Answering Some Questions

A lot of people have been asking why it cost so much to adopt our own niece.  I wish I could understand why it is such a long and costly process to adopt our own family member, but that is just how the system works....... For now I will try to give a brief description.

Why all of the expense for Adoption?

Brett and I contacted a kinship agency in Colorado Springs (one that helps family members adopt their own family).  When I contacted them they pretty much said that our situation was out of their league, since it was across states.  They told us to contact a lawyer.   We contacted several other sources, all of them pretty much telling us the same thing...... you need a lawyer.  We looked at several different options for lawyers, but when we found Seth Grob of Evergreen Colorado when knew it was the right choice (He is a Christian and has helped hundreds of families adopt children, and even recently helped a family in our church adopt twins from Haiti).

Seth was able to clarify many things for us.  The first was that we won't be able to adopt Norah for 1 year.....  We first will have to become her guardians, which costs money and this is part of the expense of adoption, first becoming her guardians.   Then there is the paperwork,  the lawyer time involved (lawyers are not exactly cheap), court costs, the background checks, and the home study (which runs about $2000).

About how much will the whole adoption process cost?

All in all the whole process will probably cost about $10,000,  Yikes!  We are not worried though.  We know that God will help provide.    We had to give Seth a retainer of $4000 last week( kind of like a pre-payment) .  We prayed that God would provide that money quickly and by Thursday we had raised $4010, and on Friday the retainer check cleared!!  We were A.M.A.Z.E.D at how God provided! He is taking care of us.

Thank you everyone for your donations!  We love every amount even the $5 donations, because it is all of the little ones that make a big difference, and for us it is just the thought and the time involved to make a donation!  Also, thank you to everyone for your ETSY purchases!  I will keep making things for a while.....  I feel like by making things in honor of Carrisa I am still loving her.....

When is Norah coming?

My parents will be bringing Norah on February 9th (just 23 days).  That was pretty much my due date for the baby I lost in July...... God works in crazy ways.   Before guardianship or adoption we will have the Power of Attorney over Norah.  My parents will stay with us for 2 weeks to help with the transition because they want Norah to adjust and me too!  I will have to take care of 2 toddlers!!

Maternity Leave

Many people have made statements about the law allowing me to have maternity leave even with adoption.  This statement may be true, (and I know my boss would allow me time of if I wanted) however, in Colorado maternity leave does not have to be paid.  Right now for us, we cannot afford for me to take extended time off of work.

We have started to set up Maya's room to share with Norah.  I will post some photos soon!  Here is a sneak peak, Maya was so excited about getting her room set up that she cleared everything out of her room and put it in ours