We wanted to share another update on our recently begun adoption journey. For those of you who do not know, this is our 2nd adoption. God blew us away with the process the first time. Many things have happened that are hard to explain except that God has been clearing the way for things to develop and go exactly according to His will. During our last adoption, we were told the process could take 2-4 years, and within 6.5 months of beginning, our daughter, Olivia Kate, came into our lives.

Now, as we've been raising her, we have sensed the Lord adding room in our hearts and home for another little one. We started the home study process about 3 weeks ago. Since we are with the same agency as last time (Lifeline Children's Services - www.lifelinechild.org), the process has gone even faster. We have completed our home study and are just waiting for the copy to be drafted before we can turn in our profile book and begin the waiting process - waiting to be matched with birth parents and a child.

For those of you who haven't gone through this process before, the home study is essentially an opportunity for a social worker to engage with your family, learning about you and seeing if there are any ways they can educate you or prepare you before the adoption takes place. Our social worker (the same one from our last adoption) is a good friend and that has made that part of the journey quite pleasurable. Once the home study is done we can apply for adoption grants and scholarships that are available from ministries and non-profits throughout the country.

Because of the expense, many people never follow through with a desire to adopt. We know how discouraging the price can be and hope to share some of our perspectives in upcoming posts. One things God has taught us is that if He wants to get a child into your family, there is nothing to hard for Him to handle. We are learning to really see adoption as a real calling and ministry for us. Everywhere we go now, people are curious about our daughter's story and want to know more. Many couples have connected with us also because they are considering or have questions about adoption. If that's you, don't hesitate to reach out. We love sharing our experience and if we can help others along in this journey, we would considerate a blessing for us.

As we go through this process, hopefully we can share information that we learn like this statistic below...

We wanted to share two quick ways yall could partner with us in this journey. One is to save this Amazon link to your favorites bar. It is a link to Amazon obviously, but if you click on this first to go shop on Amazon, a small percentage of anything you order will be given to us to use toward the adoption. It might seem small, but with birthdays, regular shopping, and upcoming holidays, every little bit could make a big difference.

Amazon link to support Ingham adoption - http://amzn.to/2uUIGnK

Secondly, we have a fundraising website on www.AdoptTogether.org. This is actually the page on which our blog is updated and kept. It shows our progress in raising funds. Any donations through AdoptTogether are tax-deductible for you and the funds go straight to our agency to pay for our adoption expenses.

Link our Family Adoption page - http://adopttogether.org/families/?fundraiser=ingham-family-adoption-2-0

Our next cost with the adoption process is the submitting of our profile book. We have already ordered them and if you would like to see them, please reach out to me or Corrie.  Once we submit them, Lifeline social workers all over the southeast will be showing them to birth parents they are currently counseling and working with. Our profile book is what the potential birth parents will look at when deciding what family they choose to place their child with. It tells about who we are and what our family and life is like in about 20-25 pages. The fee associated with submitting our profile books is $4600. Take a look at the graphic below: Will you consider playing a part in helping us reach our next short-term goal?

Thanks to all who will read, pray and give toward this cause of bringing another little one into our home and family for the rest of their lives :)

Mike, Corrie, & Olivia Kate