Adopted as His Own: December 2012

It's been a whirlwind of the last few weeks, we've personally been busy but on the adoption end it seemed like we were in our first phase of waiting. We were in the limbo of waiting for our Home study to be approved..... It took longer then I expected, many home studies were turned in trying to be approved before the new year! We finally received the news on December 19th that our home study had been approved and we were officially paper pregnant! It was such an amazing feeling, tears of joy ran down my face. This has been an amazing experience so far, this was the best Christmas gift for us indeed.
Now what do we do you ask? ---> Since we have been approved to basically be parents to a newborn, Matt and I now have the opportunity to apply for grants, praying we maybe get a little help. The. We can pay our next due amount and our profile books will be sent out for birth mothers to see. From there it's all the lords timing (which we know is perfect) for when we get placed.

I will continue to keep you updated as our journey develops! Thank you again for all your love and support! Your prayers mean so much!

Blessings, Emily

We're so blessed from the turn out Thursday night---I honestly didn't know what to expect, we were blown away by the turn out!
Thank you all who came and supported us, we had such a fun night!

For those of you who missed it, I will share a few photos from the evening. For starters my sister Laura made a beautiful Time Line of the Adoption process and many of the things we are to do. This was important to us to share, many people are unaware of what it takes to Adopt. When Laura showed me the Time Line for the first time Thursday night, my eyes welled up with tears. It was beautiful, I couldn't have asked her to do a better job!

She shared photos that I had taken, and explained the cost of the Adoption.

$550.00 Formal Application Fee(Due with Application)

This fee covers the creation of your online account, the case file, the collection of references, background clearances, orientation, and the first meeting with Bethany Christian Services Staff.

$200.00 Training/Education Fee

$2,000.00 Home Study Fee (Due prior to Home Visits)

This fee covers the home study that is required for adoption including the creation of required documents, interviews, home visits (4), and gathering/assessing collateral information, service planning.

$10,000.00 Pre-Placement Services Fee(Due at Approval)

This fee covers work done on your behalf to have your profile seen by expectant parents and includes your web profile, outreach activities, and various support services during the waiting period.

This fee also covers the pregnancy counseling provided to the expectant parents and includes work locating, engaging and involving the expectant father in the process, history compilation, meetings with you, hospital planning, negotiating adoption plans and agreements, counseling at the hospital, and grief counseling.

$12,900.00 Placement Fee(Due at legal Placement)

This fee covers petitioning for adoption and other required documentation, placement of the child, grief counseling post placement, file maintenance.

$2,000.00 Finalization Cost

Meeting with Lawyers and making Adoption Legal in the Courts.

$30,000.00 in total

My reminder to myself daily is that the Lord will provide!