Where are we now?

Hello everyone!

We know it has been a little while since we have updated our blog, and we are sure many or you are wondering how things are going and where we are in the process. We will do our best to try to give you the specifics of what has happened, where we are currently, how you can be praying for us and how to get involved.

In our last post, we had just completed our home study, and we believe we were awaiting a finalized copy... We received our finalized home study at the end of January and were able to register with CARA in India. CARA is the Central Adoption Authority in India, and we must first receive their approval prior to being matched with a child. We officially registered with them on January 31, 2019. Upon registration, our caseworker said they have seen this particular step in the process take anywhere from 3-5 months. It could be shorter or longer than that depending on the number of applications sent to CARA and their ability to sort through them.

While preparing to register with India, we also applied for immigration with the USCIS in order to be approved to migrate a child into the US. This process began with an initial application and then we waited until we received an appointment time to appear at a USCIS location to have our biometric fingerprints done. We receive that letter last week, and we are scheduled to have our fingerprints done on Monday, March 11th!

Finishing our home study was a huge milestone in the process, and it opened up opportunities to be able to move forward in several different ways. CARA and USCIS were huge steps toward knowing who our little will be! However, we have also been able to begin applying for adoption grants because of our completed home study. There are many different granting agencies, and each one is very unique in their approach. Some agencies offer grants for specific points in the process. Other grants are matching grants, some offer crowd funding and so much more. We have been diligently working to complete as many applications as possible, and we are awaiting many responses at this time. We will be sharing more details about these as we know more.

Finally, we have been blessed over the last several months by the generosity of family members, friends and co-workers who have asked about, prayed for and donated toward our adoption. All of your generosity has been extremely humbling for both Nathan and I as we have seen a community of people come together to support us and celebrate our little one!

We have discussed several different fundraising options with different people, and there are a few we will launch in the coming months. However, we were able to do one fundraising event last weekend thanks to the kindness and generosity of our friends, Sam and Misty Merelien. These sweet friends opened their home last weekend and threw a "Mystery Dinner Party" with all proceeds going toward our adoption! This event provided a lot of laughs and a nice donation to put us one step closer to our financial goal and ultimately the adoption of our child.

The Mereliens' generosity is just one small picture of the many different people involved in this process. Nathan and I realize more and more every day just how much we need each one of you as we journey toward our little one. We cannot thank-you enough for your love, prayers and support!