If you know Jake and I then you know more than anything we have dreamt of being parents. After prayerful consideration, we feel that God is leading us to adopt! Throughout this past year Jake and I have been working through many hours of training, social work interviews and finishing the long home study process, and as of May we are approved and officially a waiting family! We are now waiting to be matched up with a child in need of a home! We are overjoyed at the opportunity to share our life and our home and we feel so blessed to have this opportunity ahead of us.

Of course along with this amazing opportunity comes the overwhelming expense of adoption. Jake and I have been working to save for the agency and attorney fees that come along with adoption. The average cost of adoption in America ranges from $25,000-$50,000 and we are blessed to be working with an agency who has given us a range on the lower end of that spectrum. This expense is aside from usual hospital bills, medical expenses, attorney fees and other additional fees.

So why is adoption so expensive? The process to legally adopt a child requires the involvement of attorneys, social workers, physicians, government administrators, adoption specialists, counselors and more. All of these parties spend hours on paperwork, interviews and working with other agencies both locally and internationally. The funding from adoption also goes toward expenses for the birth family of the child. We are blessed to be working with an agency that's first priority is keeping families together and supporting birth moms. That means providing housing, medical and physical resources to birth moms as well as providing counseling and support prior to and long after delivery. Although Jake and I struggle with the ethics of the expenses of adoption in America, we are grateful to be working with an agency that's first goal is to provide for children and birth families.

Why we could use your help. Throughout sharing our news with family and friends we have received an overwhelming number of people asking how they can support us and offering financial support. Although Jake and I have been saving up as much as possible this past year, the financial weight of adoption is heavy on us, and as humbling as it is to fundraise, we know if we are able to raise funding then Jake and I will be able to take the time away from work to bond with our child and support them.

Please leave us your address if possible, so we can send you something special. We will keep your names forever as those who helped us to adopt Baby Clay. If you choose to give anonymously, please still send us a private message so we can include your name on the list.

Thank you all for your support during this time. We have been so grateful for all of your prayers and encouragement. We are thankful that God's plans are bigger than ours and are encouraged by his faithfulness.

We don't know when, why, how or where we will be united with our child but we know it will be worth the wait!

Jake and Tori