We have BIG news! We are ADOPTING!
We are working with The Joyful Adoption Consultants to aid us in working through the complex process of adoption. The average cost of adoption is $45,000-50,000. We would love for you to join our adoption journey and prayerfully consider contributing towards this expense.
A little about us - Justin and I have been married for almost four years. A little over two of those years have been spent battling unexplained infertility. Adoption has always been on our hearts and after three failed rounds of fertility treatments, we are excited to begin our adoption journey!
What are the funds helping cover - attorneys fees, birth mother expenses, matching fees, birth family counseling, interstate compact fees, document preparation and authentication, adoption agency application and program fees, travel expenses, and post-placement expenses.
We cannot thank everyone enough for their support. Every donation and every prayer are greatly appreciated!
Hi Everyone!
It has been a little while since our last update, but we come bearing lots of good news. One amazing thing that happened in these short months is that we received a $6,000 grant through Always Endure. This grant relieves so much financial pressure and allows us to be in a good spot for our first payment on our adoption....Which is great timing for our second amazing thing... WE MATCHED! We got the news that we have matched with a sweet baby boy in Arizona that is due in September. Our hearts are overjoyed as we begin preparing for our sweet little Ezra.
God has blessed us so much on this adoption journey and we give all of the glory to Him. He is so wonderful and gracious and we can't wait to see what He has planned next for us.
How to continue to support:
- Prayer. Please pray that our child will be healthy, that our hearts will be prepared to lead our child, and that the birthmother feels the love and support of Christ through her journey.
- Financially. We have reached half of our financial goal (YAY!), but we still have a little more to go. Prayerfully consider donating to our adoption or donating flyer miles :)
As always, are hearts are so thankful for this village that is supporting us.
With love,
Loren + Justin
Hi Everyone!
It has been a little while since we have posted an update, so we wanted to hop on and let everyone know what has been going on in our adoption journey.
Firstly, we want to thank everyone who has and continues to support us. So far, we have raised a total of $8,848 through our AdoptTogether, T-Shirts, in-person giving, and our goat milk soaps. We are been beyond blessed with amazing friends and family that are loving and supporting us so well during this journey.
The Ups and Downs
It has been about a month and a half of going through the matching process. During this time, we have had to make a lot of tough decisions. How do we feel about gender, race, family health, substance exposure, openness with birth family, etc. Each new case that we are presented opens a new world of possibilities. We have had around ten cases that we have presented our profile book to. And with those ten cases, we have received ten no's. At first the no's came easy, but with each passing case, they get a little harder and harder. But, one thing that we cling to and what gets us through the no's is that God has a perfect plan. Somewhere out there God has the perfect child for us and every day that passes brings us one step closer to finding him/her. In this time, God is growing our faith to be more reliant on Him and having humility and grace through our waiting. A month and a half is only a drop in the bucket for some people going through adoption, so we praise God for giving us so many opportunities this early in our process.
How to get involved in our journey:
- Prayer. For us and for these birth families that are making the selfless decision of life for their children.
- Help spread the word. By sharing our story we can get more prayers, financial support, and continue to grow in a community of others that have adoption stories.
Thanks for the continued love and encouragement,
Loren + Justin
Whew, that was quick! Our profile book is now complete, which means we get to start matching! We are overwhelmed with excitement and are a little nervous as we start this next step. We have had a few questions about our adoption process, so please see below if you are interested in learning a little more about our adoption process.
Adoption Agency vs. Adoption Associates
There are a few things that are different when using adoption associates vs. going straight through an agency. The first difference is wait time - if we were to go straight through an agency, the average wait time (or placement time) is 2-4 YEARS (that's a long time!). By going through the Joyful Adoption, we have hope to be matched much sooner - their average placement time is 6-9 MONTHS! They are able to achieve this by being able to pull birth family profiles from multiple agencies vs. being constrained to one. There is a downside to this though, with a typical agency, you have the 2-4 years to pay the 30-50K of adoption cost, but with the adoption associates this amount is due at one time or sometimes half at match and half at placement.
What is a profile book?
For those that don't know what a profile book is, this is a book that tells a story of who we are and includes pictures of us and our family. This book is presented to birth families to assist them in choosing the right family for their child.
How does the matching process work?
We will be presented a birth families' case and have the option to send our profile book to them or to move to the next case if we feel the family isn't right for us. If we feel like the family is a good match, they will then receive our profile book and then get the option to say yes or no to us. If they say yes, we are matched! If they say no, we can then present our profile book to the next family.
Thank you to everyone who continues our journey with us. We are very thankful for the love and support that we have been shown. We know that God has a special child out their for us and we cannot wait to meet him/her!
With Love,
The Fullers
A BIG thank you to everyone who has donated, bought a t-shirt/soap, or prayed for our adoption journey! God has been moving in wonderful ways so far and we are excited to see what he continues to do. As of yesterday, we are officially home study approved (YAY!).
So, what does this mean?
It means that we can move to the next phase of our adoption journey. The home study is the "passport" to adoption. Without it, we cant do anything, but with it, we can finally move forward. Since we are approved, we can begin applying for grants to help cover the cost of the adoption. It also means that once our profile book is completed (which should be very soon!) we can start matching!
We could use the following prayers:
- That God continues to provide financially (we have raised a lot of money, but we have a long way to go) and leads us in the right direction.
- That God will open and prepare our hearts as we prepare to welcome a baby into our family.
- That the birth family will be able to feel the love and support of God as they go through this journey.
Thank you again for providing support on our journey!
With lots of love,
The Fullers
We are excited to announce that our first (of two) home study is complete! Our home study process should be wrapped up in a week or two, which means we are very close to having our matching process begin!
While we are working on completing our home study, we are also completing our profile book. Our profile book is given to birth mothers/birth parents for them to have a look into our life to see if we would make a good match for their child.
Both the home study and profile book are needed to begin the matching process, but we are so close to having both done!
We are very thankful for everyone who is on this journey with us and who have donated to help cover the cost!
Watch out for the next update on our adoption journey. With lots of love,
The Fullers
