The last few weeks have been a whirlwind but we have seen so many blessings and goodness. If you'd like an update on our adoption process both financially and otherwise, this post is for you!
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So Many Good Things
We were so blessed to have our community group come over and help us get our backyard in good shape for our home inspection. It was truly a display of the body of Christ coming together and it knocked our socks off. So stinkin' thankful!
My mother-in-law and a friend of the family did a Pampered Chef fundraiser through the month of September, which went very well. The family friend who sells Pampered Chef offered to donate her entire commission from the fundraiser to our adoption, which was so kind and generous. We are so thankful for the work that was put into the fundraiser and the willingness of my MIL and family friend to aid us on this journey.
My mom helped us find a crib! She has it with her but is coming to visit this week and I'm so excited to see it set up! Eeeek! 🎉
We also had all three of our home study interviews. Technically the home study isn’t complete until all the paperwork is in and we also have to have physical exams from the doctor (coming up this week). Once we are home study approved we will make that announcement. And it's worth noting how much we love our home study case worker. She's been so helpful, easy to work with, and encouraging.
In a lot of ways we feel like the process is moving along nicely and we are so thankful for that.
We also have a live (virtual) adoption training coming up next week which I'm sure will be helpful and informative.
This list is not comprehensive. We've had so many people love on us, encourage us, and support us in many different ways and we are grateful!
A Small Setback
We were a little bit discouraged to find out that our understanding of the next steps of the process wasn’t exactly accurate. If we are completely honest, we felt like things could have been made more clear to us and we were very discouraged to find out that we cannot enter the matching phase after our home study is complete. We have to raise ALL of the agency fees before we can enter the matching phase. Our impression based on the paperwork we had been give so far was that we could enter the matching phase and continue fundraising for the fees that we would eventually owe at different steps in the process while we were waiting in that matching process. The agency fees are $39,500. The total fees after legal costs and other miscellaneous costs will be approximately $50,000. It's just the $39,500 that has to be raised before we can enter the matching process, but we still came away feeling like it was going to set us back multiple months in the time that it takes to bring our baby home. That was hard.
However, we truly do mean it when we say that we believe God's timing is perfect. We mean it when we say that the baby he gives us is the baby we were meant to have. This means that while this news was disheartening in the moment, we also know that this news did not surprise him and his plan is still perfectly in effect. In fact, this is part of it.
Another thing that is still true is that as soon as we are home study approved, we can start applying for grants. This will be huge in helping us get those agency funds raised.
We have currently raised just over $13,900. Some of those donations were separate from the puzzle fundraiser and some were part of it. We’ve currently sold 275 out of 500 puzzle pieces. We would love to finish this puzzle soon. We can't wait to put it together and hang it in the nursery. (If you missed the post about the puzzle fundraiser and what we are doing, you can read more here.)
A Few Ways You Can Help
With all that being said, we are asking you to prayerfully consider donating to help us with adoption costs. We are so incredibly grateful for the donations we’ve already received. It means more to us than we can express.
Not financially able to give right now? Here are other ways to help:
- Pray for us on this journey. Prayer is huge! Prayer matters!
- Share this post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
- Share our adoption story with your church leadership and ask if they'd be interested in sponsoring us
- Share our story with your close friends or women in your bible study
In all of the ways in which you support us, we appreciate you all.
How to Give
If you would like to sponsor a puzzle piece (or pieces) you can send money through our Paypal link: paypal.me/thecookadoption, Venmo @Kristin-Cook-32, or mail a check -- please send us an email at thepeculiartreasureblog@gmail.com for our address.
We can't wait to bring our baby home.
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