2004-2205
As a newly married couple Jennifer begins researching adoption. We attend a Bethany Christian Services Informational Meeting as a fun "date" night for our someday dream.
2006-January 2010
Adoption never leaves our hearts. We quickly add to our family through birth. Grace is born in 2006 and then Faith comes right behind her in 2007. Then in January of 2010 after a difficult pregnancy and emergency c-section due to complications we add our son, Titus, to the mix. We knew even as we held him in the hospital that our next addition would join us through adoption. It was time for our "someday" dream!
October 2010
We learn of an acquaintance with an unexpected pregnancy. Our passion for adoption is ignited and we pray about approaching the woman. However, we soon learn she has chosen to parent her child. The internet research begins again.
January 2011
Now that Titus is one we are ready to begin pursuing adoption. We again sign up for a Bethany Christian Services Informational Meeting. We are open to both domestic and international adoption. We come home and immediately fill out their pre-application. After the meeting we feel that international adoption is the best fit four our family. We are stunned when we receive an e-mail stating our income for 2010 did not meet the requirements. After lots of conversations and looking for loop holes we see our only options are to wait another year or pursue foster care.
April 2011
We hold a yard sale with other family friends and begin an adoption fund. Just selling everything I cleaned out of our house we made $550.
July 2011
I begin baking cupcakes and start a "business" called Sweet 2 the Soul. I begin tucking away all the profits in our adoption fund. The fund slowly grows.
Some of my very first cupcakes for the McClintock Family's going away party.
October 2011
We do another yard sale this time with other families donating items and the proceeds solely going to our adoption. We raise another $400 for our adoption fund.
November 2011
We meet with a real estate agent about listing our house because we think we can't get an approved home study without more space. She informs us we must repaint the peeling paint on our house before we list. After trying to find a painter to help us we decide to do it ourselves in November. So we can list and be ready to start our paperwork in January. It was cold! (However we later learn we can get approved in this house. Oh, well it needed to be done and kept us busy while we waited.)
December 2011
We've kept busy all year with different fundraising projects but due to Jeremy's commission based job it is down to the wire on wether or not our income will qualify. We just meet the minimum requirements and are excited to get started. We are leaning towards Africa however, programs in Ethiopia begin closing to new families. We start looking at a pilot program in Uganda with Holt International. We should be able to apply when Titus turns two in January.
A fundraiser we began and spent COUNTLESS hours on in 2011- Nativity Blocks. We are still finishing orders over a year later.
January 2012
We learn that our youngest child will need to be 2.5-3 years old in order to apply for the Uganda program. This means waiting until at least July. We are bummed.
February 2012
Jennifer is invited to go on a 10 day trip to West Africa with Pioneer Bible Translators to do a VBS for missionary children. We step out in faith and commit for her to go.
We also do another fundraiser selling delivered cupcakes for Valentine's day. A big undertaking, but we made around $750 for our adoption fund.
April 2012
Jennifer travels to West Africa convinced this trip isn't about their adoption and focused on serving. However, as a service project the missionary children host a "play date" for some children from a local orphanage. In the process Jennifer gets to visit the orphanage and meet the director. Her interest in possibly adopting from this country begins. She meets several little boys who are available for adoption. She also hears lots of stories about a little boy named David. She sees him briefly but is told a family from Canada is coming for him.
While Jennifer is gone dear friends host another yard sale to benefit our adoption. Another $600 is raised.
Jennifer in West Africa.
May 2012
We begin researching adopting from Guinea with little success. The country has no established program and information is slim. Internet research only brings information on how to adopt a guinea pig as a pet! Then a missionary friend from West Africa gives Jennifer the contact information of another family in Ohio attempting to adopt from Guinea as well.
June 2012
After lots of helpful information from this family and prayer we decide we this is the place God is calling us to adopt from. However, at this time there are no agencies who are willing to help. Within a week God opens the door and both families commit to working with A New Arrival in Montana. We also apply to Children's Hope International to do our in state home study.
June-July-Aug 2012
Paperwork! We beginning pulling together all the documents we will need for our home study. We spend less time at the pool and more nap times at home while Jennifer sends e-mails, makes phone calls, and fills out paperwork.
July 20, 2012
We announce to our kids that we are adopting! (Up until this point we had only talked about caring for orphans and adoption in general.)
This is the puzzle we made to tell them.
August 2012
We have our interviews and home visit. We pass! We'll never forget when Grace showed the social worker our laundry room and states, "Its usually a lot messier in here. We cleaned it for you." or that her adopted brother will have "blond hair and blue eyes!"
September 7, 2012
We receive an e-mail from the orphanage with three little boys information to pray over. We are surprised to see a picture of David, the little boy Jennifer had met. Apparently the family from Canada had backed out and he needed a home.
September 15, 2012
After a week of prayer Jeremy and Jennifer both feel confirmation from the Lord that David is our son.
This is the morning Jeremy told me he knew it was David.
September 16, 2012
We receive an e-mail from the orphanage confirming David is ours!
September 23, 2012
We find out an intern will be traveling to Guinea at the beginning of October. We are able to put together a package for David including cars, clothes, and a book about our family.
Titus and Faith hold the bags to be sent in the package before we head to the post office.
September 27, 2012
We receive our finalized home study. We begin working on our dossier paperwork and fill out the I-800a.
October 5-6, 2012
We host a HUGE yard sale to benefit our adoption. It is our biggest fundraiser yet and $4,200 is raised for our adoption fund.
October 22, 2012
We receive an e-mail letting us know David's birthday is November 24th, 2010. We also get to see a picture of him as a newborn for the first time.
October 23, 2012
Thanks to missionary friends David's package makes it to the orphanage. We get to see a video of him seeing our pictures for the first time! He is very interested in the picture of himself on the front and we laugh when he bats away another interested child.
October 31, 2012
Jeremy and I head to St. Louis for our fingerprinting appointment while our kids get ready for Trunk or Treat. By God's grace we are able to squeeze both in!
November 4, 2012 (Orphan Sunday)
We are able to share about our adoption journey with our church family.
November 24-30, 2012
Jeremy's family helps us host an online fundraiser in honor of David's birthday. All the money from items sold on their Etsy business go straight to David's adoption fund. $180 is raised!
December 2012
We send David his first Christmas present. A truck book, ring pop, and card that plays music. We heard the ring pop was a big hit.
December 11, 2012
As our Christmas card declares our excitement about our adoption, I am feeling the
weight of trying to finish up our dossier before Christmas.
December 22, 2012
Our dossier is FINALLY sent to our agency in Montana. God granted our only Christmas wish!
January 2013
Our Paperwork goes on a journey to get ready to head to Guinea including authentication, translation, and being approved by the Guinean embassy in Washington D.C. We ask our friends and family to
join us in praying for our adoption each day in January.
My dear friend Lindsay travels to West Africa and gets to meet David. Seeing her hold him was such a sweet blessing! We get to see lots of new pictures of him smiling and laughing for he first time and she traces his handprint for us.
Another dear friend designs our fundraiser t-shirt. We will sell them this summer to benefit our adoption.
We finally figure out where we are at with our
fundraising. We've raised $20,000 so far and have about $13,000 left to raise. We begin applying for grants and planning our Spring fundraisers.
February 2013
Another dear friend makes Valentine's Day wreathes to sell. She donates all the profits to our adoption.
February 13, 2013
We hear David's "first words" in a precious video. He is repeating after his friend, Hannah, the intern "Bonjour Papa Bonjour Mama!" I listen to it 5 million times.
February 12-14, 2013
We partner with another adoptive family The Martin's to do our 2nd
Valentine's Day Cupcake Fundraiser. We make about 700 cupcakes and $1,100 is raised to bring our babies home!
We have a "reality" check and finally come to grips with the fact David won't be home as soon as we had hoped... Bye Bye May, Hello end of summer/early fall.
February 21, 2013-
Our
dossier finally leaves on a jet plane for West Africa. Hooray!
March 2013
After a period of "missing in action" our dossier arrives safely in country.
After a month of wrestling in prayer we decide to join a team going to
West Africa in April (same team I went with in April 2012) to help with a spiritual retreat for the missionaries and MEET OUR SON.
We are AMAZED at all the people near and far surprising us with special donations for our silent auction. So far we've had things donated from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri. & CHINA! More dear friends who want to be a part of David's story.
April 5, 2013
Hopefully, our last "big" fundraiser. Some more dear friends Josh & Stephanie and their friends are totally planning the trivia part of the evening. What a blessing!
April 22, 2013-Meet David for the first time as a couple.
I am losing track of all the people God is working through to bring David home. But, they truly are all "dear" to us! It is amazing.
To be continued.....
