–Updates originally located on AdoptTogether–

[April 2021]

PIECING IT TOGETHER

We wanted a fun, meaningful way to remember those who’ve contributed to bringing our child home. Toward the end of the adoption process, we’ll be putting together a large puzzle that pictures beautiful landscape from El Nido in the Philippine province of Palawan. For every $20 donated, the donor’s name will be written on the back of a puzzle piece.

After putting the puzzle together, we can turn it over to see the names of all the people who had a “piece” in our story of bringing our child home. We chose this fun idea because it will not only be a lasting memory of our donors, but it will also show our child that many people helped make the adoption possible.

[5/16/21]

THE STUDY WITHIN

This week we officially launched into the home study part of our adoption. Our home study agency is based in Bozeman a few hours away, but they happen to have a social worker lives only 20 minutes away. We enjoyed getting to know her and learning more about the home study process. More questions but a few steps closer!

Introspection has been an interesting side to this adoption process. This week we also were evaluated by a local psychologist on our capacity and ability to be adoptive parents. It was an enjoyable session! Learning how the past–people and experiences–affects who we become in the future takes deliberate attention. Many of our adoption education classes have focused on a basic reset to understanding what adoption involves for the both the adoptive parents and child. From these classes, this quote by Dr. Karyn Purvis is one of our favorites:

It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

Thank you for your interest in our adoption!

[6/13/21]

PAPERS AND PROGRESS 

We sent another stack of paperwork off to our home study agency this week. We’ve read countless papers and books, filled out several forms, and answered an astounding number of questions about every aspect of our lives and past. We have completed nearly all our home study paperwork, minus a few loose ends. I think we now know how to sign our signatures in our sleep!

Our goal is to finalize the home study by end of June. Several organizations provide financial assistance grants to adoptive families, and once home study is complete and approved, we can start applying for grants. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue our adoption journey. We are a few more steps closer to bringing our child home!

Thank you to all our donors! Our adoption puzzle arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago, and we are starting to label puzzle pieces with donor names. To learn more about how we are using the puzzle to commemorate donors, please see our previous update. We cannot express enough how thankful and grateful we are to all of you who have invested financially in our adoption journey. We cannot do this without each one of you!

If you have any questions about the adoption process, please ask! We love to share the journey with anyone who has questions. There is a great need for families to open their homes to children from hard places.

[6/25/21]

FILLING THE TOOLBOX 

This week we had the second of our three home study visits. We are excited to have made it this far, and we are almost done with this stage!

The thought of a home study was initially slightly stressful, mainly because it is an evaluation of us as individuals, as spouses, and as parents. Quite honestly, the holistic approach to evaluating ourselves in perspective of our past, present, and future has been an amazing experience. We have enjoyed learning more about each other, our family, and ways in which we can prepare for our future child(ren). Needless to say, it’s been very thought-provoking and an interesting learning process.

Our social worker, Gail, is real, honest, thoughtful, and attentive. She is an adoptive mother herself, so she has shared wisdom and experience with us that we are soaking up. She has given us homework and made us delve deep into the “why” of our lives. We have been given so many tools to add to our toolbox for marriage and parenting from experienced people who have been where we are. With each visit and assignment we are learning how to best prepare for parenting our child from a hard place that we are bringing into our family.

The third and final home study visit is scheduled for next week. Once home study is officially completed, we will post another update, along with our status of expenses. Once we have a completed home study it makes us eligible to apply for grants to help with the financial costs of the adoption. This is something that we have been working towards since the beginning! We intend to apply for all grants we can find and hope to be accepted to at least a couple of them. Of course, grant awards are not guaranteed, but we are hopeful!

The next prayer request that we would share with all of our friends and family is that we will be able to raise a significant amount through grants and fundraising in the next few months. Our next round of adoption expenses are fairly significant: $2,200 for home study completion and $5,200 for international dossier completion/submission.

Excitement, anticipation, nervousness, cluelessness, determination, and sleeplessness—these are all things we have experienced in the recent months as we continue through our adoption process. We’ve said it many times and will say again that we are grateful for those who have partnered with us, nut just financially but also prayerfully. We look forward to meeting our child, and we know our supporters do too!

[July 2021]

DOLLARS AND DRAFTS

We wanted to post a special thank you to those who have donated cash to our adoption. To date, cash donations are almost double what we’ve received through AdoptTogether donations! These dollars will be going toward our next expenses, which will wrap up our home study and pay for our international dossier going to the Philippines.

Speaking of home study, we reviewed the initial report draft last weekend! The 22-page stack made for some good bedtime reading… Seriously though, it’s fascinating to read a thorough (and detailed!) third-party report about yourself and your family. We look forward to finalizing this stage of our adoption!

Once we step over this next threshold, we’ll post with another update on where we are with expenses. To send off the dossier, our next payment to make to AGCI is $5,200. Our home study full amount to pay to Sacred Portions will be $2,200. Both of these will need to be paid as we step into September. Once we have the officially finalized home study, we’ll start applying for financial assistance grants. Please continue to pray with us that finances will be met.

Thank you everyone for your support! This can sound trite and we do say this often—but we honestly could not do this without you.

[Fall 2021]

Our adoption just got updated to Paperwork Complete

I woke up this morning knowing that we were overdue for an adoption update. Honestly, the process has been somewhat quiet lately. A few weeks ago, we gathered all our international dossier paperwork and sent it off to our adoption agency for review. This was a landmark step in our adoption process. At this milestone, we’ve completed all the paper that needs to be sent internationally, and we are awaiting adoption agency review to see if we need to modify or redo anything. We expect that soon our agency will be sending off our papers to the Philippines!

This is a culmination of six months of people writing letters of recommendation and notarizing their signatures on our behalf. The adoption process involves a lot of people, certain authorities, and LOTS of patience. We are grateful for those who have played a direct role in this whole process.

Also a long time coming is an adoption expenses update. Recently, we’ve dropped a little over $5,000 for this international dossier stage. We need to update a previous claim that we’ve paid for half of our home study fee. We had expected to be invoiced and pay for the half of the fee halfway through the home study, but we did not receive an invoice until the very end. This invoice is for the full amount of $2,200. This has not yet been paid, so we lowered our home study expenses paid back to $0 for now.

Adoption grants has been something we have been researching. We were under the impression that grants could be applied for once we have a completed home study. This is true for a couple grants, but most grants actually require us to have a child already lined up for adoption. Additionally, some grants are conditional on the child(ren) being older, having special needs, or being a sibling group. Until we step into child referrals and have a child or children selected, we will not be able to apply for these grants.

The funny thing about adoption grants is that they are supposed to help pay for adoption expenses. However, by the time you can get a grant, most of your adoption expenses have been paid. So a grant is many times a reimbursement. We have been enlightened by this reality recently, and it is demonstrating why fundraising is so important and helpful.

An additional method of fundraising that we started a few months ago is a local bakery business. Liisa loves to bake and has baked for a few weddings and other events this past summer. We registered with the State as an LLC and began running a booth on Saturdays at the local farmer’s market. Our booth has turned out to be very successful, and this has started to help fill in some of the adoption funding gaps. Perhaps the most difficult part about this avenue of fundraising is know exactly how much is going toward adoption expenses. With the all the business expenses we have for operation and supplies, we try to section out money that gets put into savings weekly. However, some of this gets turned around to pay for supplies again. We do know that these funds have been a BIG help, and we would not have been able to pay our last adoption fees completely without our newly-formed business.

This past week we signed on to be part of the winter market that takes place in our local shopping mall. WE ARE EXCITED, and this has turned into a very fun family venture. Thank you to all who have helped make our business popular. Word of mouth is the best kind of advertisement. We have distributed hundreds of business cards and are starting to get special orders for events, such as birthdays, business gatherings, and more.

What is this business, you ask? Expressions of Sugar is the name. Our primary method of contact for now is via social media, but also have an email is interested parties wish to use it.

You can visit us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/expressionsofsugar

Or you can view our Instagram page at: www.instagram.com/expressions_of_sugar

Feel free to contact us via social media or by email: [email protected]

Well, that is our latest update. What’s next? We are waiting for our paperwork to be officially sent to the Philippines. Once that takes place, we begin immigration-related papers and background checks. Once our international paperwork is approved by the Philippine government, we begin the referrals process, which is the review and selection of child profiles.

Stick with us and stay tuned! We appreciate all our supporters, and we are happy to have gotten this far in our adoption. Our adoptee(s) will have a home yet!

[Christmas 2021]

Holiday Hiccups and Happiness

Last month we discovered one more milestone to reach before we can send our papers off to the Philippines. At the beginning of December, we travelled a couple hours to get fingerprinted for a Homeland Security background check. Once we receive approval for immigration status, we’ll have completed our final paperwork requirement. The waiting continues!

We’ve added a few more thousand dollars to our expenses paid, and we’re almost 50% into our overall adoption expenses! Expressions of Sugar has greatly helped us make up financial differences as we continue through milestones and bills.

It’s Christmastime! We’re taking some time out our daily lives to spend quality time with family. We hope that you also have a relaxing and refreshing holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!