Dear friends and family. We have some exciting news to share with you!
As some of you know, on our very first date back in 2009, Danielle casually mentioned to me that she’d always wanted to adopt a child and had been planning to adopt since she was in her teens. I sat in stunned silence, and Danielle mistook my silence for disinterest.
Little did she know that I had been praying about adoption for years. When we got engaged 9 months later, we finally talked about our shared desire to adopt, and our hearts overflowed with joy! And so from the very beginning of our relationship, we knew that adoption would someday be part of how we would build our family together.
Fast forward 12 years – and 4 births! – and the day has finally come. The doors have finally opened for us to adopt a child to be part of our family forever.
As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign, and we are inviting you to consider joining us in financial partnership. It may surprise you to find out that international adoption can cost $50,000 or more, depending on the country, travel expenses, and other variables in the process.
We hope that by inviting you into this adventure with us, you will see yourself as already part of the beautiful community God is building around this precious boy or girl that will soon be part of our family.
Hey friends and family! From my Facebook feed again:
Following on the heels of World Adoption Day this past Tuesday, I just wanted to offer a little update on our international adoption process.
As you know, our home study was completed in October. Praise God! "A paperwork pregnancy" as they call it. Literally 9 months of work. Haha.
A couple weeks ago our whole family descended upon the USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) branch in San Fernando to apply to the federal government for the privilege of adding another citizen to this country via adoption. Danielle and I were photographed and fingerprinted, and presently the government is doing their due diligence to make sure we are citizens without criminal histories, people fit for this endeavor. We're told we should receive USCIS's decision in about a month.
If USCIS gives us the green light, then our manilla envelope stuffed with application documents gets sent to South Africa, likely just in time for Christmas. 🙂 At that point we will * finally * be waiting in line, to be matched with our future child overseas.
One. Step. At. A. Time!
Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during this process. We literally could not do what we are doing without our friends and family supporting us. You guys are all so special to us. We have so much to be thankful for as we head into the holidays!
Hello, friends and family! I just wanted to reach out and say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us this far in our adoption journey. We have cleared some important milestones in our path to bringing kiddo #5 home, hopefully next year.
Here is a little update you may have already read on my Facebook page. But I wanted to include it for anyone who is not on social media or who may join our little army of adoption funders at a later date. Here is what I wrote earlier in October, 2023:
"Some of you have been asking for an adoption update. And understandably so. We first announced on Facebook that we were beginning the process of adopting a child waaaaay back in December, 2022.
Nine months later to the day, we finally received confirmation that we had completed our home study! If you've been through this process, you know. Haha. You know how much time this takes and how much work it requires.
Hours of Hague classes, thousands of $s, social worker interviews, and paperwork as far as the eye can see. And truth be told there is much work ahead.
But today we celebrate. A milestone in our adoption journey is complete!"
