Our Baby Is Due Next Week!

Wow! It is impossible to explain the feeling of joy we had last night when we received a phone call telling us that we had been chosen by a birthmom! We have shared our profile with at least 3 birthmothers in the past few weeks, but we assumed that they had all chosen other families. We were SO surprised last night when our agency called. You want the details? Well, I'll give you what we have right now.

We will be taking a trip to Cleveland in the next week to meet our birthmom. We want to have at least a minimum of information to share with our child as he/she grows older. Meeting the birthmom will give us at least a picture--a glimpse of her personality and interests. Then we will return home until it is time to meet our baby at the hospital. Our baby will arrive via c-section some time in the next 2 weeks (we should have a date after her doctor's visit on Monday).

We know very little about our little one right now. As of the last ultrasound, baby appears healthy. We will not know the gender until baby is born. One thing we do know is that our baby will carry his/her mother's HIV positive antibodies for the first year of his/her life. There is less than a 2% chance that the baby will become HIV positive, though we will not know for sure until he or she is 15-18 months old. Most babies born in the United States and treated immediately for HIV lead normal, otherwise healthy lives, so should the baby test positive for his own antibodies after 18 months, the virus can usually be kept under control with medication. We have done our research and prayed about this situation and are willing to accept our baby in whatever condition the Lord provides.

And we are also very aware that an adoption situation is not final until the birthmom makes the decision to "terminate her rights" 72 hours after the baby is born. Until that signature is taken, the situation could easily change. While we are anxious to have a little one, we want what is truly best for the baby.

You can see there are many things in the above paragraphs to pray about. We need wisdom and guidance. Baby and birthmom need good health and safety. We also need patience and a dependence on God to accept His plan for this situation. So pray with us, and keep checking back for updates! I can't wait to post a before and after picture of our family!!!

Blessings!

The Lord makes provision for us to carry out His will! Just this week He provided a $4,000 interest free loan from Lifesong For Orphans. While we will have to repay this loan, it is providing some of the up-front finances we need to cover the cost of our adoption. They have also set up an account for our family, where they will accept tax-deductible donations that go directly towards our adoption. Since most of the responses to our financial request in the earlier posts have been in the form of donations alone, we have decided to remove the "fundraising" tabs. Now if you feel you are able to help with a financial donation, just click on the letter in the right column. You'll find information about Lifesong, as well as how to make a donation. We are continuing to trust that God will provide ALL the necessary funds in His timing.

And yes...we are still waiting. Though we have started making some preparations for the new addition--like stocking up on baby food and diapers, and making sure we have the baby seat ready to throw in the van when we get the call!

Making Progress

Well, it has been a good while since our last post. Things happen slowly in the adoption process—so we’ve been told. However, the last couple of weeks have been full of small milestones so we thought we would share.

As we mentioned last time, our Orientation was scheduled for December 15^th. We drove to Columbus for our first meeting with our agency. We finished this 8 hour day and signed up for our next and final class, on January 19^th. We got an urgent email from the agency just 3 days later asking if we would be willing to come and complete this second day of classes that same week! Of course we were so excited to keep things moving, so we arranged to make our second trip to Columbus in 1 week. Our state and agency requirements for adoption education were complete.

The next step: WAITING. Our home study was completed by a separate agency, so our new agency had to review and approve it as well. We also needed to collect a couple more pieces of paperwork—one being a copy of our Infant CPR cards which we were scheduled to receive on January 9^th. We are happy to announce that our CPR training is complete, and our home study has been approved by our new agency—milestone #2.

During this waiting period, we also spent much time filling out applications for financial assistance. We filled out a total of 5 applications, 3 of those for grants and the other 2 for interest free loans. These forms are NOT easy. Hundreds of questions about our lives, our current children, our church, our beliefs and last but not least, our finances, on forms ranging from 5 to 10 pages each. How happy I was when I put that last envelope in the mail. Our third goal was reached—we had sent applications to all known possibilities for financial aid.

Guess where we are now? WAITING! We wait to hear from our adoption agency with news of a possible match. And though we received a ‘no’ from our first grant application today, we now wait up to 4 more months to hear from the other four. We wait to see which precious little baby God has planned for us to take care of.

Our New Adventure

A few months ago, back in May to be exact, we decided we would like to check into our long-time desire to adopt. We looked at websites, talked to adoptive parents and even talked to those who had been adopted as a child. Realizing the possible waiting times, extensive costs and the many bumps in the road that can occur, we asked ourselves: Why are we adopting instead of having another child biologically? We both felt the Lord leading us in the adoption direction. There are so many children in the United States and internationally that are born without hope. In Romans 8:15 and Ephesians 1:5 we are reminded that we have been given a place in God's family through adoption, and James 1:27 asks us to care for the orphans of the world. Through this conviction in our hearts we have begun the journey of adopting our own child. Please pray that the Lord will grant us wisdom in the direction we are moving.

So, here is where we are in the process. We have completed our state required Home Study, and will be attending our Agency Orientation on Dec. 15th. As many of you know, adopting is a very expensive process. We are estimating that at the very least, we will spend $21,000 (To date we have spent $5,000), and we are currently applying for grants and interest free loans to help offset this cost. It may seem like a crazy amount, but it seems crazier still for us to allow that baby to be neglected or placed into the foster care system. Some mothers would even choose to abort their baby if they didn’t have adoptive parents readily available.

The purpose for this post? We wanted to ask each of our family and friends to consider having a small part in our adoption by purchasing a shirt or cinch pak from the catalog at the right side of this page. We have listed the amounts that WE will pay for each item—anything above that amount will be donations toward the adoption. If you are local, delivery will be pretty simple; however if you will need your items shipped, please also consider shipping charges when sending your payment. We have tried to make this as easy as possible for those who don’t live in the Cincinnati area by accepting Paypal payments and checks. Of course cash is also accepted for those in our area. We would be happy to answer any questions you have about the fundraiser or the adoption itself. Just ask!