Dear People with a Heart for Adoption,
We are so excited to announce that we have decided to grow our family! We have been discussing and praying about adopting a second baby since May 2016. Although we have an immense love for Ethiopia, the process of bringing our daughter, Ellie, home was so difficult that we said we "WOULD NEVER DO THAT AGAIN."
After researching several agencies, we took the next step and signed up to adopt in Indiana. Although we were excited about a domestic adoption, it just seemed like we were constantly running into barriers. After waiting a month, and having several major communication problems with our agency, we were just feeling like something wasn't quite right. Our excitement was dwindling.
During this time, we had heard there were many waiting children in Ethiopia for countless reasons, including the state of adoptions and a terrible drought, and it started tugging at our hearts. We soon learned news that Ethiopia was overhauling their system to improve adoptions, with specific improvements being made to an office that has been a great obstruction for most families going through the process.
Next came exciting news that close friends of ours had just switched their adoption over from a different country in Africa to Ethiopia! Other friends of ours had just recieved their final approval and brought their son home! All of this encouraging news allowed us to dig deep and revealed that in our "heart of hearts," this was not only the direction we wanted to take our family, but that we felt were being lead.
Little did we know, our son was already there waiting for us. Only 4 days after signing up with our new agency, WE RECIEVED OUR REFERRAL AND SAW OUR SON FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! Halleluiah, PRAISE GOD! It took a couple days for all of the excitement to sink in because we were in absolute shock!! This was so much different than the grueling wait for Ellie's referral.
We are completely overjoyed and are absolutely in love with our little Gemechu ("Happy"). He is an incredibly handsome little boy who is estimated to be about a year old. His smile is JUST heart stopping. It is a crazy thing to see your child for the first time, but when we looked at his sparkling brown eyes, we knew this was him!!
Upon accepting his referral, a door was opened to an amazing array of emotions -- pure and utter joy, combined with the fear and anxiety of how we will ever come up with the $25,000 it takes to officially lock him in as ours. We trust God is in control, but this is where the process starts to get extremely difficult for us. We ask you to please put yourself in our shoes for a minute and see if you would consider supporting Gemechu in coming home to be our forever son in his forever family.
We need to raise $25,000 in 3 weeks!! We realize this is a big number, but with your support, it is a number that can be chipped away at. Absolutely any donation, in any amount, would bring our son one step closer to us!
It is very intimidating to ask for help, but if we don't raise the money in time, we will lose Gemechu as our referral. We hope that our story will touch something in your heart that moves you to give.
Thank you so much for listening to our story, GOD BLESS!!!
We are so excited to announce that we have decided to grow our family! We have been discussing and praying about adopting a second baby since May 2016. Although we have an immense love for Ethiopia, the process of bringing our daughter, Ellie, home was so difficult that we said we "WOULD NEVER DO THAT AGAIN."
After researching several agencies, we took the next step and signed up to adopt in Indiana. Although we were excited about a domestic adoption, it just seemed like we were constantly running into barriers. After waiting a month, and having several major communication problems with our agency, we were just feeling like something wasn't quite right. Our excitement was dwindling.
During this time, we had heard there were many waiting children in Ethiopia for countless reasons, including the state of adoptions and a terrible drought, and it started tugging at our hearts. We soon learned news that Ethiopia was overhauling their system to improve adoptions, with specific improvements being made to an office that has been a great obstruction for most families going through the process.
Next came exciting news that close friends of ours had just switched their adoption over from a different country in Africa to Ethiopia! Other friends of ours had just recieved their final approval and brought their son home! All of this encouraging news allowed us to dig deep and revealed that in our "heart of hearts," this was not only the direction we wanted to take our family, but that we felt were being lead.
Little did we know, our son was already there waiting for us. Only 4 days after signing up with our new agency, WE RECIEVED OUR REFERRAL AND SAW OUR SON FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! Halleluiah, PRAISE GOD! It took a couple days for all of the excitement to sink in because we were in absolute shock!! This was so much different than the grueling wait for Ellie's referral.
We are completely overjoyed and are absolutely in love with our little Gemechu ("Happy"). He is an incredibly handsome little boy who is estimated to be about a year old. His smile is JUST heart stopping. It is a crazy thing to see your child for the first time, but when we looked at his sparkling brown eyes, we knew this was him!!
Upon accepting his referral, a door was opened to an amazing array of emotions -- pure and utter joy, combined with the fear and anxiety of how we will ever come up with the $25,000 it takes to officially lock him in as ours. We trust God is in control, but this is where the process starts to get extremely difficult for us. We ask you to please put yourself in our shoes for a minute and see if you would consider supporting Gemechu in coming home to be our forever son in his forever family.
We need to raise $25,000 in 3 weeks!! We realize this is a big number, but with your support, it is a number that can be chipped away at. Absolutely any donation, in any amount, would bring our son one step closer to us!
It is very intimidating to ask for help, but if we don't raise the money in time, we will lose Gemechu as our referral. We hope that our story will touch something in your heart that moves you to give.
Thank you so much for listening to our story, GOD BLESS!!!
Organizer
Ashley McGowen Yoder
Organizer
New Paris, IN