Wow, a lot has happened since the last blog post. We officially started our home study a couple of weeks ago and the t-shirt fundraiser was a huge success! I just want to say at the very beginning of this post THANK YOU! Thank you so much to everyone who has prayed for us, encouraged us with kind words, bought t-shirts, and all of you who have given financially in order to help us bring our child home. You probably have no idea the impact and encouragement that you have had on us during this time. God has been and continues to be SO faithful in this journey. A lot of you have asked, “what is a home study?” The home study is the very first major step in the adoption process. The purpose of a home study is to educate and prepare adoptive families for the task of adoption and to ensure that a family is capable and has the capacity to adopt a child. So, what that has looked like for us so far is we have had to do a lot of paperwork, background checks, medical exams and in home assessments. We have also had to do and will continue to do a lot of education to learn how to care for a child who is adopted and deal with trauma and special needs that our child might have. It has been exciting to learn more and to feel like we are taking major steps to bringing our child home. The t-shirt fundraiser was a huge success! We were so blown away with how many shirts we were able to sell. We had a goal of selling 100 t-shirts but after the 100th t-shirt was sold I quickly lost count. At the beginning of the fundraiser we had the conversation of “It would be amazing if we could sell close to $1000,” But, that seemed like a really big goal to reach. Well, we raised almost $1,500! So, everyone who bought a “Love Has No Limits” t-shirt, Thank you! Thank you so much. We also have really enjoyed seeing some of you wear them, wether that be in person or you sending us a picture. We love that! I also want to update you all on where we are financially in the process. The Lord has been so gracious to us and has used so many of our family members, church family, friends and also compete strangers to help fund our adoption. I cannot really express in words the gratitude and thankfulness we have in our hearts for every single person who has given. When we decided to embark on this journey one of the largest obstacles that we knew we would have to face was the financial barrier. $35,000 is a lot of money. To be honest, that number has been very intimidating at times. But, knowing the numbers we decided to step out in faith knowing that this was something that The Lord was calling us to. So far we have raised around $7,000 total from t-shirts and giving. $7,000! In just a couple of months! As a christian, you know that God is going to provide and be faithful but actually being able to experience it in such a real way has been such a blessing to us. We have been able to see Him in all of the details so far and its been amazing.
So, what is this process going to look like going forward?
First, I would ask that you continue to pray for us. As believers, we know and trust that prayer is essential. Please continue to pray that the process continues to go smoothly. Continue to pray that our hearts would continue to be shaped and prepared for what is ahead. That our little one would remain safe, and that God would prepare their little heart to receive us as parents and for that transition to go smoothly. Pray for Annistyn and Norah. There is a lot of transition ahead.Second, I have had a lot of people ask if the platforms we have for giving right now are tax deductible. Right now they are not. Once we have completed our home study we will be setting up a tax deductible giving page where we will get 100 percent of the proceeds and you can get a tax form. So be looking for that in a few weeks. Next in the process, once we turn in our completed home study, is submitting our Dossier (a collection of legal documents that are translated for international adoption) to India for initial approval. Right now this is taking around 10-20 weeks for initial approval. But, that could change at any time. Once we have their approval we are ready to be matched with a child. WooHoo!
Thank you so much for you continued prayers, encouragement and support!