Author: LS

News

Latest Support Goal Figures

LS

Now that we have a sibling group that we are intentionally pursuing we are able to start looking at how this will impact the necessary finances should we be approved to be matched.

Thankfully, $34,000 of the $51,000 are fees which remain the same regardless of how many children are being adopted. However, the remaining roughly $17,000 does fluctuate because these are the fees associated with the travel expenses. How were these fees originally calculated?

Airfare (2 adults, 1 child) $ 4,600.00
Hotel Accommodations for two different cities for 6-9 weeks $ 5,500.00
Transportation $ 1,500.00
Guide Fee $ 2,000.00
Representative Travel Expenses $ 2,000.00
Child’s Visa $ 325.00
Embassy Medical Appointment $ 600.00
Authentication of Finalization Documents $ 470.00

This sums to a total of $16,995.

What about this needs to change for our situation?

In the first place, these figures were calculated to be very generic and only consider families who are adopting their first and only child. As a result, the airfare is calculated for two parents to travel and to bring back a single adopted child. Furthermore, these costs were calculated several years ago and do not take into account the recent inflation. In addition, they are based on the presumption that the family is traveling from the United States, not Germany. All of this means that we need to refigure the amount to add in 4 additional plane tickets, consider current costs with inflation, and factor in leaving from Germany using rough estimates (a round trip ticket is currently running between $1,500-$2,000 depending on when the flight is).

The hotel costs also only consider two adults and one child. In our situation, we need to recalculate these for two adults and 5 children. Because there are two cities (a total of 3 stays, because we have to go back and forth twice to one of the cities) and a fairly long period of time (6-8 weeks), we are currently estimating that we will need minimally $6,000 extra for that.

Thankfully the Guide fee and Representative travel expenses are not impacted by the number of children. But we need to multiply the final three lines by 3 to get the additional cost for 3 additional children.

Where does that leave us in terms of minimal necessary support?

We currently are estimating that we will need at least $17,000 more to cover the travel expenses than what was initially estimated. We have asked Lifeline to check our figures and they agreed that this is the minimal amount and likely we would be wise to raise beyond this number, but that we will certainly need at least that amount.

This places our minimal total support goal at $68,000 to complete our adoption.

That is certainly a daunting figure (trust us, it is even more of a heart attack number to us!). However, we serve a God who provides and has no financial limits. We have been blessed so far to see just over $29,000 already be raised which was significantly higher than we thought we would see by this date. Praise the Lord and thank you for your extreme generosity! We will need to continue raising to close the gap and we will be applying for various adoption scholarships in the coming weeks (please be praying for favor as many families apply for very limited funds!).

It will be wonderful to see how God provides for these needs and allows us to bring our family home!

News

Home Study Complete!

LS

We have now officially completed the Home Study phase and have the final Home Study copy (23 pages long!) with us. It is a massive project that analyzes all aspects of our family and life and officially qualifies us to adopt up to 4 children in the age range from 0-15. We are very thankful for this progress!

Now that the Home Study is done we can begin to look at applications for scholarships and grants to help us close in on the financial goals. We are also able to move into the next major stage which is securing permission from the U.S. government. As soon as our second agency fee arrives (it is already on the way), Lifeline has everything ready to mail off our 800a application which is the government document requesting permission and approval to adopt from Brazil.

At the same time, we have been working to get our Dossier together. This goes to Brazil in order to get permission from Brazil to adopt. The only two documents that have been missing from the Dossier were the Home Study (which is now available) and the 800a approval from the government.

Thank you for following our progress and continuing to pray for us as we work through the various legal steps necessary to adopt! Thank you also for your gracious contributions and for praying with us as we trust God to provide the full necessary funding.

News

Progress Update: Letter of Intent

LS

Thank you so much for the many prayers for us during our adoptive journey! The process is long, can often feel like total chaos interrupted by long periods of silence. However, we continue to trust God in the timing of everything.

Over the last couple of weeks we received a sibling file to look at for a sibling group that Lifeline recently received and was advocating for. After much prayer, conversation amongst ourselves, with Lifeline, and a few others, we have decided to seek to pursue this group of siblings.

Practically speaking, this means that yesterday we sent off a letter of intent to request permission to be matched with these children. The letter will go to the Brazilian legal system along with a photo PowerPoint about us and our house. The judge will analyze our letter, our situation, and the situation of the children before making a ruling. Until that ruling, nothing is official and we are not officially “matched”. This process can take a month or more to complete. However, we are very excited and thankful to be intentionally pursuing a sibling group.

Because of the unofficial nature at the moment, there is limited information to share with you, but we can share that this particular sibling group has 4 children in it which matches our maximum approval in our home study.

Please pray for the ruling by the judge to come quickly so that we can officially be matched, pray for these children (whether we are the parents God has for them or if there are other parents), and pray for us. Once we get any news of how this will impact the process going forward (any increases in financial needs, steps in the process, etc.) we will be sure to let you know.

Very early indications from our caseworker is that it is conceivable that we might be looking at travel sometime early fall of 2025. This, of course, is heavily dependent on things outside of our control (government approval processes, etc.).

News

Progress Update

LS

We are excited to report that we have almost finished the home study portion of the adoption. Today we were able to send in our official acceptance of the home study and verification of its accuracy. This means the final, official version should be ready within the next few days.

Simultaneously we have been working on the next step which is the application to the US government. This form, the i800A form, was shipped off today on its way to Lifeline and should arrive by Monday. At that stage, it will be combined with the official home study and then sent off to the Department of Homeland Security. We received some good news, that the fingerprints on file for our China adoption can be used for this form, meaning we do not have to repeat the fingerprint process. This is a huge relief considering that it is extremely difficult and very expensive to get fingerprints done in Munich. The US government approval stage can take up to 3 months.

Thank you for continuing to pray with us and for us!

News

Donation Update

LS

Our minimal goal needed for our adoption is $51,000.

Currently we have raised: $22,150 through donations and matching funds.

We are able to cover $15,000 through our savings.

The remaining minimal goal is: $13,830

News

Where are We?

LS

If you are following our adoption journey, you might wonder where are we in the process?

We are still in the home study phase which began around the start of September. This involves interviews, the home visit, educational requirements, but also includes a lot of intense scrutiny, medical exams, etc. As a result, even though most things have been turned in, the home study is still not officially ready and done.

In particular, we have been working to gather a few additional items that were deemed necessary upon further review. We are still waiting to get a police clearance report from Germany which should hopefully arrive within the next week. We are also working to accomplish one more educational requirement for those who are adopting multiple children. We have submitted the first step and as a second step we need to contact and talk with several families who have done this recently to hear from their experience.

We appreciate your prayers as we continue to move through the process!