We have BIG news!

We are adopting a child!

We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs can easily total over $40,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $45,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.

Read on to learn more about our story...

Kevin and I have always planned on adopting, and in November 2016 we decided to start the lengthy process.  We found a local agency that had amazing reviews, applied and were approved. They instructed us to select a child from the options they sent us while we worked through the other details. We fell head over heels for a little boy they called Marc in Poland. I went to call and email them to let them know that we were ready to go and got no response. It wasn’t until I went to their website when I found out that they had been shut down by the State Department. 

Our main concern at that point was to find our little boy. I began reaching out to a few adoption agencies stateside that had connections in Poland. One that stood out was New Beginnings Adoption in Mississippi. Victoria was very helpful, but let me know this was probably a needle in a haystack type of situation. 

We knew that this little one was meant to be a part of our family so we dove in.  I began emailing any orphanage that I could find in Poland, tried reaching out to Senators and Representative, and causing a stir in general. Through the depths of the internet I came across an expat that lives in Poland who writes a gluten free blog. One of her posts dealt with these Polish group homes so I reached out. She gave me insight into the system – each orphanage reports up through one of three agencies in Poland. My best bet was to get in touch with one of them.

On January 2nd, what I would later find out is his birthday, I reached out to the three centers with an email explaining our story. Thankfully, Iza Rutkowska from the National Adoption Center recognized him as being in an orphanage covered by the Catholic Adoption Center (who had been non-responsive).

I decided to work backwards – by going onto Catholic Adoption Center’s website I was able to identify the agencies in the US that they worked with. As I worked through the list, a recognizable name popped up in New Beginnings Adoption. I immediately called Victoria to fill her in on what I have learned. She was shocked but grateful for the information and went right to work. 

While traveling in Ireland I received another call from Victoria, this time with less than stellar news. The two other agencies have shut down their international adoption programs. Another blow, but Catholic Adoption Center was still open, we just didn’t know for how long. I thanked Victoria and sent an ask to God, the universe, whoever might be listening that we would be able to find our boy and bring him home. 

On January 25th, our wedding anniversary, I received an email from Victoria. The first line simply “I have managed to find this child.” We learned his name. He had just turned two years old and has been in the Children’s Home since he was born. He has a few developmental lags, but nothing specific or definitive. We responded immediately to learn the next steps. We were instructed to come up with a list of 25ish questions that we could ask the home about his background and that we would hear back in around 30 days. We consulted with a few pediatricians, sent off our list and waited… and waited… and waited.

Finally, at the two month mark we got some news. They were opening up the gates again! Things got moving at this point... in April we found out we got approved by Poland. At that point, we thought we had about a year to a year and a half before we got to bring him home

... that was until last week when we heard that our agency had officially got the go ahead to refer him to us! This is fantastic, amazing, wonderful news and we could not be more thankful... however, this does shorten our timeline a bit more than we have budgeted for. That is why we made the decision to set up this page. Please do not feel any obligation, and also know that no matter what it takes we will bring our little guy home! 

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 grows up. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!