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. Many friends and family have expressed they have wanted to help us in some way. This is why we have set a goal of $10,000 on this platform. 5% of your donation to our adoption, can help ease the financial burden that overwhelms adoptive parents. That 5% will help fund many grants for other families!
Now, our story….
We are Jason and Courtney Schwartzel. Thank you for taking the time to let us introduce ourselves and hear about our adoption journey with Alden Joseph (Xi Zheng Zhe).
Jason and Courtney were married in 2012. During that time Jason had full time physical custody of his three kiddos, Emily (8), Cayden (6), and Quinn (10). Courtney got thrown right into full time step-parenting from the get-go!
Having a child the natural way was going to be tough. For both Jason and Courtney, adoption was always on the table. We made the decision that we would not go through medical testing, IVF, or any other scientific approach to achieve a successful pregnancy. Although that is a viable option for many, it didn’t feel like the right path for us. There are millions upon millions of children in this world needing loving parents. Adoption was the answer (and gift!).
Three years into our marriage, Jason’s children - Emily, Cayden, and Quinn - decided to live with their Mom. We moved from California to Arizona (for employment reasons) and saw the kids as much as was possible. During our time in Arizona, we became trained as foster parents in Maricopa County, with a foster to adopt goal for older children (3-8 age range). We completed 42 hours of training, outfitted the home per state guidelines, bought bunk beds, completed the home study….the whole nine yards! We got comfortable and familiar with the family preservation goal of fostering, but were open to adoption for any child in the age range that had parental rights severed.
Upon certification one year into the program, our agency called us into their office one day to lay the heartbreaking news. Because Jason’s biological children (who now lived in Idaho at this time) did not have immunization records, the state wouldn’t place us with any child under 12. This was devastating news. This had been our decided path, to adopt. Plainly stated, it wasn’t easy getting to this point emotionally - considering not only the grief we were working through by not being able to conceive, but understanding the needs of these fragile, traumatized, yet hopeful foster children…and then not being able to help…we were distraught that we couldn’t continue down the path to foster and/or foster to adopt.
…we had to start over. We were now dedicated to adoption as our journey…
We jumped back on the horse in May 2017 and interviewed families that had completed US domestic adoptions, as well as international adoptive families.
We decided China was the best program for us. The culture, the needs of the orphans in China, the support system of adoptive families residing in Colorado, and our agency made for an easy transition to international adoption from China. For the first time in 5 years since we were married, we felt hopeful that we were going to be able to “add to our team.” And, in one of the most beautiful ways possible - adopting an orphan from China.
In August 2017, we bought our dream home (a fix-er upper to say the least, it’s 130 years old) in Loveland, Colorado. Three weeks later (on Courtney’s birthday, ironically) we were matched to 20 month old Xi Zheng Zhe, in the Henan Province of China. He is a Waiting Child, his special need is Phenylketonuria (PKU), an inherited disorder that increases the levels of a substance called phenylalanine in the blood. If PKU is not treated, phenylalanine can build up to harmful levels in the body, causing intellectual disability and other serious health problems. Xi Zheng Zhe seems to have had good care during the first year of his life (he was abandoned at 1 yr old), although his story is a mystery. We were informed in an orphanage update that he is fed a special formula at the orphanage, and not much else. He has not had immunizations, as the orphanage has deemed him “unhealthy,” therefore they will not risk this in China.
Since we have been matched to our son, we wait, and wait, and wait to travel to China to get our boy! We are remodeling and gutting our home by ourselves, which makes for the wait to go by fast some days, but agonizing the next. If you have ever seen the movie “Money Pit” with Tom Hanks…it’s very similar here! Floors have had to be leveled and rebuilt from the joists up, new electrical had to go in, walls knocked down and rebuilt, new ceiling beams, a new furnace, new kitchen, you name it, we are doing it. We on on track for the kitchen to be painted, counters installed, and cabinets all before we leave for China. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be 100% complete, but it will be a safe and loving home for him. It is exciting to know we are building this home out of love, and will bring him home here to a place we have poured our sweat and tears into.
We expect to travel in August or September of this year (2018). Our Visas, including Aldens, were sent in on July 3rd. We are informed by our agency that we will fly into Beijing, and also have in-country travel to ZhengZhou and then to Guangzhou.
Courtney will not be working full-time upon our return home from China, so we can spend time getting his pHe levels in check, mastering his recipes and eating routines, attaching & bonding, and taking him to all appointments necessary to get him on track, healthy, and thriving.
Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our Adopt Together Campaign! We love this organization as it gives back to grant program so other families can get some financial assistance towards their adoption. Have a wonderful summer and we hope to share pictures of our family from HOME this fall!
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.
