Hurry up and wait!

It's been a while since our last post! At this point, it's really a waiting game. We've officially been a "waiting family" for a little over a month now, and have allowed our profile to be viewed by most birthmoms who have come through our Bethany office so far. To be honest, we only said no once, and that was an extenuating circumstance. We're trying to be open to God's calling, and we aren't saying no unless we feel very strongly that we shouldn't submit our profile. We've got a lot of love to give, though. And we can't wait to hold our little baby in our arms!

I have to say, this part of the process requires a whole lot of patience! Every time we submit our profile I get butterflies! It's so exciting! If you would like to see the online version of our profile, you can see it here: https://waitingfamilies.bethany.org/michigan/bryan-and-julie. We also have a video that will be uploaded to that profile soon. 

While we are waiting to be chosen, we are working on putting together a spaghetti supper and silent auction fundraiser for March 26! That night, we will feed you all some great food and there will also be several awesome items to bid on, including hockey tickets, date nights, home furnishings, and handmade goods! I've been very busy making things for this auction, including jewelry, scarves, art, and other useful or pretty things. Several friends have expressed their interest in donating handmade items as well! For all of you lovely people interested in donating your goods or crafts to the dinner or auction, please email or message me! We would LOVE to include your items! We will also be providing a list of auction items here on our blog prior to the event, so if you would like to bid at the auction, you can make a game plan beforehand. ;) More information on that will follow, though. 

Please pray for patience for us! And pray that the dinner and auction is a success! It's already been loads of work, but hopefully it will be very worthwhile!

Lots of love to you all!

Bryan and Julie

Silent Auction Preview

We're approved!!!

Earlier this month, we submitted our homestudy to our caseworker for approval and, as of two days ago, we received an email back from her letting us know that we are officially approved to adopt!!! We are so excited!

So at this point, we are finishing up a family portfolio book that will allow us to show birthmoms and birth families what our family and life is like. These portfolios are non-specific, but tell a great deal about what we like to do and about what sort of things are important to us. They enable birthmoms to make an informed decision when choosing who will adopt their baby. We will soon start receiving profiles about birthmoms looking for adoptive families, and then we will be able to choose who to submit our profile to. (It's all very private until we feel comfortable sharing information about our family.)

Please keep us in your prayers as we move forward, that we may have patience and wisdom. Pray that the birthmoms make wise decisions and that we can be a help and a positive force in their lives also.

Just a sidenote, Bryan and I are in the process of planning a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. So stay tuned to hear about when you can eat our delicious italian food and support us if you would like to! Also, just to be open about what we are facing, we will soon be making a 5,000 dollar-ish payment, and then we will need to focus on coming up with more than 10,000 dollars for the adoption finalization. We have a long way to go, but God has blessed us immensely to even bring us this far. 

Lots of love to everyone! Thanks again for reading!!!!

Adoption Awareness Month and an Update

November is National Adoption Month, which is a special time for Bryan and I for obvious reasons! I love seeing all of the adoption-related posts on social media. It warms my heart!

It's been a while since we last wrote about our own adoption process, and we'd like to catch everybody up! We've now had several meetings with our caseworker, the last of which (before our homestudy is done), will be next Wednesday. We,ve been answering a lot of questions from our caseworker and showing where and how we live. We've also been doing a lot of "homework," that our caseworker gave us, which means reading up on and researching adoption stories and experiences so that we have a good idea of what to expect. I'm very impressed with the system these days, as the agency really focuses on how to raise adopted children to have a healthy sense of self in regards to where they came from. It also helps parents in trans-racial families know what to expect and how to embrace the culture that their baby comes from, and how it should still be a part of them.

I just finished watching "The Drop Box," which was amazing. I highly recommend it! It's such a good eye-opener to how these babies and birth-mothers are viewed in different cultures. It also is an amazing testimony to how valuable special needs children (and adults) are! You should watch it!

Also, since several of you have asked, we are planning on having a Noonday party, a pancake breakfast, and an auction soon to raise funds for our next big payment. We do want to mention, however, that if you aren't comfortable giving to our particular adoption, there are a lot of other opportunities to support adoption that can be found at www.bethany.org.

Lots of love to you all!

Bryan, Julie, and Oliver

A Great Quote!

I came across a great quote on Tumblr today. It says "adoption isn't a birthmother's rejection, but an unconditional love that inspires her to put herself last and do all she can for her baby." It's by a woman named Mary Hines, who is a birthmother.

http://cultureshift.tumblr.com/post/93343371462/learn-more

Formal Application Submitted!!!

Formal Application ... check! 

$750 fee ... check!

Get assigned a caseworker ... check!

Things are moving right along! It seems like every time I start to get a little stressed about some aspect of the adoption process (usually involving money), God shows us just how amazingly he can provide. As of my last post, we were wondering where the $750 application processing fee was going to come from. I kid you not, the DAY AFTER the post, we received 3 refund checks in the mail totaling $800! With that as impetus, we hopped to and have now officially applied, paid the $750, and have been assigned a caseworker. At this point, we are preparing to do a homestudy that will make sure we are good people with a healthy home. The homestudy will cost $1900, and we are already saving up the money and expect to have it soon! I honestly can't believe that we were able to do this so quickly! 

Moving forward, when we get to the point that we are approved (from the homestudy, which includes visits and interviews), we will need to pay a pre-placement fee of $5000. After that, we will eventually pay a little over $13,850 to adopt our child. 

$18,850 is a daunting amount of money.  We are trying to keep a positive attitude about it, though, and are actively trying to think of ways to raise it. If you would like to provide moral support, prayers are SO very welcome! We would also love to hear from you if you have any words of wisdom or encouragement!

Lots of love to everyone and many thanks for following the process! Hopefully we'll have good news from the homestudy soon!

Note: We choose to be open about the costs involved in our adoption as a matter of transparency. We want to be open about the entire process so that  those who may be considering adoption may learn from our experience. 

And so it begins

Today we talked to Bethany Christian Services about the last of our concerns regarding the method by which we will adopt (foreign, domestic, or adoption from foster care) and we are now set to jump right in! When we started looking into adoption several months ago, we were fairly set on international adoption. After extensive research and a handful of orientations, however, we now believe that God is leading us to adopt within the United States. And so begins the paperwork! We are now in the process of officially applying for domestic adoption, and once we finish, we will turn in the paperwork with a check for $750 for processing. Even though $750 is on the low end of the payments that we will have to make, it does drive home the fact that we will need to start on some pretty serious fundraising if we are going to be able to afford to do this. We are trusting that God will provide.

Lots of emotions accompany us at this stage. Nervous excitement, determination, and a little fear are among them. This morning I got into an emotional Facebook argument with a girl I don't even know about abortion versus adoption and the value of unborn lives. She believes that abortion can be a good thing and, in fact, is the right choice for many women, especially those who face having children with special needs. This breaks my heart, and I told her how brave I think it is for many women these days to carry their children to term, especially with our society encouraging them to terminate their pregnancy if it's not happening under the right conditions. This is exactly why we are adopting. Yes, we could choose to have our own child, but we don't want to do that when we know that these brave women are carrying their babies to term and wanting good families for them. These babies are so precious, so special. We want them.

I feel that adoption should be the instinctive choice for more families these days. Bryan and I were watching a marriage talk by Francis Chan a few weeks ago, and at one point he stopped to talk about how many Christians say "if God leads me to adopt" when they talk about their decision on whether or not to adopt. This had been our thought process. Francis Chan, however, pointed out that we were approaching it from the wrong angle. After all, as Christians, we believe that we are adopted by God. Should we not, then, assume that adoption is the most natural and logical choice for any family? God also specifically calls us to care for the widows and orphans, so shouldn't we say "we will adopt unless God leads us to do otherwise?" This understanding gave us a kick in the butt to jump into the process with both feet. Instead of waiting for all of the money to come in or a special message from above telling us to do it, we will jump into it and trust that God will direct us.

Please pray for us as we begin this process of adoption and as we begin to raise the money we need! Lots of love to you all.  If you are also in the process of adoption and need prayers or support, please don't hesitate to let us know!