complete nearly all the dossier documentation and just needed to attach the Home Study to the USCIS application. Our goal is to have the dossier process complete by the end of August, but it all depends on government processes... After that, we'll be on the waiting list and able to be matched; the timeframe is really unknown as it's dependent on what families are in front of us and based on our openness to medical conditions.
The waiting period will be very hard because we will not be able to do anything, but just sit. Prayers during that time are very welcome, thus far we've been able to keep very busy with various home study and dossier needs.
Once matched the bigger expenses start to roll in and we're beginning to prepare for these financial needs. We have a few things that you can help participate if you're willing.
- August 13th - Farmers Market Kid's Stand. Our kids will be selling cake pops and baked goods again.
- September 21st - 24th - Bake Sale and Garage Sale. If you have things your willing to donate please let us know!
- We're still doing our puzzle pieces. If you'd like to donate you can at https://adopttogether.org/families/oetken-family-adoption
