Adoption Update- Pregnancy Announcement, Homestudy Completion, a Grant and more BIG News!

Buckle up, because we have a LOT of news to share! The last few weeks have been crazy busy with new and exciting things. Learn more about our pregnancy announcement, and what God's been up to in our adoption journey-Spoiler alert-we're waiting to be matched already! To find out what that means keep reading.

Pregnant While Adopting!

A lot has happened since our adoption announcement a couple months ago! Soon after beginning the journey, we pleasantly found out we are pregnant, which we just announced last week on social media. We are so excited and blessed to be expecting another sweet baby. And the very common question that followed this announcement was wondering what being pregnant meant for us in our adoption journey.

The quick and easy answer is we're still adopting, and in fact we had planned for and prayed for this-but obviously had no way of knowing how quickly or if, the Lord would bless us with another biological child as well when we began. Knowing we wanted to keep trying, and praying that the Lord would continue to grow our family in this way, we were very open with our agency about this, and specifically chose to work with them based partially on their pregnancy policy regarding the adoption process should a family get pregnant during that time.

Our agency does not require you to stop or pause your adoption for any number of months, or have a certain age gap between children, which is exacly what we wanted. We had tried to "control" the timing of adoption before to fit "our timeline" and the Lord showed us the flaw in that thinking. So when we did become pregnant, we were excited to think about now adding more than one baby to our family, all in faith that He's in control.

Home-study Complete

About two weeks ago we received big news that our homestudy was approved and received by our agency! For those unfamiliar with a homestudy, foster care and adoption both use these. They include interviews and family backround information, referalls, finger prints and background checks as well as verifying the physcial safety and room in your home for another child(ren). In the state of Michigan your Homestudy provider has 90 days to complete this study. So a lot has to happen during that time. Multiple hours of meetings, trainings and the above mentioned steps and lots of paper work. The case worker writes up approximately a 12-15 page summary of the adopting family, which the judge at adoption court will get to review on the "gotcha day," where finalization happens.

We were so blessed with the case worker God paired us with and had an instant connection with her. Another Jesus loving mama to two biological and two adopted children. She not only did her job with timeliness, organization, and great communication, but she was a personal encouragement to us as we worked through hurtful or unhelpful comments we've received or self doubt along the way! She was also the first person we told we were pregnant!! She knew- and we had a funny joke going on with her since the first day we met her, as that morning certain coffee started smelling strong and gross to me, and we had our suspicions that we were pregnant but didn't know yet. We thank God for her in this journey so far, and know He has many more amazing people that will come into our life because of adoption!

Matching Grant!

A third thing that happened last week was news of a grant we received! We were informed of a matching grant we could apply for, that would approve after finalization of our homestudy. The amount matched varies per family, and I don't even know all the criteria. But our church and many family and friends have so graciously and generously donated to support our family in this process and have helped make this grant and our adoption move foward! Praise God, and thank you-formal thank yous coming, but we're taking things one step at a time, just know we thank you so much!

We are blown away and so grateful that the grant we received was for $5700. Amazing-to God be the glory. I'm sure the pregnancy hormones are adding to my emotions, but even as I write this, I'm in tears, and cry almost daily. We are beyond grateful, and have been humbled by this entire experience. By the support and generosity of others, and that God has called us into this journey which is not based on our ability, but His grace.

We're "Live" and waiting to be Matched!

Jordan and I have been working on getting our temporary profile and adoption "website" up with our agency. We just finished edits with their team. This is the page where birth moms can look and and read about adoptive families and find out a little about us. The next thing we need to do is make a video that will live on the website, which is a short clip of Jordan and I introducing ourselves and a glimpse of our family and home. And finally there is a PDF document which is basically a little packet of pictures and info about us and our family. When a birth mom indicates the criteria that she is looking for in a family, the agency has the capability of using a filter that will pull all the families that meet those preferences. Then from there they can send her the PDFs of those families for her to review along with their websites and videos.

A full payment to the agency needs to occur in order for a profile to go live for birth moms to consider. And just this week, we were able to hand in that payment! About half of the adoption cost, roughly $25K, is what is needed for the homestduy and agency cost. The agency helps support birth mom during pregnancy and as she makes the decision to adopt, and allocates resources to her, that the adoptive family has saved up, as she needs them. This might include housing costs, or another need. Often medical is covered for her and baby through medicare or another means. But there are sometimes other resources she needs during the rest of her pregnancy, and the agency helps make sure she gets that and it goes where it needs to in a safe manner.

The second half of the cost of adotion, roughly $25K in our case, is what is saved for legal fees for the adoption lawyer, etc, and for travel to baby, the stay until you are cleared by the state to bring baby home, and the travel home itself. That's what we are still raising supoort for, but are moving forward in this phase as well. Thank you God, thank you friends, family and church!

So in short, a couple more things to work on, (video and PDF), but our family is now "live" and up for consideration for birth mamas this very week!! I can't believe we are finally here-but we are. Trusting God is matching us with the perfect baby and in His perfect timing!

Thanks so much for following along, we hope to keep sharing our journey here.