First you wait for your home study. You wait for background checks. You wait for your profile book. You wait to become match-eligible. Then you wait for opportunities to present your profile to expectant parents. Every time we present our profile to an expectant parent/s, […]
Author: EarleyBirds

Baby Registry Recommendations
As we anticipate our upcoming adoption, we’ve been preparing our home and compiling a list of needs for our future child or children. We currently anticipate a newborn, though an older child or sibling group are also a possibility and something we would be very […]

Thanks for your support!
So, we’re fundraising, which is one of our least favorite thing to do. Nonetheless, here we are, and instead of focusing on asking folks for money, I try to remember the kiddos out there that need adoption and the families that might not consider it […]

Funding our Adoption
So, I’ve already explained the costs that go into adopting, but how in the world does anyone afford it? Here’s how we are funding our adoption >>> Savings Pretty self explanatory, huh? We’ve been able to use some of our current savings and adjust our […]

The Cost of Adoption
Adoption is costly. I didn’t know a whole lot about what went into the cost of adoption before we began pursuing it ourselves. The extent of my knowledge on the subject went back to a college sociology textbook that showed a huge cost difference between […]

We’re match eligible!
Ya’ll. It’s happening! Our home study is completed, our adoption profile is ordered, and we are officially match eligible! As we get closer and closer to finding our match, there’s a few ways we could really use your help in the coming days, weeks, months: Prayers! […]

We’re Adopting!
“Let’s adopt.”A couple of months into dating and we were already dreaming about a future together. We were talking about getting married, where we would work, whether we wanted pets, and how we wanted our family to look. James shared with Haley that he’d been […]

Saying “no” in order to say “yes!”
Yesterday, for the first time, we said “no” to a foster placement. It was weird. Haley and I, ever since we started dating, have wanted to adopt. In fact, we decided–early on–that adoption was our preferred way of starting a family, rather than the traditional […]

Mantras
As we look at saying goodbye to our foster kiddos, I look back and remember the mantras we’ve developed over the last few months. “You are smart, you are kind, you are brave.” “Whose actions can you control?” “Violence is never okay.” “It’s okay to […]

A state of missing
It’s Mother’s Day weekend. And it’s bittersweet for us. Last night at about 1AM, I was finally able to process some of what I’ve been feeling about our foster kids going home. I decided I needed to speak the things I had written. After I […]

Our hearts grew threefold
Since December, our home has changed a bit. A few weeks after being licensed for foster care we received a call asking if we’d be willing to stretch our age range to take a group of three kiddos. We took the weekend to pray and discern […]

I am theirs and they are mine
Our kids aren’t really “ours,” you know? We’re foster parents, and the kids will very likely return to their family of origin at some undefined point in time. We don’t get to keep them. I’m not their dad. But when the toddler screams “Dada!” in […]