Life is Fragile, Life is Precious

Life is Fragile, Life is Precious

 

Jon and I are beyond thrilled to announce we are pregnant with one beautiful, healthy baby!

We are due August 4th, 2017. 

 

I think that I am still in shock that this is happening.  Many of you have been with us since the beginning, when we found out we would not be able to have children of our own.  It devastated us.  Crushed us.  Caused us to go through a grieving process that at times did not seem to have an end.  It has been a long 6 years of us going on our journey to become parents. We tried for 1 year. Went to doctors, had multiple tests, and I even had a surgery.  And ultimately found out that Jon was not able to have children. We grieved for years.  Not sure what we wanted to do.  We pulled away from being involved in church, spending time with friends and family, and spent many nights in, away from the world. 

 

But, though we struggled, the tug to become parents did not release.  We wanted our chance. We needed to try.  Whatever form it took, we wanted to be parents.  We would talk a lot, but were not sure of our path yet.  It wasn't until June 2015, when we held our beautiful niece in our arms for the first time that we committed to deciding what we would pursue before the summer was over.  We decided to apply to the same adoption agency my sister and brother-in-law applied to.  As we were filling out the application there were two options to check-off, domestic adoption or embryo adoption.  This was the first time we had ever heard of embryo adoption. After researching, finding out that I could have a chance at being pregnant, while also going through the beautiful journey of adoption, we knew that was what we wanted.

 

It took 3-4 months to get our home study completed. We visited the National Embryo Donation Center in Tennessee last June.  Went through many miles of paperwork, phone calls and waiting. Coordinated and ran fundraisers. During this time, I had a 2^nd surgery that was minor to prepare for a transfer. Tried to choose a donor family to adopt from over 200 names. Ended up being contacted on Facebook by a beautiful family who we eventually felt dearly connected to and knew they were the family we would like to adopt from. Because they only had 3 embryos, NEDC wanted us to choose another donor family.  When we did, we were so excited for them and felt connected to them as well. Only to find out later that it would not work out with them. More tears. We ended up being matched with another wonderful family and were on our way to hopefully being told our transfer date. In order to do this, we needed to finalize our open adoption contracts and get them notarized. We were finally told our transfer date would be November 16^th!  I went on medication which included giving myself shots in my stomach for the first time. A week before transfer I started the lovely butt shots twice a day and have now since done 62 shots and will have to do about 48 more.  Whoo hoo!

On transfer day we were think we would transfer one possibly two embryos, but ended up transferring 3!  There is a grading system with embryos, 1 was high quality, 1 was ok quality and 1 was low quality. 

Then it was the WAITING PERIOD OF HORRIBLE WAITINGNESS!!!   They told me to wait until the blood test 2 weeks after transfer, but I couldn’t do it.  We actually took our first home test on my dad’s birthday, November 22^nd , and found out we were pregnant.  But home tests can be wrong, so it was still a wait till the blood tests. Then, we needed to do two blood tests 48 hours apart.  The levels needed to double in order to show that I was indeed pregnant. I went from 425 on Monday the 28^th  to 1,139 on Wednesday the 30^th!  I was definitely pregnant!

At that point we didn’t know how many, because there was a possibility with multiples with this type of procedure.  Our ultrasound was this week and we found out we are pregnant with one very healthy baby.  The baby is just the size it should be and we even got to see a heartbeat!!!

All that being said, I cannot begin to even first of all say thank-you for each and every one of you who have supported us to becoming parents.  You have cried with us, you have prayed with us, and you have cheered us on.

Going through all of this and now finding out that I am pregnant, makes me very humbled. Life is fragile, life is precious.  This life inside me is partially in my hands as I do my best to care for it through my health. But the Lord is completely in control.  Anything can happen, but I cling to the faith that has kept me anchored this entire time. I know that this child is strong. This child has already survived so much. This child is a miracle.  Is it possible to be scared out of your mind but at the same time be at peace?  May I just savor every moment, not sit upon the what ifs or maybes, but focus on the promises and the truths.

 

The Storms May Rage, But Hope Is Seen

The Storms May Rage, But Hope Is Seen

 

It has been a crazy month.  It has been full of promises, storms, new starts, patience, and a renewed hope. Starting a new school year is always stressful, but add into the mix our adoption process, and it brings it to a whole new level.  I liken it to working another full-time job.  I usually love that I am involved in many things and love helping others, but I am seeing this new season of life requires me to pull back and reevaluate what I should be a part of and take on.  This adoption process is like going through a pregnancy/labor, which also makes embryo adoption just as unique because I will also go through actual pregnancy/labor. I am trying to get better at saying no, and being OK with saying no.  My family and my mental sanity needs to come first. Our future children need to be our first priority and for this process that means take care of us. 

 

 

Over this summer we found a beautiful and unexpected match with a family we met through Facebook. We are very excited to come close to finishing our mediation/open contract with them.  They are a truly lovely family full of love and we feel blessed and humbled that they chose us to adopt their embryos/embabies.

 

We also had an unexpected bump in the road with the other family we were to be matched with through our organization NEDC.  Originally I told you that they accepted us to adopt their embryos, but through mediation, much prayer, and tears we found it would not be a match that would work.  It was very hard to face this because we felt drawn to them and felt that out of 200 names, they would be the other family we would work with.  It took a week or so to feel ready to choose another family. All the while, in the back of our minds, wondering if it would work out as well.  But this process requires faith and trusting in the unknowns. We have since asked to adopt from another family and they accepted to go into mediation with us.  Please continue to pray for us and the donor family and that we will know that this will be a good match for both of us.

 

 

I also did something last week that I have felt God calling me back to and I have not done in almost 10 years, speak/preach.  Last week I spoke in front of our woman's group at church on the aptly named  topic "There Will Be Storms".  I was very nervous, but knew this was the right time to speak about Jon and I's journey while encouraging other women through their storms in life.  I have since had so many women from my church come up to me, congratulate me, tell me they are praying for Jon and I,  and tell me how it impacted them.  I am encouraged that God can use us to reach others and pray that I will continue to do this everyday.

 

 

With all that being said, Jon and I will be taking a leap of faith and trying for our first transfer of embryos in November!  I also received all the medications in the mail today, so thus begins our journey and hoping that a pregnancy will result.  PLEASE keep us in your prayers as we venture into something so unknown. Pray that I will do well on the meds and also pray for Jon as my hormones may get wacky ha ha.   The one thing we know, God is with us through this!

 

 

My medications.

 

 

Thank-you for your continued love and support!  Your words and prayers have meant the world to us.  We still have funds to raise, and if you feel led, take a look at our GoFundme site below.  Much blessings to you and yours!

 

 

https://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt

Hope and Family

Hope and Family 

For 7 years this October, Jon and I have been a beautiful family of two. I could not have asked for a better husband, best friend, partner, and love of my life.  We have also been surrounded by family. When I say family, I mean not just our blood family, but also our friends who have been there. We've been through ups and downs in this long process of infertility, grieving, and now our embryo adoption. Jon and I have been pillars of strength for each other when the other lost hope, got frustrated, or needed a reminder of our dream.  We've had pillars of strength from our family and friends through a hug, prayers, a listening ear, encouragement and a good kick in the pants. You all who have been cheering us on each step of the way have taken our hand and are a part of the reason our family will continue to grow.

The last time we updated all of you we were in the midst of choosing from 200 donor/genetic families to 11 and then waiting to hear back from the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Tennessee. We did hear back from NEDC in an e-mail and we were told from the 11 that we sent, only 7 were still available. We decided to take some time to read over the extended profiles and pray about which families we would work with and the embryos that we would adopt from them. 

The same week we got this e-mail, something unexpected happened that can only be explained through God's guiding hand.  I (Andrea) am a part of an embryo adoption support group on Facebook. On there, people who are going through the process share their experiences, highs, lows, ask questions and encourage each other. One day, I got a private message from a woman who was also a part of this group. She asked if we had chosen our embryos yet and that her and her husband were looking for a family to donate/adopt their embryos to. She said she was drawn to us because we live in Minnesota, where her embryos are, and also Jon has characteristics similar to her husband.  I was taken aback because this is something that had never happened before.  Over the next week we took the time to message many questions getting to know each other.  Through these questions and conversations we came to see that our hopes, dreams, and goals in this process matched!  We decided to see what it would take to try to do the process here in Minnesota instead of through NEDC.  Through many phone calls to fertility clinics, the place where the embryos are frozen, family attorneys, we found the costs were adding up and that the process would be more complicated than we anticipated.  In order to get everything done, it would be another 3-6 months. 

Jon and I have come to know that this is the way infertility and adoption works.  You have a mountain high moment of hope and excitement and then another hurdle to jump through in order to get there. The amazing part of this process is that through this new found relationship with the woman who contacted us, they understood and could emphasize with our process. I told her I wanted to try to talk to a few more people to see if I could find a better way.  I contacted NEDC and told them what had happened and asked how it would be different if the family donated their embryos to us through them.  I came to find out that NEDC does not charge the donor family at all.  They would have the embryos shipped to NEDC in TN.  Then I asked her about the timeline and how long we would have to wait.  She said if everyone is getting what they need to done, then it should take only 4 to 6 weeks! She said she will try to put a rush on everything so that Jon and I can even have a chance to make it for their November transfers! That being said, I spoke with the donor/adoptive family about this and they agreed that this is what they would like to go through as well!! So we are matched!!

The funny part is that the embryos are in Minnesota, but they will be shipped to TN because it turned out to be the easiest, most affordable, and most reliable route. Another thing to note is that NEDC likes their adoptive couples to adopt at least 5 to 6 embryos to ensure the best chance of pregnancy.  The family we are working with now has 3 embryos, so because of this we are choosing another family to adopt from that has 3 embryos as well. This does not mean that all will be transferred at once.  There are so many unknowns in this process and choices that have to be made because of those unknowns.  Some of the factors to consider are the quality of embryos, what happens when the embryos unthaw, and if we do not achieve pregnancy on the first attempt. If you have further questions about how this whole process works, I would love to chat with you as it is a fairly new process to many.

That being said, WE ARE SO EXCITED to be matched!  We still need your many prayers in this because we cannot control how this will turn out, but we can have faith that God has brought us to this and that God will provide us with a beautiful baby(babies) in His timing and His will. Please also pray for our donor families and the open relationship we will have with them.

There are still costs attached to this process and Jon and I are trying to brainstorm another fundraiser that we could do.  We've talked about a possible garage sale or another silent auction if there was enough of an interest.  If anyone has suggestions for possible ways for us to raise money, feel free to contact us.  As always we have our Go Fund me site for donations. God bless and have a wonderful day!


GoFund Me page:  https://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt

Preparation

Preparation

It's been 8 days since Jon and I's appointment at the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) in Tennessee. I would have updated sooner but after the appointment there was a lot that Jon and I had to process through and decide upon.  I am going to give you a summary of what happened that day to document our journey, but also share in the life that is embryo adoption.  

We arrived at the clinic at about 8:45am. I had to have a full bladder for my appointment, but thankfully years of training as a teacher has prepared me for this ha ha. It looked like a typical doctors office waiting room.  We filled out a little paperwork and waited to be called back.  The IVF nurse we've been emailing back and forth called us back, checked us in, and we waited again to see the Dr.Keenan who does all the embryo transfers.  He met us in his office with another doctor he was training.  He asked us about our medical history, what brought us to this point, our goals in this etc....Now granted while this conversation is going on I STILL have a full bladder, but again that teacher training really helps.  

I then finally had my examination with the lovely sperm mobile you see here hovering over me! At least they have an awesome sense of humor.  All I could think about is that my mother would make that ha ha. The fun and embarrassing part of the appointment is that I had to empty my bladder after one of the examinations to get another test/examination done.  This required wrapping that completely stupid, easily ripped, paper that we have to place over ourselves during examinations.  Am I right ladies!?!  I have a booty too, so "wrapping" this around myself is not happening without exposing the "Moon over Miami".  Oh, and no, the bathroom was not right next to my examination room. It was all the way down the hall right by the entrance where all the other patients come through. The nurse said she would be there to let me know when it was clear to walk back to the room, well....when I open the bathroom door to go back, who was not at her post??  Say hello to another patient's husband, and sir, say hello to me desperately trying to make sure all is covered while ripping the paper even more.... Ah well, adds to the awesomeness that is this journey and story ha ha!!

After the examinations, they brought us to another room with some chairs.  There we talked to Dr.Keenan and the doctor training with him.  He told us everything looked great and that we were medically cleared for an embryo implantation!  

Then, we met with Kathi, the Patient Coordinator, and Carol, the Embryologist. Kathi will be the one who will find genetic families for us to be matched with.  She will look at our profile, hobbies, education etc... and find matches and send them to us.  Carol will be the one who unthaws the embryos on the day of our implantation. We discussed with her how many we would be attempting to implant and how the process works.  We also are working with a woman in Michigan, Debra, who is reviewing our home study, and verifying our education on the process. NEDC works with her to complete the home study and contract side of things.  She will also be the one that is our mediator between the genetic family and us to help us on completing our open adoption contract (deciding how much communication we will have or contact we will have). Kathi will be in communication with Debra to know when she will start matching us with genetic families.

Next, we met with Juliana to talk about the financial side of things. Whoo hoo!  

Lastly, we met with Lynda, the IVF nurse we met at the beginning.  She gave us another folder of paperwork explaining the medications I will be on to prepare for implantation of the embryos.  Pills and two different kinds of injections.  I have to have a detailed calendar just to understand it all.  She also showed us around the area where we will be on the day of the implantation. 

Overall, the appointment took 3.5 hours and was a lot to digest.  We needed to decide if September is when we want to try to implant our embryos. We needed to decide how many embryos we are willing to have implanted.  Now because Jon and I want an open adoption, we also want the embryo to have both parents genetically related to the embryo, not egg donation or sperm donation.  We want our child to be able to know their genetic parents and siblings without having to deal with the anonymous side of things.  It was a big reason we decided to go this route.  Because of that choice, those families typically have less embryos (only 3-5).  Carol told us then we need to decide if we are ok with being matched with a backup genetic family and also are we ok with the possibility that two separate genetic families could be implanted at a time. In that case we would also need to have a genetic test done after the child is born to determine whose child they are. 

We have decided that we are going go for a September implantation no matter what.   This means having faith that we can raise at least up to $4,000-$5,000 by then.  We also decided that we would have up to 3 embryos implanted at the most. Finally, we decided to agree to being matched with a genetic family and a backup genetic family to ensure a better chance of pregnancy.  

Right now I am starting on prenatal vitamins, setting up our phone call with Debra, and starting to actually plan what I would like to do in the nursery.  I never wanted to plan out the nursery, because everything was so unknown, and so many hurdles to jump over.  But now, as we draw nearer to our beautiful baby(ies), I see myself having a desire to plan for these things that bring hope.  I am excited to soon be using the baby items we have.  To believe that all of this will one day be our reality is amazing!

Please continue to join us in prayer and support as we continue on this journey.  Encouraging words, loving friends and family, and financial gifts have all been a blessing to us!  I am sitting on my porch as the summer breeze blows through and thinking about how many people have a hand in helping us build our family.  It shows that family is bigger than just us, but those whose love has been shown to us. We will continue to keep you updated as new things arise.  Right now I, Andrea, am hosting a KEEP collective jewelry party online and on facebook in which 10% of the profits will go towards our adoption.  We as always, have a GoFundme page as well.  Every bit helps bring us closer to our goal of a September implantation! Blessings!

KEEP Collective online party website:  https://www.keepcollective.com/with/jenniferfinnesgard

GoFund Me page:  https://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt 

Nearing the Hope Dreamed For

There are so many mixes of emotions that Jon and I have been feeling lately.  We feel excitement for coming closer to our hope dreamed for of having a child. Andrea's amazing sister Hillary and her husband Eric have been beyond supportive by gifting us our first "baby gear". Passing by the car seat and bassinet everyday makes it more real. Yet, we still get hit with feelings of sadness when we see a family living life together. The other day we just held each other and cried saying "I want to be a mom" and "I want to be a dad".  This process has stretched us in faith and hope beyond anything we have gone through before.

Anyone who has gone through the infertility process and through the adoption process will be able to tell you that you are balancing on an edge of excitement, hope, patience, fear, sadness, anger, apathy, and not wanting to get "too" excited because there are so many unknowns.

But we have hope.  We believe.  We know this will happen.  So, we press forward to our dreams. We have now completed all our home study meetings and now are waiting for it to be approved soon.  We have also been working closely with the National Embryo Donation Center(NEDC) in Knoxville, TN to set-up our first initial appointment. We will meet with them June 20th.  This meeting is to see how Andrea's body responds to the medications required for implantation of the embryos and also to meet all those we will be working with in this process.  They also will do a "mock transfer" to ensure the process will go as planned.

NEDC only does transfers of embryos every other month, so our hope is to do our actual transfer in September, but if that does not work out, we will try for November.  In between our home study being approved and our hope of a Fall implantation, we will be working with NEDC to be matched with a genetic family to adopt embryos from.  Our hope is to have an open adoption and to create a relationship with them, so that our child(ren) can know their genetic family.

Now onto our next big step of faith, needing help from our friends and family.  In order to do a fall transfer, we will need to raise all the funds needed.  If we do not raise the funds needed this summer, we will not be able to have a transfer until we do. There are many costs associated with this process, and Jon and I are unable to do it on our own.  We do have faith that it can happen. Here is a summarized review of costs we are looking at.

Has Been Covered Through Donations and Out of Pocket
$4000 home study fees, initial fees to NEDC, medical

Yet to be Covered

By June 20th - $3690
medical, travel

By September - $6750
home study review by NEDC, medical procedures, paperwork/admin fees, open adoption mediation, travel

How Can You Help?

 

We are looking into many options for fundraising this summer, the first one we want to do is an online silent auction.  We have had many talented friends and family approach us and say they would create and donate items for us to sell.  The one thing we knew is that we have many friends and family across the country and living internationally that we would like to give the opportunity to get involved. So, we thought an online silent auction was a great answer for this.  We would like to have items and services on the silent auction (or anything else that creative people can think of for this).  We are now putting feelers out there to see if anyone is willing to donate to our silent auction. If you are donating items we will put up pictures of the items with a description and ask that you would cover the shipping cost to the person who "wins" the item.  If a service, (photo sessions, handyman services, etc...) we will ask that the people auctioning on this would live in the area you are able to come to do such services and that you would contact the person who "wins" to set-up the service.

Once we feel we have enough items/services to make a silent auction, we will then set a date/time range in which to start and stop the silent auction.  We will also ask that if you have friends or family members that would like to get involved as well, share this with them too!  The more the merrier!

 If you are interested in donating to the online silent auction, please e-mail Andrea at ajmorse1017@gmail.com instead of commenting on the blog or on a link to this blog.  
 

As always, if you would prefer to donate to our GoFundme site you can follow the link here:

https://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt

Thank-you so much for following us in this journey and we look forward to seeing our dreams of becoming a family become a reality.

New Starts and Changes

It has been a while since we have updated everyone on where we are in our embryo adoption process.  We have had some great starts and tough road blocks, but we are excited for what opportunities await us.

On Monday, February 15th we officially started our first home study meeting with New Life Family Services.  We are excited to be able to finally start this process that will bring us closer to building our family.  Our first meeting was together.  The next two meetings will be individual meetings with our social worker, and the final one will be in our home.

Originally we were seeking to work with an organization called Snowflake to match us with a genetic family for our embryos.  We started seeing a fertility doctor to help us prepare for embryo implantation. She told us she saw it very unlikely that they would work with Snowflake since they were not familiar with them and did not see them as being accredited.  They said if we wanted to work with Snowflake they would have to bring it to their medical board. 

Seeing that we had hit a snag in our plans, she did give us two other embryo donation/adoption centers to look into.  One in Florida and one in Tennessee. The one in Florida seemed more focused on donation and made it very difficult for us to obtain the open adoption we wanted to have with the genetic families, so that was another closed door. As we looked into the one in Tennessee, the National Embryo Donation Center(NEDC), it seemed to more closely align with our goals of having an open relationship with the genetic family. It also had the same focus on values that Jon and I wanted. We finally saw another light of hope!

After praying and long talks, we decided this was the place we wanted to work with to match us with the genetic family and our embryos.  We filled out the application and sent in the application fee. (Which was completely covered by the generous donations of our friends on our Go Fund Me site! Another praise Jesus moment!)

After a few days of  finishing the application to NEDC, we received a packet of more paperwork to fill-out for them (oh adoption and it's miles of paperwork).  The biggest thing we need to get done in order to start our matching process with NEDC, is the completion of our home study.  Once we complete the home study the matching process with NEDC will begin.  We do have the option to visit NEDC in Knoxville, TN for our initial consultation before completing the home study. We are still learning about NEDC, how they differ from Snowflake, and what they will require from us in this process.  As we find out more information, we hope to continue to keep everyone updated. 

Andrea has made significant changes in improving her nutrition and physical health. Through the support of a dear friend, Jillian, whom she met through a woman's bible study at church, she has been able to find encouragement and support in these changes. She also joined Crossfit Holdfast in Owatonna at the beginning of January. Everyone at Crossfit has also been so supportive and it has been wonderful to have a team to cheer her on, even though the workouts can be very difficult to do at times.  Through Crossfit, she has learned to push through the mental emotions that so often stop us from believing that we can do more than we know or imagine. 

Jon is also starting on an exciting opportunity of a new job on February 22nd in the same field through U.S. Bank. 

Please continue to pray for us as we work towards our goals of embryo adoption, pregnancy, and becoming parents.  We are so thankful for the outpouring of support from family and friends as we walk through each step of this journey.  We love having people we haven't seen in a while give us such warm encouragement and tell us that they are praying for us. We also ask that you consider and pray about supporting us financially on our GoFund me site.  Much love to you all and we will continue you to update you when we can!

http://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt

-Jon and Andrea

Paperwork is Done!!!!

Whoo hoo!  Our paperwork is complete and we mailed it today!  I (Andrea) thought it was fitting that I used my "Brave" pen to write the address on the envelope.  It felt like I was giving the woman at the post-office counter a piece of our hearts.  I almost felt like telling her to be careful with it, it contains trust, hope, and pain.  It was hard to let it go, not knowing what would happen or wondering if it would make it there.  This paperwork process was tough and long.  They ask you many personal questions that require you to be vulnerable. We needed to be brave in order to press in and remember what our end goal is, to build our family. Since we are doing the embryo adoption track, our paperwork is triple the work. 

First, we needed to finish the paperwork for our home study.  This included information for the agency, the state, and a 7 page autobiography from both Jon and I.  This was the paperwork that we sent in today.  

Second, we needed to complete "paperwork" for the application to the place that conducts the embryo adoptions, Snowflake.  Since they are based out of Colorado and California, we will do most of our interaction with them online or over the phone. We have completed this application, but we are waiting to send because we need to save enough money for the application fee.

Lastly, our final "paperwork"  was with our fertility clinic.  We will actually have our first appointment with them tomorrow, November 3rd! 

Even though this process was long, and at times we did not want to even look at another piece of paper, it was full of hope.  Each letter, every word, brought us one step closer to building our family.

Jon and I continue to be surrounded by truly wonderful family and friends who cheer us on as we complete each step of this process.  We are also changing our vocabulary from "if" to "when".  When you want something to happen in your life, changing your "if" to "when" is vital.  Instead of "If we have a child" to "When we have a child" brings us closer to HOPE.  There are no guarantees, and there is uncertainty abounding, but your mindset can change your course in life.  

Our next steps in the process is to WAIT and READ and PREPARE.  

WAIT. Once New Life Family Services approves our home study application, the process will take 3-5 months to complete.  We will meet with them about 5 times.  Four times at their office and once in our home. 

WAIT.Once Snowflake gets our application fee, we will wait to get more information on the next steps with them.  We will at some point need to create an online portfolio that genetic families will look at to choose us as a recipient of their embryos. (Little more to it than that, so let us know if you want a more detailed explanation.)  We cannot afford much as far as Jon and I getting current professional pictures done, so if anyone would like to suggest an affordable photographer or would like to gift some of their services to us, that would be a huge blessing.

READ. We will also need to educate ourselves in this process of embryo adoption.  We need to understand how this decision impacts our future children and how we will approach communicating with them about this whole process.  The New Life and Snowflake are amazing at telling you the information you will need to get in order to be ready.  We have books and articles to read, online seminars to watch, and we will need to do one face-to-face seminar.

PREPARE.  As we get more information, we look forward to preparing our home and our hearts for our future children. 

As our first post said, we will continue to need encouragement and love from our family and friends.  Prayers are MORE than welcome as the emotions with adoption are so VERY real.  A hug, a smile, a word, all mean so much to us.  We have felt it from the beginning and will continue to need it as we take these next steps. 

Also Jon and I have many fees coming up with application fees, medical expenses, and home study fees.  If you are able to, please consider donating money to our Go Fund me site.  Anything you are able to donate is a blessing! 

http://www.gofundme.com/jonandrea2adopt

Thank-you to all of you for your love and support and we will keep you updated as new things begin.  God bless!