WE ARE ADOPTING!!!
Billy and I have wanted to start a family for a while now, and adoption has always been something that appealed to us. After many types of infertility interventions, we have grown in our desire to start our family through adoption.
When we decided to go this route, we were astonished by the estimates we were getting from adoption agencies ($68,000 was considered a "low budget" by one agency). We realized that we were going to need help if we wanted to make this hope a reality.
We know that there is a long road ahead, but we are so excited to be parents!
We appreciate any contribution to our goal! Whether it is financial, through prayer, or supporting one of our fundraisers.
Check out our website for more information on our process: https://billyandmegan.wixsite.com/adoptionjourney
We are done with our home study, our profile book, and now we are waiting to be matched!
From here we periodically will receive "potential matches" from the adoption agencies that we are a part of. When we receive these they might include some information about the due date, the birth mother and family, etc. Typically there isn't a ton of information provided. We are given a certain amount of days to request to be "presented" to the family. This means that they are given our profile book as well as the profile books of others who have asked to be presented. This is an exciting process, but it also feels like you are putting your heart on the line. You hand over the book and think, "Please, please, please like us!" I know that there is so much more to it than that, but it is hard not to feel that way.
If they choose us from our book, we will have the opportunity to "meet." This may be through a phone call, zoom, or potentially face-to-face. If we both feel good about the decision, it is considered a "match." Being "matched" is super exciting, but it also comes with its own difficulties. There is a large amount of money due as soon as you are matched ($36,000 for some). If for some reason this match falls through, many agencies will not refund this money or will only refund a small amount. Boy, is that a scary thought!
We are trying to have open hearts and open arms for whatever God has planned for us!
(PS our picture is from our profile book! You can see a preview of our profile book here: https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/9932173/bb13dc83b556d2e1d61a9c0d445031fd3c790c9e)
We are ALMOST done with our home study!
We are waiting for some background checks to come through and then we will be on to the next stage of the adoption process.
We were incredibly blessed to have an AMAZING social worker. Holy guacamole! What a difference this makes!
The next part of the process is putting the finishing touches on our profile book (aka a magazine about our lives) that birth families will see to get to know a little more about us. We are also ALMOST done putting this together.
This means we are ALMOST at the stage of being able to get matched with potential birth families!
PS we are also ALMOST done with putting our puzzle together for our puzzle fundraiser. Our small dog has destroyed 3 puzzles now.
Thanks to your generous donations we have started our home study! So far we have filled out a ton of paperwork (seriously, these people are going to know us better than we know us!). The next step will be to start our background checks and start working with a social worker.
We appreciate prayers for the social worker we get matched with. We are praying that they will get a chance to get to know us, and we will make a good impression on them. It would be awesome if we all got along well!!!
Also, our friend took AWESOME pictures for us so that we can create a family profile (aka a magazine about our lives for birth parents to look at)! Thank you, Claire Ramey!!! (https://www.rameyphotoco.com/)
