Natalie and Joshua Kruszka-Maleitzke

We’ve had our niece Emma in our care for over 2 years now. Since then, Emma’s been doing exceedingly well! She’s been on the honor roll every year (all A’s this year so far), is now the student council freshman class representative, and won artist of the year at her school last year. She’s been very into photography, drawing, gardening in our community garden plots, and exploring passions that she may never had the chance to before. We are so beyond proud of the smart and creative young lady she’s becoming. Emma’s life has been forever changed for the better and is excited for the future! So we’re taking the next step in securing that future for her.

After 2 years of adjusting, we are excited to announce that we are finally in the adoption phase of our journey! Unfortunately, as most of you already know, the national park employees/rangers have been furloughed during the government shutdown and we aren’t 100% sure that Josh will be receiving back-pay. We aren’t receiving any financial assistance to care for Emma so needless to say, this month has been a struggle for us but we are doing everything we can to make this possible.

Our power of attorney over Emma is expiring so we need to get the adoption ball rolling now. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. We are asking for help from our family and friends to help make this transition permanent. It may surprise you to hear that kinship adoption-related costs can easily total up to $15,000 or more. Luckily we have found a lawyer who was able to cut some of those costs for us. This is why we have set a goal of $5000 to help ease the financial burden. All donations will go towards the adoption and lawyer fees. We are very thankful that Emma’s mother is working with us to make this happen as well as it’s really helped to cut the costs and time it will take for the adoption to be finalized. We should be able to call it official within 2-3 months!

We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around Emma as she grows up. We couldn’t make this possible without you!