Dear Family and Friends,

We are excited to announce that after much deliberation and many, many prayers we have decided to grow our family through international adoption! God first called us to consider adoption in 2017, and now He has given us the courage to “take up the cause of the fatherless” (Isaiah 1:17) and officially start the process. We look forward to welcoming a 6 year old boy from Thailand into our family and sharing the blessings we have been given. Our adoption journey has been a long process of paperwork, patience, and praying over the past year and we look forward to welcoming our new son to our family by next summer!

As part of our adoption process, we have started to fund raise to help cover some of the cost. International adoption is expensive and our total expenses will be $30,000 to $40,000.  Money donated will go towards our first phase of initial expenses:

• Application fee: $350 - PAID
• Home study fee: $2,000-2,500 - PAID
• U.S. Processing Fee: $1,950 - PAID
• Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity (IAAME) Fee: $500 - PAID
• U.S. Processing Fee: $3,000 - PAID
• USCIS Fee: $800-1,330 - PAID
• Adoption Program Fee: $13,360 - PAID
  
• Adoption Training Classes: $150-750
• Third-Party Evaluations: $250-2,500

These fees do not include visa fees, post-placement fees, adoption finalization fees, or travel, lodging and transportation expenses that we will incur when bringing the child home.  These additional expenses will total $10,000-15,000.

We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as he/she grows up.  Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like to know more about the process!

You can check out our blog at https://grodekadoptionjourney.com/ to learn more about why we are adopting, where we are in the process, and follow our progress.

We also encourage you to share our story, tell your family and friends about our blog, or post on social media about our fundraising efforts.  Your willingness to share with others who might want to participate and give can grow our support exponentially!

Thank you so much for your support, prayers and good intentions during this journey!

With love,

The Grodek Family