We are pursuing the adoption of a baby!
We are very excited and anxious for this process, but as many of you know, adoption can be incredibly expensive. Agency fees, legal fees, birth mother expenses, home study, and more add up quickly and easily total up $35k or more. This is why we have set a goal of $27k to help ease the financial burden that can overwhelm us.
We have already put forth a lot of our own money toward our fertility journey, and have gained better health, but have not conceived and believe God has always had adoption in the cards for us.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see your part in the community we hope to build around our baby as he/she grows up.
We have submitted our adoption agency fee and contract! Now we wait to build our profile and get matched.
We seriously could not have done this without all of your support with prayer, donations, and auction participation. We still have a long road to go, and will need to fundraise for Quad A attorneys, but we trust it will all fall into place as it has so far.
We're also grateful for the Show Hope grant as we put in our application this month and are anxiously awaiting the results - that could be several thousand dollars toward adoption!
Much love,
J&K
Since we have done home studies before as foster parents, this part was fairly painless, but time consuming. We filled out our Q&As, we got all of the background checks (for both CA and UT), child abuse checks (for both CA and UT), FBI checks, etc. We learned since we haven't been in UT for five years, it would be best practice to get the backgrounds done in California too.
Once the home study is written, we can use a copy to apply for further grants to get one step closer to Baby Ellis.
To Do List:
* Pray & Hope
* Continue to fundraise, apply for grants / loans
* Sign with our agency
* Gather photos and build our profile
Then we just wait to get chosen/matched, and hire lawyers in both states in advance of the baby's birth!
Talk soon everyone!
Kristen
We are just more than halfway through the auction on Instagram, and already have $1100 of bids. I had no goal, but just hopes that we could use it as another method of fundraising, and we're so so so grateful. Words will never begin to express how overwhelming (in the best way) it feels to have support from friends, family, even strangers. We love you all and are looking forward to our next steps!
In about two weeks, we'll undergo our home study and our medical physicals, so to get this process started. We'll also work on getting our UT and CA background checks, FBI checks, and child abuse checks completed. Luckily for us, we know we're good on those fronts! :)
Hi!
I cannot believe we're already nearing the $3k mark in the AdoptTogether fundraiser, and we've got a date for our Instagram auction! We've got a couple dozen items/services/gift cards to auction off and are grateful to our donors.
Thank you everyone for joining us on the Instagram and here with your kind donations. We believe this will all help Baby Ellis come home after this long while. :)
instagram.com/ellis.family.auction
Kristen
Hi everyone! Thank you for your continued love and sharing as we pursue our child(ren). In conjunction with this fundraiser through Adopt Together, we're also hosting a virtual Instagram silent auction!!
If you have any products, store credits, or services you'd like to donate as part of the process, please let me know! If you're interested in shopping, be sure to follow @ellis.family.auction on Instagram. :)
Kristen
