We are adopting a child from INDIA!
God has been calling us to this for so long (over 20 years) and we are thrilled to see His plan unfolding right before our eyes.
As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God would provide every penny we need for this adoption (even without any fundraising efforts). We fully trust Him with financing this adoption. We decided to move forward with crowdfunding because we firmly believe that not everyone is called to adopt, but many people want to play a role in “caring for orphans,” and we want to invite others into this ministry with us.
Many may be surprised to know that an international adoption can cost approximately $50,000. We don’t really have a goal for how much to raise but AdoptTogether requires us to put a number, so we set the goal to be $15,000. Whatever God provides will be perfect and will help to ease the financial burden (both now in paying for the adoption and for preparing for what our child will need after coming home).
We pray that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of this ministry God has called our family to. We also cover your prayers during this time.
We love you all!
We’re so excited to share a quick update! Our family has been matched with a sweet 3 year old girl in India. ❤️ 🇮🇳 We are in the process of working with a medical doctor who specializes in interpreting international medical records. Per her recommendation, we have requested more medical information on this sweet girl before accepting the referral and preparing our home and family for her.
Please be praying over our family and over the orphanage (and those involved in her healthcare) as we wait for more information and prayerfully make decisions!
If we accept this referral, there will be more paperwork to be done - approval via US Immigration to bring HER to the US, approval from India for this match, passport requests, travel preparation, etc. The typical timeline that we have been told is that pick up of the child is approximately 8-12 months from the date of match.
Thank you for your prayers and partnership! ❤️
We have some exciting news on the Ward adoption front…. We received word that we have been approved by India (CARA) to adopt from India. This is so exciting! We are one big step forward.
We are still waiting for USCIS (US Immigration) approval. This is the one we’ve been a little more worried about, as they requested additional information about our time fostering and the neglect allegations. We submitted the documentation we were able to and have not heard anything else (which is a good thing because that means they haven’t asked for further information on the situation, according to our case manager). Hopefully we will hear from them about approvals very soon!
Once we receive USCIS approval, we will be ready to be matched with a child. The matching process has no specific timeline, as some families are matched within a couple weeks, while others may have to wait months! God knows the child that should be joined to our family, and we are trusting that His timing is perfect. Pray with us that God’s plan will be accomplished.
My prayer for you this week is this: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13. Abound in hope with me today! God is doing wonderful things!
Most of you may remember back in 2021, Matt and I were fostering two sweet kiddos. One of the kiddos fell and broke his arm/wrist in 2 places. The next day, DSS came and took both kids and filed allegations against us for neglect. Wayne County DSS launched an investigation and the claims were unsubstantiated. Praise God!
Well, now that we are attempting to adopt, our life is under the microscope and US Immigration requires evidence of the unsubstantiated claims. We had previously gotten a letter saying essentially this, but US Immigration needs more layers of proof…letters from the court (it never went to court…), letter with a raised seal, etc. Pray for us as we navigate this request. Pray that Wayne County DSS will be cooperative and understanding. Pray that Matt and I will be patient in this part of the process. It’s easy to feel like victims and become bitter about that experience. Pray that we will see God’s hand moving in this.
Well, we have finally started to check off some boxes! The name of the game is “hurry up and wait” when it comes to adoption..it’s actually exciting to get to the “wait” part, because that means we are one step closer!
We asked for prayers because we were concerned about the US Postal Service (who isn’t concerned about this these days)! We had some documents needing apostille to make it safely back to us, and I’m happy to report they all made it to us! We also had issues with USPS getting a letter to us from USCIS (immigration). Because of this issue, we missed our appointment with immigration.
Thankfully, these issues have resolved! We received all of our apostilled documents and have a new appointment for Wednesday with the immigration office! Praise the Lord.
As of today, we are officially registered with India’s adoption agency (CARA). So, now we wait. The approval through India takes approximately 3 months. Once we are approved by CARA and approved through USCIS, we will be able to accept child referrals!!! One step closer.
Please pray for smooth approvals from both CARA and USCIS! Please also pray for God to prepare our family for this adoption.
Hey, hey! It’s world adoption day!!
No significant updates today, but we have received most of our apostilled documents back! A few documents had some errors that needed correction. So, we are waiting for the final 5 apostilled documents to return to us! Once we get those back, we will get registered with CARA (India)!! Then we wait. :)
Thanks for your consistent prayers for us. Waiting can be so tough… but God is good and we trust His timing in all of this!
Imagine a world where there were no children waiting for families…
