Hey all,

We were emailed by New Life (our adoption agency) a few weeks ago and they let us know that we are fourth in line in our wait for a home study. This means that our home study will most likely begin in April of 2024. This was what we expected from the start, so we are thankful! As with all points in the adoption timeline, this is a loose estimate. Our home study could begin earlier, or a bit later, depending on the capacity of New Life to handle the casework.

Home study fees amount to $5,000, for which we are about ready. Thank you to each of you who have donated to help us reach this next financial marker. Donations to our GoFundMe, Christmas cash gifts, and Bethany’s hard work with Passing Notes this holiday season helped us reach this point.

Our next goal is $15,000, which will cover legal fees, birth parent services with New Life, and the finalization of the adoption. We will also be saving up an additional $3000-5000 in the case of an out-of-state adoption(last-minute travel costs, plus housing, as many states require you to stay days to weeks before you can return home). This extra savings will also be useful in the case of additional legal fees.

There are a few grants available for which we intend to apply, but unfortunately, we cannot apply for them until our home study is complete. At the same time that our home study is complete, we are also considered a waiting family- meaning a child could be placed with us at any moment. So we cannot wait solely for grants, but we do hope to for a few.

We have also been reading through the educational content that New Life requires as part of their home study process. A book we just finished, called “It Takes More Than Love” by Brittany Salmon (you can pick up a copy here), was a great read! It’s primarily about transracial and transcultural adoption but has a lot of really good things to say about preparing for adoption in general. It also touches on how family members, friends, and community members can come around an adoptive family in a way that is helpful, and supportive.

Six out of ten adoptions through New Life are transracial, so there is a very good chance that the baby we adopt won’t look like us, and we are completely open to that. Transracial adoption comes with its own set of challenges, both for the child and for us, and raising a child in a multicultural home requires extra thought on many areas of life that we might otherwise take for granted or overlook. However, Brittany Salmon’s book reaffirmed our feelings of remaining open and available to transracial and transcultural adoption.

If you’re a part of our community, we strongly encourage you to look at this book. We will be spending some time on this blog talking about transracial adoption, but this book is an excellent start and it’s pretty short - and if you’re not interested in purchasing it, we’re sure you can work with your local library to get a copy!

Why do we encourage you to read it? While the length of the adoption process can be long, there is a huge gift that comes with it: time and space to grow in understanding and knowledge around adoption. If you have little ones in your life, you likely desire for them to be loved and received well by family, friends, and your community. We hope for the same for our little one (of course we know you will love them no matter what… and knowing about adoption takes that love even further)! And, because adoption is unique, something you may not know much about, and something that our world holds a lot of misconceptions about… it means a lot to us when our community (yes you!) joins us in preparing space for whomever God invites into our lives during this process. The more our community of support learns about the process, the better-equipped everyone will be to support our future child in the way that is best for them.

Here is how you can support us right now (you can choose whichever way (or ways) calls to you):

  1. Sign up for email updates so you know when we release a new blog post. Scroll to the bottom of this page to enter your information.

  2. Prayer:

    • For New Life, as they continue to walk alongside mothers by providing counsel, support, encouragement, and help as moms make life-honoring decisions for themselves and their child.

    • For New life, to fill their open social worker positions swiftly to meet the needs of birth families and adoptive families in the process.

    • For the financial steps in our adoption process - Fundraising, putting in extra work/hours, and working hard to hit that next milestone can be exhausting. And, making payments towards the adoption process can make it feel very transactional, and at times elicit a yucky feeling. So prayers that we would continue to feel at peace, find rest in the process, and keep focused on God’s calling for our family.

  3. Education:

    • Consider reading ‘It Takes More than Love’ (again, you can find that here)
    • Consider looking up articles/info online on the topics surrounding adoption that you are curious about or have questions about
    • Send us an email ([email protected])- if you have a question, we are happy to answer.

  4. Financial:

    • If you feel led to donate, our GoFundMe is a great place to do so. Just click here to find it. You are also welcome to mail it to us if you prefer (email us if you don’t have our address and we will give it to you).
    • Bethany’s business, Passing Notes is solely focused on being an additional income stream for our adoption. If you need gifts or want to pass along encouragement to others (that’s what her products are about), consider purchasing through her website: www.passingnotes.studio
    • Stay tuned for fundraisers- we are hoping to do a t-shirt fundraiser and have a few other ideas as well.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers, thoughts, learning, curiosity, and support!

-Phillip and Bethany