“God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And He did this because He wanted to!” - Ephesians 1:4-5
Hello everyone, we are Leigh and Bobby, and we appreciate you taking the time to read our story! We are excited, thrilled, and overjoyed to have officially started the adoption process! God has been quietly preparing our hearts for years: not only do we want children of our own, but we want to help orphans, whom the Lord deeply loves. We were once orphans, without a heavenly Father. We praise the Lord that He has adopted us into His family and we want to follow His example!
As we sought the Lord on His will for our family, we undoubtedly felt His calling this summer to finally take a giant leap of faith: to start our family through the beautiful, life-giving gift of adoption (James 1:27). Specifically, domestic infant adoption (and possibly twins or an infant with an older sibling). And while that sounds overwhelming and scary sometimes, it is also exciting and would be such an incredible blessing!
We have spent countless hours praying, researching, consulting others, and praying some more. God is so faithful, and we know that He has already hand-picked the child(ren) He has for us. And we are so excited to find out who they are! The outpouring of love, excitement, support, and encouragement we have received so far from family and friends has been amazing. We are so incredibly grateful!
For those not familiar with our story, we didn't find each other until our mid to late 30’s. We’ve been married for over a decade and have dealt with infertility the whole time (Thus, we don’t have any children. Just adorable fur babies!). We know that God gave us the desire to be parents, even though Stage IV Endometriosis and other fertility issues caused some roadblocks along the way. We have always believed that at least one infant would be a part of our story, whether biological or not.
Embarking on this adoption journey is a long, difficult, and expensive one. But so worth it! We are financing our adoption through our savings and the support of our family and friends. We are cutting costs, planning a garage sale, and looking for other ways to raise funds. So, we are here to humbly ask you – our family, friends, and even strangers – to partner with us and help us bring our child(ren) home, through any amount you feel led to gift to us. And it is SUCH a gift! We would be incredibly grateful for any contribution you make.
Our adoption consultant agency advised us to begin fundraising as soon as possible and provide a breakdown of the costs. She also advised us – as they do all their clients - not to drain our savings to pay for the entire adoption because “You will still need money to pay for the cost of having/raising children and living expenses.” That made sense and we want to be fully transparent with you in this process.
Our adoption consulting agency estimates that $60,000 is needed to complete our adoption. This estimate is solely for adoption costs and does not include things like furnishings, baby gear, clothes, toys, etc., that we will need to buy. Although our adoption consultant strongly advised us to fundraise the entire $60,000, we feel led to only fundraise $45,000: We are committed to investing money ourselves, to bring our child home, so we have contributed $15,000 towards our adoption fund.
The $60,000 covers:
• The biggest expenses are for the birth parents - things like:
• Attorney, court, and legal costs
• Our Home Study, Post placement visits and adoption finalization by the court
• Adoption Agency Costs
• Our travel expenses (approx. on average 12-16 days of travel, hotel/rental, flights, car rental, gas, food, incidentals).
• Numerous Adoption Consulting Agency fees
• Professional pictures and our profile book
The adoption costs could be more than $60,000 if we end up having more than 1 child or we have to stay out of state for an extended time once the baby is born, due to the ICPC*. (This can sometimes take up to a month or more.).
Once we have completed the (mountains of) paperwork, get our profile book complete, and are eligible to start looking at potential matches, the average wait time for receiving our child is 4 to 10 months. This is going to be a big adventure!
But we’re so ready! God is so good and so faithful. We know that He has chosen our child specifically for our family. How exciting! We continue to pray for His guidance and clarity for every step of this journey, and we can’t wait to meet our child (or possibly “children”!).
Our hope in inviting you to join us in this process is that you will feel like a valued member of the community we wish to build around our child/children. We are thrilled and so grateful to have you all along for the ride! Whether you choose to contribute towards our adoption goals or pray diligently for our journey - or both - please know that we appreciate you more than words can say!
We will do our best to keep you updated on our progress and our journey, both here and on our Adoption Group page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/12LQetahuNb/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Which reminds us: Would you please help us spread the word on your personal social media platforms, by sharing the link to this page? The more exposure we get, the better we can meet our adoption fundraising goals!
Thank you so very much for helping us to bring our child/children home and to grow our family!
With Deep Love and Gratitude,
Leigh and Bobby
PS Would you please join us in prayer for the following?
1. The health of our child(ren)…from birth throughout their whole life.
2. Our birth parents. Adoption has both brokenness and beauty. Their sacrifice will likely be an immeasurable loss for them; yet an immeasurable gift to us. Our best day will likely be their worst day.
3. The relationship with our birth parents: Whether to do an open versus semi-open adoption, how we can serve and minister to our birth parents, and that we would have a special, close & healthy relationship with them.
4. That the Lord prepares and equips us to be the parents He wants us to be.
5. That we would know EXACTLY which child/children the Lord wants us to welcome into our family! And that we would immediately feel (and have) a special bond.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
#TeamSidell
#OurAdoptionStory
#AdoptionRocks
#HopingToAdopt
#ItTakesAVillage
#AdoptiveParents
#WaitingToAdopt
#DomesticAdoption
#EveryHeartNeedsAHome
#AdoptionIsLove
#ForeverFamily
#AdoptionFundraising
*https://www.adopthelp.com/a-guide-to-the-interstate-compact-for-the-placement-of-children-icpc/
