Posted on No Comments on The Love Tree

The Love Tree

                                                  

Hi friends! We’re super excited to share this Love Tree with you!! Baby girl Knapp is so close to coming home and we are slowly but surely getting closer to our fundraising goal. We thought in light of the holiday season approaching, we’d combine our fundraising efforts with a bit of holiday festiveness.

We’ve handcrafted 150 India-themed ornaments, each numbered 1-150. The number on each ornament is the suggested dollar donation amount. For example…

#1 = $1.00

#5 = $5.00

#122 = $122.00

and so on…

If each ornament is claimed, we will reach our fundraising goal!! How awesome would it be to celebrate Christmas with a completely funded adoption!?

If you are interested in joining our adoption journey by donating please follow the steps below!

*Click HERE to go to our fundraising website.

*The available ornaments will be listed by number and category. (we’ll keep updating the numbers as they’re claimed)

*Select your ornament # and then click the DONATE NOW button at the top of the page. Fill out your information and make sure to list the ornament # you’ve selected in the message box provided.

We will ship all ornaments #30 and up! And if you’re local to us, we’ll deliver! (If you have a preference on ornament design just contact me and I’ll help you pick an available ornament of your choice.) Please feel free to ask if you have any questions! Thanks everyone!

Posted on No Comments on End in Sight

End in Sight

Hey friends! Just want to give you all a quick update on where we are in the adoption process! Things are getting more and more real as each day passes and more than ever, we’re so eager to travel to India to get our little princess! And we’re ecstatic to see that day coming into focus for us. To give you a somewhat clearer idea of what the India adoption process looks like, here is a very broad rundown of the steps involved:

Right now, we are waiting to receive word that we have NOC (#10 on the list). This stands for No Objection Certificate. Once we receive that, we wait to be registered in Indian court. Once we are registered in court, we wait to get a court date. When we receive that court date, we will TRAVEL! Each state in India differs in its policies, so although travel is listed as #14, for us court is when we will travel. We expect to spend 3 weeks in India, finalizing everything needed to bring our girl home with us.

If I’ve spoken with you the past few months you’ve probably heard me say this over and over, but THIS IS SO WORTH IT. Worth the time, worth the paperwork, worth the stress, worth the tears, worth every single penny. The deep, deep joy we’ve experienced over this past year has been something I cannot explain. God has truly changed Nick and I in so many ways. And this is just the beginning! What a blessing God has given us.

So here are some prayer requests:

-that we would receive NOC within the next few weeks
-that we would be registered in court in October
-that our court date would be in December! (Our huge prayer request is that she will be home by Christmas)
-that the rest of our funds will be provided (waiting to hear back from a grant we applied for and are applying for another soon)

Posted on No Comments on Financial Update

Financial Update

Let’s talk money!! Nick and I have wanted to write this post for awhile, because we want to be open and honest about every part of our adoption. First and foremost, we want to thank our incredibly supportive network of family and friends. We have been so humbled by the outpouring of support over the last 10 months, financially, emotionally, and physically. It’s actually very difficult to even put in words how much it means to us. The only thing I can even think to relate it to is God’s love for us. We’ve seen our friends take on this financial burden and rally to find a way to help. We’ve seen sacrificial giving and true servant’s hearts in a way we never have before. I could go on and on, but God has used this fundraising process to draw us closer to Him through the actions of others in such a sweet way.

Our church family hosted a pop culture trivia night in March and close to 100 people showed up! Dinner was served and we even had a silent auction. And a few weeks ago our church hosted a huge garage sale for us. Both of these events took weeks and weeks to plan and in the end, close to $5000 was raised. We truly feel so loved.

Between these fundraising events and other donations (including a $5000 donation from a friend of a friend who we’ve never even met!!!!), we have raised half of our goal amount. Just to remind you, the total amount we need is $40,000. We’ve been applying for grants and are waiting to hear back from one in particular which looks to be promising. If you would like to donate, there is a button on our homepage or even at the bottom of this page that says “DONATE NOW”. Just click that and it will walk you through the process of giving. Thank you to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has donated. Please know that there hasn’t been one dollar taken for granted!

We are confident that God will provide the rest of the money for us. He has already been so faithful!

Posted on 2 Comments on Things are getting real

Things are getting real

Happy 2017 everyone! This COULD be the year that we bring our daughter home, which makes us so very excited! I just wanted to pop in and fill you in on our progress lately with the adoption.

About a month ago, we submitted all our home study paperwork, which was a huge weight off our shoulders. After paperwork is submitted, there are a few meetings with our social worker, including a home visit from her. We had one meeting at their office this week, one scheduled for next week and then the following week is when she is scheduled to visit our home. After that, our home study will officially be complete! YAY!

Once the home study is complete, our names will be put into the database that matches children with families. We’ve learned on our adoption journey so far that we need to be super flexible and expect the unexpected, so we aren’t getting our hopes up that our matching process will be smooth or quick. BUT based on timeline estimates given to us by our adoption agency, we could possibly be matched with our daughter in late spring. Once we are matched, it will be at least 6 months before we can make our trip to India to get her. Nick and I will make the trip, which we’re told will be about 7-10 days.

Our daughter has been on our minds a lot lately, as things have progressed more and have begun to seem more “real”. We haven’t seen her face yet, but we know she is already born and most likely already living in an orphanage. Please pray with us that she is being cared for and loved by her caregivers right now. Pray that she is getting her needs met and also doesn’t feel scared or alone. It’s hard knowing that our daughter is on the other side of the world and we have no control over what is happening to her. But we have so much comfort knowing God has all the control and He loves her even more than we do. His plan is perfect and He has our entire adoption journey in His hands.

If you feel called to give financially to our adoption journey, there is a link on our home page or you can click here. The total cost will be around $40,000 and we have already spent about $8,000. We had a significant amount saved personally, but we’ve reached the end of that money. We are also starting to look for adoption grants.

Thank you all again for your prayers!