When the Answer Seems to Be "No"

It has been exactly one year since we posted an adoption update, and unfortunately that is because there is simply nothing to report. May will mark 2 years of being on the waiting families' list. We have been in contact with our agency during this time, and we learned in the Fall that our profile was being passed over in large part due to concerns over us being a military family. So, we updated our profile book to help assuage some concerns expressed by birthmothers about the possibility of instability due to military moves every few years. But we never got a phone call about a placement. That, combined with learning that our agency has had an unusually low placement rate the past couple of years has led us to reconsider our adoption plan.

I LOVE our agency. I think they care so well for birthmothers and work hard to encourage adoptive families in the waiting. But they are having less birthmothers choose adoption in general and less who are choosing our type of profile. We know that if we stay with our current agency, we are likely facing several more years, not months, of waiting. 

So, please pray with us as we decide what to do in the near future. We have been feeling pulled toward international adoption, but we don't want to make a move without prayerful consideration. I am also praying that the Lord will use us in this to minister to other weary and waiting families! 

So many of you have walked this road with us and have been so gracious to us that I wanted to let you know that we are still in the adoption process and we are still eagerly awaiting the little one the Lord has chosen for our family. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

--Jessica

When the Waiting is Long

What do you do when the waiting is long, and there is no end in sight? The reality for adoptive parents is that no matter how short or long the waiting actually is, it all feels like too long. But that's not the kind of waiting I mean. I am talking about when things really do take a long time.

It can be easy to feel discouraged when plenty of adoption stories sound something like, "we finished our paperwork, and a week (or month) later we had a child! All in God's timing!" I've read 2 stories like that just today. Most of the time, people are just expressing gratitude to God and that is a beautiful thing! Sometimes, though, we can mistake God's delay or quickness to give a good gift as somehow dependent on how well we behave. How well we've trusted. Prayed. Believed.

God's timing may also be, like it has been for us, to remain in the adoption process for YEARS, not months. Or to wait on that relationship to be restored for half a lifetime. Or to be single a little longer when you desire to be married.

Can I just encourage us all to dig into Scripture that speaks of God's goodness? Perhaps Psalm 16? Or Psalm 118? Hold tight to our good God, for he hasn't abandoned us.

God is Faithful

Remember our adoption puzzle fundraiser? Here's the finished puzzle! 

Today, Chris received a job transfer to Indiana that will allow us to begin the work of church planting with our friends, the Garrisons. This is a move we have been praying for and working towards for months. Even though we're in packing mode for our move to Indiana, I think we'll leave the puzzle out for a while as a reminder of God's faithfulness and kindness. He provided through so many of you for our adoption costs. Each puzzle piece has the name of a donor on the back (which I won't show for the sake of privacy). Each piece represents a specific act of kindness from friends, family, and sometimes, complete strangers.

We are still waiting for our little one. It is not easy to face the potential of leaving North Carolina without a placement. But God has answered so many of our prayers this week. The burden of prolonged waiting in multiple areas of our lives was lifted a bit, which is a kindness we don't deserve. I am encouraged that this same God is Lord over our family. After all, "unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor build in vain." I am excited to see what God is building! 

So, we wait with hope.

The Easy Way

I was gifted a book of poems by a dear co-worker who also adopted young ones. I think the poem below expresses perfectly the emotions surrounding conversations about adoption. I also believe it's a good reminder to be kind (and more sensitive) to one another; what you and I may perceive as the easier way -- whether that's in growing a family, marriage, or some other issue altogether -- may be the most difficult moments of a person's life.

The Easy Way

The easy way to have a child,

The gossips would agree, 

Is just to place an order

And avoid the pregnancy

Why bother with the nine months wait, 

The gain, the girth, the pain?

Why try so hard just to conceive?

It's really quite inane

When all those homeless babies

Wait behind the agency doors.

Why overpopulate the earth 

When those kids could be yours?

The easy way to have a child

Is just to order one,

And drive right over and pick one out -

Either kind - daughter or son!

Besides, they say, God's plan must be

Both wise and circumspect,

That you will raise the children

That the rest of us reject

The easy way - no muss, no fuss,

No worry before the birth.

The easy way - no recovery time,

You can hurry back to work!

The easy way? Ah, mavens!

Perhaps you didn't know

The wait has stretched to years, not months,

Adoption is so slow. 

And twenty-five eager couples wait

For every babe who's placed.

There are rules and regulations,

Investigations to be faced.

And if we pass inspection - 

Are approved for a daughter or son - 

We face a years long "pregnancy"

And supervision 'fore it's legally done.

And then we face the gossips agains.

Their questions and comments hit home.

Do you know his real mother and father?

How sad there's not one of your own!

Or, How could anyone ever give up

Their very own flesh and blood?

Poor baby, he'll miss real mother love. 

How kind of you people, how good!

Then it's How could you ever do that - 

Take such a child to your breast?

The child won't know where his place is!

He'd be better off somewhere else.

Adoption avoids the labor, 

But there's pain of a different kind. 

There's just as much worry beforehand,

No less apprehensive a mind.

But, then, children don't ever come simply.

There are trials in every way

To gain the treasure of love in a family.

There isn't an easy way.

-- Pat Johnson, Perspectives on a Grafted Tree

Summer Fun

This summer has been packed full of trips and getting ready here at home for little one, as well as preparing for our move to Indianapolis (Hi Garrisons! We miss you!). The pictures that follow are a visual update about what we have had going on. We continue to be thankful for your support and prayers; your encouragement keeps us clinging to our good Father's plan. For me, spending time with so many friends and family that we haven't seen in a while has been so restful and needed after a tiring journey with adoption and fertility.

While this isn't technically an adoption update, I thought I'd show what we've done this summer while we wait.

We celebrated 5 years of marriage on June 5th this year! While those 5 years have not all been easy, Chris has always been a kind gift from the Lord to me. We were in Florida spending time with family during that week, and we were able to spend the day together at Universal on our actual anniversary.

Finn had a blast with his "cousin" (my sis-in-law Katie's dog, Belle) during his week in Florida.

Finn turned 2. Yes, we are those dog owners.

We've enjoyed spending lots of time with our Small Group this summer. They are a constant source of encouragement and growth in Christ. We could not do this without you, SG! This is my favorite SG picture from this summer :)

This has been a summer of weddings! It was a joy to be able to see our friend since college, Nathan, and his bride Jenny get hitched. Congratulations, you two!

At Nathan's wedding, we were able to finally meet the son of our good friends, the Wyllys. We were thankful to get a little extra time with them and their 2 kiddos at the Georgia Aquarium. We hope to see you again soon!

My best friend since high school, Molly, also got married this summer! I am beyond grateful that I was able to be a part of her wedding and spend a couple of weeks with her preparing for the festivities. I have been praying with my friend for years for a godly husband, and it is good to be reminded that God answers prayers.

After Molly's wedding, I got to see my brother and sis-in-law, Danielle for a week. It has been over a year since Chris and I have seen them and I have missed them terribly. Love you both.

Thank you, Lord, for your good gifts. 

Thank YOU

While we don't have any updates about the arrival of baby Anest, we do have a very important update to share with you: our adoption is FULLY funded! This is a huge praise! Because we're now on the waiting list, it takes a great deal of stress away knowing that we will be able to say "YES!" whenever we receive that very important phone call.

I know several of you have asked us about a timeline. I wish so much that I could give you one! Our domestic adoption may be a little different from what you probably think of with adoptions, though. For many international adoptions, families are given a waitlist number. That is not the case for us. At our agency, a birthmother has the option to choose the family. To me, this is a beautiful thing! I see this as one of the ways our agency cares for the birthmother; it offers a little bit of closure knowing that she was able to make a decision about the life her child will have.

I wanted to take a minute to express our deepest gratitude to you all for the way you have shown us generosity over and over again in our endeavor to bring our little one home. We were moved to tears many times just seeing the way that God provided through your gifts to us.

We still want to see you wearing your t-shirt. If you bought one from us, please send us a pic! 

Homestudy Celebration Day

This is the look of two people who are on the waiting list! 

We signed our home study document, paid the waiting list fee, and now we just wait. 

We celebrated with a coffee date (our favorite). 

Continue to pray for us as this we expect this to be the hardest part. Our adoption agency gave us a cautious timeline and told us to expect a 12 month wait. However, we know that it could be quite a short time before we get "the call," so we are preparing a nursery and getting things ready now. My mother-in-law is actually helping us paint a dresser for the nursery as I type this (thank you, Deanna!).

We are closer to being fully funded, and praise the Lord for that. If you would like to support us and help us raise the last of the adoption funds needed, please click the link on the right side of this page. We also have just FOUR t-shirts left: 1 medium, 1 large, and 2 XLs. Let us know if you would like one, and we'll gladly get that to you! 

We're waiting on you, little one. 

--Chris and Jessica

What is a Homestudy?

What does a homestudy look (and feel) like? So many of you have asked that question, and now that we have finished the meetings for ours, I thought I would share my experience. Hopefully, will help you understand our experience and also alleviate some fears for those of you who are about to go through one.

First of all, we completed what felt like a mountain of paperwork to prepare for our homestudy. The social worker reads this and asks questions based on what is in your file. In order for our homestudy to be valid in North Carolina, we had to have at least three visits with our social worker that were at least one week apart, and one of those visits had to be in our home. The purpose of these is to establish that the home is a safe environment -- physically, emotionally, and physically -- for a child and to gather more information for the report.

I have to say that I feel very blessed. I imagined that it would be a terrifying experience, but our social worker was just amazing. She made us feel comfortable to share and encouraged us with Scripture often during our meetings. This is one of the wonderful things about our agency! I felt from the start that I was free to share my feelings about God leading us toward adoption and how our faith impacts our lives.

Each meeting was different.

Meeting 1 - we met at the agency and discussed our marriage and a little bit of general information about ourselves
Meeting 2 - we met in our home and our social worker looked around to make sure that we had smoke detectors and fire extinguishers; we also talked about our intended parenting style and how we plan to discipline
Meeting 3 - we met individually with our social worker and talked about our upbringing, our extended family, and how we each felt about our marriage

Some of the questions sounded like this: "Why do you want to adopt?" "How do you handle conflict in your marriage?" "How would you want your child to describe you?" "Is your family supportive of your adoption?" "Describe your husband." "Tell me about your journey with infertility."

How does a homestudy feel for the adoptive parents? Although I feel that we had a great experience, it still felt a bit awkward. It is difficult to not have the (however fleeting) thought that it is not fair for every part of my life to be examined so thoroughly. Even though we had a wonderful social worker, I am still an introvert and sharing my deepest thoughts about some difficult issues on command with a stranger is very difficult.

What is funny is that I was so stressed about the visit to our home, and it wound up being completely fine. My friends and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned the weekend before, and the social worker was so relaxed about it and just looked around for about 5 minutes and then moved on to talking with us about the topic for that visit.

BUT the whole experience was so valuable and worth it. I always felt encouraged by the things that Chris and I got to share about one another. It reaffirmed to me how great of a father he is going to be! And, we are one huge step closer to bringing our little one home. At the end of it all, there is nothing I wouldn't do for our child, and that includes the homestudy.

What is our next step? We wait. We wait for the social worker to send us the completed homestudy document. We will sign that document and have it filed with the state. We then pay to be placed on the waiting list at our agency. And then we wait again for THE phone call! We don't have any idea how long that could take, but we appreciate your prayers as we do a whole lot of waiting in the next few months.

Thanks for sticking with me through this quite long narrative. I hope that if you are going through the adoption process, it has encouraged you that it is not as scary as it may seem.

 

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." {James 1:17}

 

Adoption T-Shirts!

Hey everyone!

First, a brief update: we are starting our homestudy this week! Please keep us in your prayers. We probably won't post another update until we have completed this part of the adoption process.

We are also getting closer to having all of the funds necessary to complete the adoption! Praise the Lord. We have decided to sell adoption t-shirts to help with the remainder of the funds needed. You can see the design below. The verse is one of our favorites: John 14:18, which says, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." We hope you like it!

Here are the details:
- The price of the t-shirts is $20.
- Sizes are adult Small - XL. XXL and XXXL are also available, but will be $5 extra (the company is charging us extra for those 2 sizes).
- You can give us cash or a check. If you do choose to give us a check, please make it out to Chris or Jessica Anest.
- We can ship your shirt to you! If you live outside the Raleigh area, please just let us know and we'll gladly send it to you.
- We will be taking orders until February 24. All the shirts will be ordered at that time, and you should receive your shirts shortly afterward (delivery time will depend on if we ship it to you).

HOW DO YOU ORDER?
You can comment here, on Facebook, or by contacting us directly (face-to-face or texts are fine!). We need to know how many t-shirts you would like, the sizes, and how you would like to pay us.

We love you all! We couldn't do this adoption without you.
Chris & Jessica

Quick Update

For the sake of brevity, I'm offering just a few updates in the form of what we're celebrating (praises) and what we're asking the Lord to do.

Praises:
- We turned in the last bit of pre-homestudy paperwork yesterday! Now on to the homestudy!
- We are nearing our fundraising goal. In fact, we are just under $4,000 needed.
- We should be starting the homestudy this month!

Prayer Requests:
- There is a lot to do in preparation for the social worker actually visiting our home. We have to re-submit a background check, get our home in order, and prepare to move, all in the midst of Chris's last semester of seminary.
- Lord willing, we will be moving off campus sometime this semester. We are working with our agency to figure out how to best proceed with the homestudy while we're not yet in our new place.
- Pray that the Lord will provide the rest of the money we need, whether that is through fundraisers or through adoption grants.
- Pray that God will give us perseverance to finish well.



Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We are hopeful that this time next year, we'll have one more member of the family to include in all the Christmas celebrations. The Advent season is a perfect time for us to contemplate how we should wait, and who should be our ultimate joy. We celebrate Christ's long awaited first coming, and we long for the day when he will return again. Through the ups and downs of infertility, adoption, and whatever else may come our way, He alone is our peace (Micah 5:5).

As some of you may have seen on Facebook, we are getting closer to our fundraising goal. We are about $6900 away from being fully funded. If you would like to join with us in this journey to bring Baby Anest home, please click HERE!

With love,
Chris and Jessica

Is Adoption for Me?

"I'm happy that you're adopting, but it's just not for me."

Have you ever had that thought? I did. I have also heard that sentiment in various forms since starting the adoption process with Chris. I want to challenge that thought for a moment, though.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, adoption is for you. No, not everyone should adopt a child into their family. But beyond your responsibility to care for the orphans and widows (the command given in James 1:27), your very identity is wrapped up in adoption.

YOU are adopted, and God calls you his child (1 John 3:1)

YOU are adopted, and God gives you a full inheritance in Christ (1 Peter 1:3-4)

YOU are adopted, not because you were good enough but simply because God loved you and wanted to (Ephesians 1:5)

God adopted YOU to praise him (Ephesians 1:11-12)

God adopted YOU and gave you freedom (Romans 8:15; Galations 4:5)

When you are able, take some time and listen to this fantastic sermon at CrossPointe Church (in my hometown of Columbus, GA) on Romans 8 and our adoption in Christ.

Romans 8:14–17, “The Spirit of Adoption” from CrossPointe Church on Vimeo.

Yardsale Success

It's been a GOOD day on the adoption front. SEBTS, the seminary where Chris is studying, has a yard sale each semester. We participated for the first time today and raised over $150 for our adoption. Praise the Lord!

I was particularly excited that we not only got to raise money, but we were able to get rid of things we don't use and make some space for the little one when he or she comes home. It was also really encouraging that some folks gave us money without buying anything or gave a little extra when they heard what where the money is going.

If you remember this post, for each donation toward our adoption, we are writing the donor's name on the back of a puzzle piece that will eventually be a visual reminder to our little one and us of the incredible support and help we have in getting a little one home. Today, we added 25 pieces to that puzzle! That's right, 25 people came by and bought nearly everything we had at the yard sale. That brings us to a grand total of 72 puzzle pieces purchased so far. Thank you to all the friends and family who have blessed us. If you still want to get in on this project, there are 180 pieces left!

"I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand." Psalm 17:6-7

SEBTS Yard Sale, bright and early. 

Premier Fundraiser

I (Jessica) had the opportunity to go see a good friend of mine, Aileen, this past weekend. She and I were college roommates for a year, and she remains one of my dearest friends. The extra long weekend with my friend was so needed and the Lord was good to give encouragement about our adoption left and right from Aileen and her sweet family.

Even though she has already helped us in a huge way by writing a reference letter for our adoption (thank you, Aileen!), she offered to help us raise funds towards the remaining amount we need for the adoption. I am sure it may seem like we're always posting about fundraising, but the reality is that adoption costs are the biggest roadblock for most families. So it is a BIG deal to us that our friends want to help us!

Here's what Aileen has offered: she sells a wonderful line of jewelry called Premier Designs, and for everything I sell from now until September 15, she will donate a portion of her commission to us. One of the great things I learned about Premier is that they donate a significant portion of their profits to missions. So not only do they offer a beautiful product, but they are sure to give back, too!

To the men who are thinking that this fundraiser isn't for you: I KNOW women in your life would love for you to give them a thoughtful gift, especially if there is a birthday or anniversary coming up :) It's not too early to start thinking of Christmas gifts, either!

Click here to view the catalog online. Click "browse the catalog" to see the jewelry available. You will need to provide your name, e-mail address, and the access code. The access code is STAR.

If you are in the Raleigh/Wake Forest area and would like to place an order, just contact me. I have order forms that you can fill out. You can pay by either check or credit card. If you are NOT in Raleigh and would like to order some jewelry, just send an e-mail to the address provided on the website above. Be sure to say that you want your order to support the Anest adoption.

All of the orders will be placed on September 15, and will be shipped to me. I will then distribute the items to everyone who has ordered.

Let me know if you have any questions!

My favorite pieces from the Premier catalog. Check out the online catalog to see more!

Viewbooks

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you saw that I posted this photo last night. What is this, you ask? These are our viewbooks. When we finally get the last few documents needed to BEGIN our home study (not sure if that was clear on Instagram), complete the home study, and get on the waiting list, this will be what birthmothers view to help choose a family. The birth mother also often keep one copy of the chosen family's viewbook as a reminder. The viewbooks are essentially a narrative of our lives together in pictures. Some of you are in them! It was a huge moment to get these in the mail, even though we are likely still several months from anyone else ever looking at them. 

The most significant thing for me is thinking of the precious woman who will give life to our little one. The thought of her looking at these books is overwhelming. Whoever and wherever she is, whether she is already pregnant or not yet, we are so grateful for her. I pray for her often, and I would love for you to join me! 

Update!

It has been a while since we updated you on our adoption progress. We have been quite busy with travel, the end of another semester of seminary, and a little work in there somewhere ;)

First, thank you so much to those of you who have given to our adoption fundraiser or purchased Well Bean coffee to support us. We are grateful and overwhelmed at the generosity of friends, family, and even some who have made donations even though they don't know us. You are a part of our adoption story! We are a little closer to our goal, and for that we praise the Lord. Just as a reminder, if you would like to make a donation, please click the Pure Charity link on the right side of this page. You can also purchase Well Bean coffee on their website (just be sure to enter ANEST in the coupon code box when you check out so we receive 25% of the purchase!). Or for you Raleigh area folks, the Well Bean drive-thru is also graciously supporting our adoption. Let us know if you would like a support card, and go get a delicious smoothie or coffee!

Another thank you is due to our friends who have written letters of recommendation. We wouldn't be able to do this without you.

The big news for us lately is that we recently had a chance to visit some friends for about 10 days. We had a blast exploring a new city, laughing with our friends and their adorable kiddos, and trying some amazing food. We came back encouraged to press on in many areas, especially in our adoption. We are so grateful for these dear friends, and the people we met while we were there. A special shout out to two new friends who are now buying Well Bean to support our adoption!

Here are our friends' precious kids! How cute are they?! I felt like we got a little glimpse into the parenting life, and now I am even more excited for the little one that God has for our family.

 

So, where are we in the adoption process? We are STILL completing paperwork for our homestudy. Will you pray for us, that God will grant us the time and efficiency to finish quickly? Especially with Chris taking one seminary class this summer and Army training obligations, we need God's help to finish it all. We have two major things left before we can begin the homestudy: background checks -- these have been submitted and we are waiting on a few of the results -- and finishing the required training (we have 2 books to read). Our goal is to begin the homestudy in AUGUST!

 

Thank you for your prayers, support, and love.

 

-- Jessica

Coffee With a Cause

If you are anything like us, you need a cup or two of coffee in the morning to get the day started. We need it for the caffeine, of course, but also because we just enjoy good coffee. And we enjoy drinking it together.

One of our favorite things to do when exploring a new city is to find a good, locally owned coffee shop. For that reason, our most recent partner in our adoption process is an absolutely perfect fit for our family. Well Bean Coffee is a local coffee shop that serves ethically sourced coffee, smoothies, and healthy snacks. Not only do we appreciate their coffee, but the owner and marketing director are friends of ours! We love their mission to serve good coffee and serve the community. They also give $1 of every sale to NewSong Nicaragua, a mission organization in Central America.

Our friends at Well Bean have offered to give us 25% of every sale online that uses our adoption code: ANEST. To order a bag of coffee, just go to their website and click "shops" and then "coffee retail." Once you are there, choose the kind of coffee you want, along with the size bag and grind. When you check out, be sure to put in our code (ANEST), and voila! That is all you need to do.

If you would like to tell us that you bought a bag of coffee to help our adoption, we would love that! We want to include as many friends in our adoption puzzle project as possible. See the previous blog post that explains the puzzle here.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement.

With love,
Chris & Jessica

Another Milestone!

Hello, friends and family! We wanted to ask for your prayers this weekend, as we will be attending a training session with our adoption agency on Saturday. This is a necessary step before we can begin our homestudy, and we are excited about what we'll learn there and that this will bring us one step closer to bringing our child home. Please pray that we will trust the Lord with this process and that we will be an encouragement to the other families who will be there with us.

We also wanted to say THANK YOU to those who have donated already to our adoption fundraiser. There are already 7 puzzle pieces with names on them :) We are blown away by the generosity of our friends and family. We truly could not do this without you! If you would still like to make a donation, please click on the Adoption Changes Everything link on the right side of this blog.

Last (at least for this post), a friend of ours shared this hilarious yet true video on the crazy things adoptive parents hear. Enjoy!

How can you help us? I'm glad you asked!

The thought of adopting a little one into our home is exciting, but there are a lot of fees and expenses along the way. Money has been, and I'm sure will continue to be, the most challenging thing about our whole adoption experience. We have felt that God in his Holy Spirit is pressing on our hearts to seek out adoption from right here in North Carolina. But just because we know where God is leading us doesn't mean that we always know how we will get there. We have to trust that God will move in the hearts of our family and friends in order to help us raise the money needed to bring our new son or daughter home.

So here is the part where we ask you to give. 

There are two ways you can give. First (and most importantly) you can pray for us. Give of your time to pray for us as we walk through the stressful time of working, making sacrifices to save money, doing paperwork over and over again, getting physicals, going to required training and counseling, and meeting with the social worker to complete our home study. Pray that we would live out our faith well in each of these situations. Pray that we would be mindful of our thoughts and actions toward each other within our marriage as we sometimes feel like we're in a pressure cooker and other times we don't see how God will ever bring this whole process to fruition. Pray that we would experience joy as we live out the gospel and adopt another person into our family, just as God adopted us into His. 

After you have prayed for us, the second way you can give is by donating money. Below are the two major costs that we need help with, and below each I listed the different things that are being done with the money given to the adoption agency. 

First is the waiting list fee, which is $5,000. By giving this money to the agency, the agency then provides the following: 

• Counseling and related services to birth families
• Advertising (the adoptive parents to the birth families)
• Communication by the agency staff to the adoptive parents
• Meetings with potential birth parents (when applicable)
• General Operating Expenses
• Publications
• Maintaining adoptive parent profile on agency website
• Other operational costs related to adoption services

The second fee is the placement fee, which is $15,000. By giving this money to the agency, the agency then provides the following:

• Post placement supervision
• Hospital time and discharge
• Child placement
• Legal documentation preparation for the birth families
• Execution of documents and submission to court
• Termination of birth father's rights
• Court hearing
• Ongoing counseling with birth parents
• Finalization of document preparation and submission for adoptive family
• Communication with adoptive family
• General operating expenses. 
• Post relinquishment counseling to birthparents on grief, life, relationships and sexual integrity. 

You can donate at our fundraising site by clicking here 
(or click on our widget on the right side of the blog)

We are also doing something special with the puzzle from our previous post. 

The first 252 people that donate anything will get their name written on the back of a puzzle piece. We are going to put the puzzle together and frame it in a two sided frame to hang it in the baby's room. One day we will use the puzzle to tell our little one their adoption story, complete with all the people who wanted him or her to be a part of our family.

**Please note: all donations are going straight to the adoption agency, so they are all tax deductible as well. 

Pieces of the Puzzle

More details about this to come soon, but we're excited about a special puzzle that will be in our little one's room someday!