Thank you for taking the time to read this. There's just so much to say on this topic but we've tried our best to keep this concise.
We’ve always considered adoption alongside biological kids as one way to live out our beliefs. We think Russell Moore says it best in his book, Adopted for Life: “We believe Jesus in heavenly things—our adoption in Christ; so we follow him in earthly things…”
But not until recently have we really understood all of the implications. And we’re still learning. There’s a lot of work and there’s risk and there’s unknown (similar to a pregnancy, right??). We’ve prayerfully wrestled with these things and still, we know God has equipped us to meet this need for a birth mom who’s choosing life even when it’s hard. We enjoy being parents and we desire to be an option for her, whoever she is. We respect her so much already—for the courage to make such a gut-wrenching decision to place her baby into our arms as mom and dad.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed in this process, but we experience the most peace as we trust that God cares about details. Yet He’s graciously revealing those to us one step at a time! Which leads us to our community’s involvement - again, we think Russell Moore says it best: “All of us have a stand in the adoption issue, because Jesus does.”
We’re so grateful our third child will be known and loved by you, just as Jane and Henry are.
If you have any questions or encouragement for us, please reach out!
Since our last update, we have been reviewing cases carefully and prayerfully and have said “yes” to 3. We have not been matched though as those birth moms ultimately decided another family fit their preferences better. Reasons birth moms choose different families vary greatly and we are at peace as we wait for the right case to come through. Stay tuned!
We haven’t given an update in a while because there hasn’t been much to report! We’re learning things really do move slowly in this process for many reasons. After waiting on our home study report to be finalized and profile books to be printed, we sent our stack of final paperwork to our consultant on Jan 26th and it’s been a long month of waiting… but we are excited to share that we are finally ACTIVE! This means we are beginning to receive cases (via email) and will review each one carefully and prayerfully. The information available varies from case to case. We have chosen to pursue newborns/infants, meaning the birth mothers that will see our family profile are currently pregnant. And all are within the continental US with the exception of NY and NJ. More to come!!
Thank you for walking with us through your prayers, financial support, and encouragement.
We are relieved to say we've gathered all necessary paperwork! This includes notarized contracts/agreements, certified copies of various documents (birth/marriage certificates, local/state/federal clearances for criminal checks/child abuse & sex offender status, social security cards, licenses, proof of all types of insurance, financial statements, employment verification, etc), reference letters, autobiographies, agency-specific forms, medical evaluations, hours of trainings, home safety checklist, etc. Our final Home Study visit is scheduled for December 12th. While we wait for that report to be written, Kaylyn will be finishing our profile book which is what birth moms look at when selecting a family - more to come on that. Then we'll be ready to submit everything to FAC (our consultant) for review and are aiming to go active in early February. There will be more paperwork after matching and post-placement, but for now, we're feeling accomplished.
