We are adopting!
We started the adoption process over a year ago, and it has been an emotional and financial rollercoaster. We were so excited to get matched on our first ‘yes’, but unfortunately that match ended in a failed adoption.
We have now been matched for a second time, and we are hoping for a better outcome. Our baby boy is due on October 9th.
We decided to start this crowdfunding campaign to ease some of the financial burden of adopting. All in, this process will cost us $65,000-$90,000. We have sold Rachel's small business, dipped into our savings, and applied for adoption grants; but we are still just shy of making this dream a reality. On top of that, we lost almost $25,000 with the first disruption, putting us even further away from our goal.
This is a stressful experience, but we believe that it will be worth it. We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as they grow up.
We can’t wait to grow our family through adoption and build a life of love, kindness, and joy with our child. We are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home, and we are beyond grateful for any support we receive. Thank you for being a part of this journey with us!
With love,
Rachel & Philip
Our sweet baby boy, Julian Pierce, was born last week. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz ... most of which is his hair!
We are over the moon and completely in love with him. We have to stay in Texas with him until the ICPC paperwork is approved in both Texas and Virginia, so we could be out here until October 28. We are hoping we can come home sooner though, because there are so many friends and family that want to meet him. Plus, we just want to finally be in our home with him!
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to check in on us, sent us gift cards for gas/food, bought an item off of the registry, or donated money. We are so grateful for all of you.
Rachel & Philip
Thank you to everyone for the kind words and support through our recent adoption disruption.
Once we took some time to grieve, we went active again and applied to a few more agencies with hopes of getting matched quickly. We are excited to update you all that those hopes have become a reality, and we are now matched with an expectant mom who is due around October 9th with a baby boy.
As always, with each emotionally-charged update also comes a financial update. Unfortunately, our excitement of becoming parents brings with it the anxiety of what this process is costing us. This has become even more challenging for us because of the almost $25,000 lost with the failed adoption from our first match.
If you have already donated, we are forever grateful for your support. There are no words that we can write to show how much your generosity means to us. We are incredibly lucky to have the kind of community around us that we do, and we know this baby will be welcomed with the same love that has surrounded us.
Yesterday was the original due date for the birth mom with whom we were matched, but we received a phone call over the weekend informing us that the she delivered the baby last Tuesday without letting us or the agency know, and she has decided to keep the baby.
We had prepared our hearts and our home to welcome that little boy into our lives and love him unconditionally, so we are completely heartbroken. Unfortunately, this was both an emotional and financial loss, as we lost almost $25,000 with this disruption.
We are incredibly grateful for all of the support that we have received, and it is even more special to us now after this setback, since we will need every bit of it to try this again.
This was the view above us after the storm [the physical storm and the storm of the phone call]. We are accepting this as a sign of hope—hope to be matched again and hope to have a successful placement.
We will keep you all updated. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Rachel & Philip
