Jacob & Malorie's Adoption Adventure
In Matthew 24:40, we are told to care for 'the least of these.' In Psalm 82:3, we are told to 'defend the weak and fatherless.' In Romans 8:14-17, there are references to us, as Christians, being adopted by God through the waters of baptism.
Jacob and I have been discussing, praying, and planning on adopting kids since we were dating, engaged, and just married. Now, those discussions, prayers, and plans are becoming a reality for us.
To start off, this has nothing to do with infertility or trouble having our own children. It has been on both of our hearts to adopt for years. Imagine our delight to realize that we shared this hope, love, and passion for the children in our world. No matter the plans God has for us and our future family, we have felt called to begin this journey and leave the rest to God.
This past February, we felt like the time had come. We attended an informational meeting with Bethany Christian Services. They presented information on international adoption, domestic infant adoption, and foster care adoption. Both of us walked out of the meeting with foster care adoption on our hearts. We continued to talk and pray about it, attended more meetings, talked to a social worker, and have come to the conclusion that foster care adoption is our next big step in life. We have told our social worker that we will take a child up to 8 years old, and we are open to considering sibling groups.
We are both immensely excited, and completely terrified.
Jacob and I decided to share our excitement and news for a few reasons.
First, we would love your prayers for us as we work through the process, the social workers as they do their jobs, and our future child or children, wherever they may be.
Second, adoption is expensive, and we are most definitely not able to afford it on our own. In order to move through each step of the process, we have to be able to pay. Here is a breakdown of the costs:
- $525 - Formal Application Fee
- $4,200 - Home Study Fee
- $600 - Transitional Counseling (for both us and the child/children)
- $2,100 - Coordination of Services Fee
Altogether, that is $7,425 for the process. Each fee is due in order to start that particular step of the process. There are also the court fees when we get to the final step of full adoption, and and post-placement fees, which would be up to $5,000 for the first child, and up to $2,500 for each additional child. While these are costs that are generally covered by the state, we were still told we should plan on them, just in case. Our social worker told us to plan on renewing our home study at least once, as the process is lengthy and the home study needs to be updated yearly. This update costs $1,200. The total for everything could be $16,125. We also have to become a licensed foster home for the interim time that kids would be with us before they're officially adopted, and we will be required to take classes and do some updates around our house.
Our goal for fundraising in $16,000. We will use this money for the fees incurred during the adoption process and the updates we need to do around our house. If we have excess, we will use that for anything that we need to buy in order to provide for our children - furniture, clothing, etc. If there is excess beyond that, we will put it in an account to use for future adoptions.
We are planning to do a few different fundraisers for people who live around the Willmar area, and have set up a GoFundMe for people who would like to contribute, but don't live in our area.
Thank you so much for reading this, and we would like to thank you in advance for partnering with us in any way you wish as we set out on this journey.
With love,
Jacob and Malorie
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