Match every donation. 

My brother told me on Friday night that he will personally match every donation that comes in till Wednesday at 12pm. 

This just got really guys. 

Thanks for considering us!

Love, 

Dela Cruz Fam

SHE IS HERE. 

Surprise. We have a daughter. A beautiful little girl. 

I have not been able to update because of the nature of the adoption process and waiting for the specific papers to be signed by the birth mother. 

God has been so gracious to us. Our daughter, Liberty Laughter was born at the end of April. Addie was in the room the whole labour and delivery and even cut the babies cord. We have an open adoption so we will continue to communicate and meet with the birth mother over the years. Liberty will get to see how loved she is and how much her birth mother cares for her. 

So let me update you all about how everything happened. It took a long time to finally get approved. At the end of January we finally got the courts approval. Our adoption agency told us that we would be waiting for for placement for 2-3 years. So Eric and I felt happy to be approved, but also anxious to wait for 2-3 years. We at least knew that over the year we'd be able to save up more money for the finalization of the adoption. 

Well, 3 weeks after getting the approval letter, our social worker reached out to talk with Eric and I. We both thought there was more paperwork needed and we felt pretty discouraged. When she called, she said we had been placed in a potential match. WE WERE SHOCKED. I didn't even believe it. 

We set up a meeting with the birth mom. It was a crazy experience. In our agency, the birth mother chooses the family, not the family choosing the birth mother. So we basically went into the biggest job interview of our lives. 

We connected instantly and were matched. Over the course of the next 8-9 weeks, we both got to attend ultrasounds and appointments. It was an amazing experience getting to watch another women carry our future baby. 

We found out a week before Liberty was born that there were some medical complications. It was an intense week and we really had to trust the Lord with how it was all going to work out. The night before she went into labour, the birth mother called Eric and I and we ended up getting to pray on the phone with her. Crazy. 

The babies due date was May 5th which is my adopted brothers adoption day. Literally the same day his adoption was finalized, our daughter was supposed to be born. God's timing is crazy. 

She was born and had to go through many medical tests. It was brutal to watch the whole process. This tiny baby was poked and prodded. She was so strong. We were released from the hospital, but were waiting on a very important test to come back. Depending on the test results, Libby potentially had to return to the NICU and stay for a significant period of time. Thanks Jesus, a week after the test, we received news that she did not have to go back to the hospital! Our little fighter. 

We are home and settling into a new routine as a family of 5. Libby is so loved by her brother and can't stop staring at them when she is awake. 

I will continue to update as we move forward and the adoption moves through the agency and court system. 

Love you all. Thank you so much for the prayers and support. We have felt it all. 

GUYS! 

We are officially approved! 

If you know anyone who is looking to place their baby, we are open and available.

Thanks for all your continued prayers. Now we wait for what comes next.

Love,

The DC Family  

Hey all!

Many of you know our family has been wanting to adopt long before we got married. Some of our first conversations as “just friends” were around our hearts to adopt a child and do missions work.

Well, the time has finally come. But first, let me explain the story of how we finally got here. After getting married in April of 2018, we began looking at different adoption avenues. We soon realized that you had to be married for at least 2 years before being able to adopt. This was a bump in our plan. We got pregnant that next April (2019), and had Oscar in January of 2020. We planned to start adopting in late 2020 but COVID started. This shutdown much of the government and existing programs.

We had wanted to move to the US for a few years. We saw an opening as jobs, relationship and connection in Canada were taking a hit. We moved in September of 2020 to Chandler, AZ. We moved completely blind, as we had never even visited Arizona before. It was overwhelming and lonely, and exciting and nerve-wracking. We found an amazing church that we feel in love with and attend to this day. Once we moved, we again began learning about adoption in this state. Addie is an American but Eric had to go through the process to become permanent resident. We again were unable to start the process until Eric became a permanent resident. This process ended up taking much longer than anticipated, leaving us unable to adopt.

Further, many local agencies had to close their doors to new adoptive parents due to the pandemic. Many agencies we contacted told us to try again at the end of 2022.

I found out I was pregnant in July of 2021. Kairos was born in March of 2022.

That leads us to the beginning of 2023. I felt the Lord again tugging on my heart to adopt. (Also, in Arizona, they want your youngest child to be at least a year old before adopting). So, when Kai turned 1, I reached out to a local agency and they had 2 open spots to begin the adoption journey. The adoption agency said they were only taking 8 families in 2023 and if we didn’t apply, we’d have to wait till mid 2024. We quickly applied and got accepted!

Since then, we have attended 8 weeks of adoption classes, completed mountains of paperwork, fingerprint cards, bank statements, medical information, hard conversations, amazing conversations and many home study visits. We have now completed the paperwork and visits portion of the process and wait for the court’s approval.

As you all know, adoption is not financially feasible for most people. At our wedding, we had an adoption fund and raised 3,680 dollars. This money has gone into the adoption process along with our own earned money. But we need help raising the rest of the money. We understand that this is not a simple financial season for most people and we never want to pressure anyone to give. In saying that, we appreciate any support you can offer, prayer, words of encouragement and or financial support.

We believe that the Lord is for adoption He (Psalm 68:5-6) brings a father to the fatherless. He cares about every single child, and we are honored to get to play a small role in bringing another little human into our family.

Love and Blessings,

The Dela Cruz Crew