On September 25th, 2023, our family was unexpectedly blessed with the sweetest 4 year old girl. We were notified that birth mother wanted to terminate parental rights ASAP, so without even meeting this little girl, we offered to open up our hearts to her. I chatted with birth mother throughout the day and asked many, many questions about the situation. I’m thankful this mother decided to choose a better life for this little girl. She told us she wasn’t able to financially support having a child and she told us that her and her child never truly bonded. I was iffy about the legitimacy of the situation, but told birth mother that if that was what she wanted, she could bring her to my work and I’d have paperwork ready so that we can take guardianship. A few hours later, the prettiest little girl walked into the front door of my work, we signed temporary guardianship papers, and birth mother left. Through getting to know our new little girl, we have learned that she has never had a true home. We don’t know a whole lot about her first 4 years of life but what we do know is she is now learning a healthy routine, making memories, and melting the hearts of those around her! She’s got more love and support in the short time that we’ve known her than she’s had in her whole life and we never plan to stop showing her how to live life to the fullest.
Two days after we took over guardianship, her birth mother met with an attorney and signed paperwork to completely terminate parental rights.
There’s still a journey ahead of us as we move towards making her officially ours, but we’re headed in the right direction!
Our family is grateful for the many generous donations of clothing and toys for our girl, as she came to us with nothing. Our support system is amazing!
Some aren’t aware of the outrageous amount of money it costs to finalize an adoption. In our case, we were quoted between $15,000 and $20,000. I am sure with the love and support of our family, friends, and community that we can raise enough money to make this sweet girl officially ours!
Please follow our story at Gage and Katie’s journey to Adoption on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551914104973&mibextid=LQQJ4d
We are so excited to get to announce that on May 16th Merklee will officially become a Bloomer! ♥️ We are all so excited and eternally grateful for all of you who helped make this day possible!
Not much of an update as we’re still in the 6 month waiting period before we can finalize our adoption. We get to request a court date sometime after May 16th!
At this point, we’ve officially raised $5,000 of the $15,000-$20,000 needed to fund our adoption.
We’re in the process of arranging a soup lunch fundraiser and will post those details as soon as they’re available!
As always, thank you to everyone who has donated & shared our page thus far. Your support is greatly appreciated 🩷
Also, Merklee lost her first tooth this week! 🤩
Today we went before the judge and were made legal guardians of Merklee Kate! 💕
