Sorry about the long delay in posting. Because we don't have internet at home and work cut off my access to post on the blog. So where are we at in the adoption? Well we took the Monday off after Thanksgiving so that we could go get fingerprinted. We also sent in our home study fee and some other background information.

We got a huge packet of stuff in the mail yesterday. There is a sixteen page questionairre that we both have to fill out along with some info about our finances and other stuff. We also got information about the dossier process. It is a very intimidating but I think we will get it done.

Over Thanksgiving it really hit Jacob & I just how much of a reality it is that our child is already out there and we don't know what circumstances he/she is in but they are probably pretty bad. We had so much food and fun and it is hard to think that our child could be going hungry every night. We are so thankful for all that God has blessed us with and we are so ready to share all that we have with this child.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and I will try to blog every time I get access to a computer.

Love,
Kristy

Thank You!

Today Jacob & I got word that God has provided us with a loan that will cover a major portion of our adoption fees. We just want to tell you thank you! You will never know how much this means to us. You are a major answer to prayer and we will be forever grateful and thankful for the part you played in helping us adopt our child.

Application Accepted...what is next?

Jacob & I put in our application in on Monday November 2nd and we received an email from Holt on November 11th letting us know that they had accepted our application and that we could start the process. So what is the next step? Jacob & I will need to get fingerprinted and send in our information for a criminal background check and we also need to send in money for our homestudy. Once Holt receives the money for the homestudy they will send us more paperwork to fill out and a questionnaire that we will need to complete before they come to check out our home.

Prayer Requests:
**Pray that as we continue with the next step of the process that we would continue to feel God's peace & love that comes from know that He is in control of this journey.
**Pray for our little one since he/she is most likely already born and we do not know the condition they are living in.
**Pray for the mother of our child as she makes the decision to give up her child.

The DeGraw Family

After a lot of prayer and discussion Kristy & I wanted to let you know that we have decided that in March/April of next year we are going to pursue the option of adopting a child. While we both feel like we want to start a family neither of us felt ready to try and have a baby. Adoption and/or fostering has been something that Kristy and I have considered from the time we got married, and after hearing about the adoption process from a guy Kristy works with, both Kristy & I felt like God was opening our hearts to the idea of adopting our first child.

We have already looked into the financial aspect of adoption and what kind of programs, tax credits and interest free loans that are available to people who adopt. Health Net also has a reimbursement program of up $5000 for any qualified adoption fee. We are asking you to pray that we continue to save our money & that we make wise financial decisions to help us off set the cost of the adoption which will probably be in the range of about $20,000.

We have also decided on the adoption agency that we want to use, which is called Holt International and you can look them up at http://www.holtinternational.org/. This is a Christian based organization whose passion & purpose is to find loving homes for the children of this world who do not have a permanent home. We have looked through all the countries that Holt serves & we have decided that we would like to adopt a child from Ethiopia.

Kristy & I are so excited about beginning this new chapter in our lives & we are confidant that this is the path that God is leading us down right now. We are sure that along the way there will be a lot of bumps and detours so we are asking for your love and support.

We love you all & we know that you will help us through this process. If you have any questions please ask :-)

Love,

Jacob & Kristy

Welcome!

Hello Everyone,
Jacob & I thought that we would start a blog about our adoption process. One of the things we have discovered so far is that it is hard to remember who we told what and when. This blog will be something that we will update and you can check in on our progress without us constantly emailing you or updating you on something we have already told you about!

My hope for this blog is to be a record of our adoption journey. I want to be open and honest about the process and the emotions that go along with it. I want to record my thoughts to my future child so that they know how much we loved and prayed for him/her before we even met.

So please, feel free to comment on anything, send us words of encouragement or ask questions. If you would like to ask questions more privately feel free to email me at degrawk@hotmail.com.

In His Name,
Kristy