Mark and Danielle Sennert

Updates

• Update 5

  

  Final Phase of Pre-placement

  November 8, 2025

  Its been a while since our last update, but a lot has been happening! We received official waiting status on September 19th, and also found out that we were approved to complete a project through Both Hands - an organization that helps families like ours raise funds for adoption by completing a service project at a widow's house in our community. It is an incredible organization that we can't even begin to speak highly enough of! On October 18th, we worked with friends and family to help Ms. Jeanne - a home-bound widow in our community who needed some work done around her property. Through that project, we raised over $15,000! But on top of that we were awarded $8000 in additional matching grants that we could put those donations towards, so that we are now officially FULLY FUNDED!

  We are so very grateful to God for his unfailing provision and our family and friends for their support and kindness towards us in such a big step of faith. It has been such a long journey getting to this place of waiting - we started the process last September - and to now be ready to receive our son or daughter when the time comes, it is truly beyond comprehension. Thank you for walking with us in this process and praying for us as we wait. We are guessing based on average wait times that it will be the new year before we get a call - there will not be much to update until then, but we are glad for a chance to enjoy quiet holidays and focus on gratitude - we have so very much to be grateful for! We are certainly so very thankful for each of you!

  Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!
  - Danielle and Mark

• Update 4

  

  Waiting to Wait

  September 12, 2025

  Happy Friday sweet friends!

  I have been waiting for a still moment to jump on and update all of you on where we are in our adoption process. We completed our Home Study last month, and have been working to get a few small details in place in order to schedule our admittance meeting. This meeting is the official step to become a "Waiting Family" on our agency's list, and so after this meeting, at any time, we could get a call for a placement! Its a huge milestone we've been anxiously awaiting, and it is finally here. Next Friday morning, we will be completing that meeting! It could still take another 8-9 months for placement, or much much less - but we are very grateful to be at this final stage prior to meeting Baby Sennert!

  We also want to make sure that you know about our upcoming Worship Night next Friday Sept 20th, in which we hope to take a moment with our community and family to thank God for all that he has done in this process and is doing even now to bring this miracle about! We would love if you are able to join us!

  Finally, we were recently approved for a grant/fundraiser through an organization called Both Hands, that provides fundraising opportunities for families adopting by helping them create and complete service projects for a widow in their community as part of the James 1:27 call to care for the widow and the orphan. We will be having a kick-off meeting on Sept. 28th for anyone who wants to be a part of our team in raising sponsorships that go to our adoption while helping us complete a service project for Ms. Jeanne. She's an incredible lady who has encouraged us and who has opened her heart to us in this process, and we are excited to give her home some much needed love and attention in return! So please reach out and let us know if you would like to join us for the Kick-off and be part of our team - or stay tuned to our instagram for more info to come!

  We are so grateful for each of you! You mean the world to our family!

  Sincerely,
  Danielle and Mark

• Update 3

  Home Study Update

  June 9, 2025

  Happy Monday!

  We are truly so grateful to have each of you behind us, praying for us, and believing in the work that God is doing in our family each day. Its a treasure to me every day knowing that you are here in this waiting and hoping with us.

  This week has brought some really exciting news that our first home study interview is set for this coming Saturday morning. While every situation is unique, we are anticipating the interviews to take a couple of weeks or so, and then the report to take a little longer than that to put together (1-2 more months). Once that report is complete, we have one in-person training set for July 31st, and then we can officially be considered a "waiting family". So this feels like a big step for us to have the home study underway, and we are definitely excited for it!

  Some other exciting things happening that we are certainly rejoicing over:
  - Our t-shirt fundraiser helped us to raise over $1100 towards our fundraising goal
  - Our current Adopt Together total is nearing $10,000, something we literally could not have done without each and every one of you!
  - We are working on putting together the nursery for our Family Album - a digital album that will be provided to our child's birth mom to help her as she makes her decision about placement.
  - We are starting to put together info for grant applications which we can start submitting once the home study is completed.

  In addition to all of this, we are seeing every day as God so graciously provides things we couldn't even know to ask for before we even need them. He has put other adoptive parents in our lives, given us opportunities to share our story and be advocates for adoption, and encouraged us every day to trust him more. We'll be praying this month for continued peace and confidence as we prepare our home, and for you as you are joining us in this kingdom work, that your faith would be renewed and your joy would be complete.

  To the Praise of His Glorious Grace,
  Danielle and Mark

• Update 2

  Generosity and Expectation

  May 12, 2025

  We have been so blown away by your support and generosity on this journey so far! We are about 1/3 of the way through our fundraising for the total adoption now, which is really exciting. We have funding through every agency milestone now except the final payment, which is substantial, but it also gives us the rest of our time to focus on that final big cost through fundraising programs and grants, rather than feeling behind. God has been so gracious to put you all in our paths and we are so blessed to know you!

  Currently we are preparing for our home study interviews. We also have learned the date for an in-house training we are required to do with our agency prior to being put on the waiting families list and that training is set for July 31st, so its reasonable to assume we will be able to be a "waiting family" starting in August once that training is complete. Its nice to have a clearer timeline for that piece and to have some breathing room to focus on fundraising efforts, preparing the baby room, and just EXPECTING a new little life.

  I (Danielle) have been reading an older book by Eugene Peterson called "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction" which is a break down of the songs of ascent in the Psalms, and its been a really wonderful accompaniment to the season we're in. One concept he talks about is how the word for "prosperity" in Hebrew, rather than material success, is actually a concept of "the relaxed stance of one who knows that everything is all right because God is over us, with us, and for us in Jesus Christ." I think that is a concept I am becoming more attuned to in this season, that God will do what He has said, faithfully and surely, and His desire is for us to trust Him in such a manner that we are calmly confident about what He has said He will do. In such an uncertain world, calmness is such a strange juxtaposition for God's people to take, and yet we know that we have sabbath with God because of Christ, and so in all things we can trust that we are His and His kingdom will stand. And we are witness to that victory every day we continue down this road to our baby.

  So we are learning new ways to set our eyes on His kingdom work, lean into His daily mercies, and humbly appreciating the joy of fellowship with all of you as we watch God accomplish perfectly His will in our family. It is a treasure to be His and to be with you all. Thank you for your prayers and friendship, always!

  Sincerely,
  Danielle and Mark

• Update 1

  Thank you for being here!

  April 3, 2025

  We are so absolutely blown away by your generosity and encouragement in this process! We've been praying about adoption for a long time now and began the process of agency acceptance in September, so finally being able to confidently share our big news is really exciting. It is hard to put your heart into something while its uncertain, and being accepted into our agency a few weeks ago finally gave us confidence that we could really begin to hope towards meeting our baby in earnest. Still, your response of support has taken that hope to a whole new level this week! We feel so loved and more than that, we are so overwhelmed knowing how loved our baby already is by you, our dear community!

  There is lots of paperwork going on right now - we got sooooooo many fingerprints taken the last couple of weeks that once completed, we will be the safest people to know in America, I think! Also gathering all kinds of certificates, financial documents, and taking a LOT of trainings to have everything in order for the home study. There's so much to do but it also feels great to have something to do besides wait! And of course, there will be plenty of waiting in the months ahead.

  So as you pray for us, we hope that you will first always remember our birth mother, and pray that she would be met with the love of Christ every day, that she would be surrounded by love even more than we have been, and that she would be encouraged in the truth of the gospel. For Mark and I, pray for peace and faith as we seek to trust in the Lord for his vision of our family, his sovereign timing and placement of people and opportunities in our path, and for confidence to keep boldly approaching him as a Father who loves to give good gifts and who has a plan already underway!

  We love you all and we are so excited to share more of what God is doing in our little world this year. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for meeting us here!

  Mark and Danielle