We are excited to share that we are adopting a child!
The standard questions we are asked often are, “Do you have children? How old are they? Do you want more children?” We are usually pretty honest with our answers and let people know that it wasn’t in the plan for us to only have one child at this point in our marriage. Through our honesty and confession about the stirring to adopt, God brought specific people into our lives to give us a word of encouragement and others who pointed us in the direction of New Life Adoptions. Through these friends and Rachel's medical diagnosis, God has made the path toward adoption very clear to us. We are eager to follow His lead.
Adoption is very expensive. In order to make adoption a reality for our family, we are inviting others to financially and prayerfully partner with us. The exact amount required by the agency is $24,000. We also have up to $1,750 in additional fees that will be given to the attorney once adoption is finalized.
Any money donated beyond this amount will go towards formula, diapers, clothing, and other expenses related to the needs of our adopted child.
We appreciate your financial partnership greatly.
We wanted to write another expression of gratitude to each of you for contributing to our campaign. We've applied to 8 grants and have only received one so far. We got an email yesterday morning that we were denied from the "big one" we were hoping for (a $10K grant) . We can't pretend like we're not disappointed, but we see that this campaign has raised almost that amount. We know that God is still providing amidst that disappointment.
Second, we've had people ask about registries and showers and all the traditional things that happen prior to a baby's arrival. This is such a quick turnaround during the holiday season so I wanted to clarify that we will not be having a traditional baby shower prior to placement. As much as we'd love for it to resemble a typical experience, we've accepted that adoption is all around different. Different isn't a bad thing. It's just a different thing!
At this time, we have a small registry on Amazon, are accepting DoorDash gift cards or freezer meals, and will have a Meal Train set up soon but no big celebration/gathering planned.
Our biggest needs are funding for the adoption expenses and a car seat. We're just focused on getting the necessities while continuing to prepare our hearts and our home. Please feel free to share with anyone you know who'd be interested in supporting us in these different ways. We seriously cannot do this without your help. So we are truly thankful.
Here's the Amazon registry if you know someone who'd like to support us in this way:
https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/rachel-althaus-january-2025-hockley/10I1DWQ7DSYGA?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_QRJBEXWGDQREJS67WP3S
We just received a call that we were chosen TODAY by the first mother who saw our book. Sandi had to literally unwrap our books from the packaging to give one to her. She’d seen books last week and asked to see more as she felt there was someone else out there… Then our books arrived on Monday, and she picked US! We don’t quite have the words to express how humbled we feel by this. We are overwhelmed and have much to prepare. It’s a little boy. We’ve saved all of Hudson’s clothes and held tightly to all our baby things as we never knew when or how we’d grow our family. We’re very thankful for that in this moment. Mom will be having a c-section mid-January!! Pray for us, baby, and expectant mom. 💙🩵
As always thanks so much to each of you for making this possible. We could not do it without your support!!
We wanted to first thank each of you again for your generosity and support along this journey. We are including a final photo of the room!
We are now LIVE on the New Life website, and our book will arrive to the agency on Monday. We are officially a waiting family!! https://newlifeadopt.com/waiting-families/#chadrachel
We've received much support between this page, Hudson's bake sale, and grants. However, we are still in need of around $12,000. Because of this, Rachel's starting to offer to make balloon arches/garlands for parties and events as another way to fundraise. She has an instagram page called @celebration_elevation if you'd like to follow along!
We FINALLY finished the nursery!
Our vision has come together beautifully, and we are so thankful to have it completed. Doing DIY stuff is definitely not easy, and we have a greater appreciation for those who do it!
When a pregnant mom is in labor, there comes a time when she feels the need to push. It’s her body’s way of saying “it’s time”. Rachel won’t get to experience that with this child, but we can tell you, we’ve felt God speak to us to “push” through to finish this labor of love. He’s telling us pretty clearly that it’s time to get our family book in.
We appreciate your prayers not only for us but for the precious expectant parents as well as for the baby. May God’s ultimate Will be done as it has throughout the entire process.
Enjoy a photo of Rachel hanging the fingerprint wallpaper!
We are working so hard on the nursery! We are close to being done but ran into some "snags" that prevented us from completing it at the end of October as we'd hoped. Please pray for us as we are trying our best to finish it up this weekend and that no other issues get in our way of that. Incidentally, our dishwasher broke last night, but we are putting that on hold and getting creative in the interim so we can focus on the nursery LOL
We've nearly completed our family book to show to expectant parents. We just need to add the nursery pictures!
I've included a "sneak peek" photo of the room! For those that hadn't seen before, our theme is "Fingerprints of God" based on the song of the same name by Steven Curtis Chapman. It was popular when we were kids. It brings a smile to our faces thinking about singing the lyrics as children not knowing what the future held for us. But God knew :)
"Never has there been and never again will there be another you.
Fashioned by God's hand and perfectly planned to be just who you are.
What he's been creating since the first beat of your heart is a living, breathing, priceless work of art.
I can see the fingerprints of God when I look at you.
I can see the fingerprints of God, and I know it's true
you're a masterpiece that all creation quietly applauds
and you're covered with the fingerprints of God."
