It has been a while since I have blogged about our adoption journey and we have had many asking how the adoption is going and what is next. So I figured this would be a great time to reboot our adoption blog and update everyone!
Those who have been with us from the beginning we thank you for all your love and support during this whole process and for those who are just now joining us here is just a quick overview of our journey.
-We started our Adoption Journey June 2016 by attending an orientation at one agency in Dallas with their infant adoption program.
-We started our paper work and began fundraising to raise money so we could pay for our home study with them.
-Unfortunately they did not inform us that the first down payment of the adoption process with them was due within 45 days of purchasing our notebook. The first down payment was $7500 and well we had not raised enough within the 45 days. They suggested that we take out a loan but we did not want to take out a loan so they asked us to step aside.
-Heartbroken we tried a different route. We attended a CPS foster/adoption meeting. Once again my heart was broken as we were informed that if we were wanting to strictly adopt a child in the age group of 6 and under we would be waiting forever.
-Back to the beginning again, it was then that we were recommended Living Alternatives. We attended their Orientation in the spring of 2017 and everything changed after that.
Now obviously it still took over a year to get our home study with Living Alternatives and well I will admit I was impatient at various times when they did not have any mothers at the time interested in adoption which put a delay on waiting families to get a home study. I had a timeline in my head of how this was to go and I wanted a baby ASAP. So as we waited for a home study I looked in to two other agencies and every time we attempted to go somewhere else the doors would just close and we were not being able to move forward. {There was not any problems with the other two agencies there was always a scheduling conflict every time we tried to move forward with meetings}
Just as I was about to give up on the adoption completely (back in May actually). I walked into church discouraged about the whole situation and our caseworker for Living Alternatives walks up to me and says "You need a home study." Shocked I replied "Yes Ma'am, we do!".
Then on August 28th we completed our home study and ordered our profile book.
We turned in our profile book for them to start showing mothers interested in finding a family to adopt their child. So now we are just waiting for a call that we have been matched. We did receive a letter this week letting us know that a few new mothers early in their pregnancy interested in an adoption plan and they are trying to show the waiting families profile books as often as they can. They also ask for everyone to continue to pray that God will continue to not only pray for the waiting families but also the mothers.
As we wait we are fundraising in attempt to adopt debt free. We have just finished a Scentsy fundraiser that was very successful and also a t-shirt fundraiser which we will be relaunching again soon! I will continue to update everyone on our fundraisers along with any other updates. If you are wondering what our newest t-shirt looks like here are examples of the front and the back. We also have an older one that I will try to share later.
Thank you everyone for you love and prayers!
Love,
Jessica and J.R.
