Story:

Hi friends, family, and kind supporters,

We’re Kiyo and Lu, a married, multiracial, millennial couple living in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. We’re starting an exciting new chapter of our love story: we’re growing our family through adoption!

We met and fell in love in Los Angeles, California, almost 10 years ago, and soon realized we needed a home to grow our family. After about 4 years, we chose to buy a home and move cross-country, which would allow us to continue to build our dream life. Our loving family currently consists of two adorable corgis (Reggie and Tilly) and two playful cats (Lex and Pen). Now, almost 5 years since the move, we’re ready to begin the next chapter and become parents!

About the Process:

We’re working with American Adoptions, a national agency that supports both adoptive and birth families. This will be an open adoption, meaning we will remain in contact with the birth mother throughout the child’s life. We believe in honoring and including her in this story, which hopefully brings peace of mind to the birth mother and ensures our child can know their origin story. Ultimately, this child will know they are supported and loved by all.

Adoption is a beautiful process, but it comes with significant financial costs. The average cost for a newborn adoption through our agency is around $85,000. We feel confident in this agency given their comprehensive support throughout the entire process until successful placement:

In addition, prospective adoptive parents (that's us) will also need to:

The additional cost of travel, lodging, care for our pets while we're away, and time away from work are not included in the $85,000 estimate. We are doing our best by applying to grants but due to religious or heteronormative requirements, our story does not always qualify.

We acknowledge that the cost of our dream might seem steep, but it's one that we deeply care about. In preparation, we’re doing everything we can to save money. If you know us personally, you will understand how much we have decided to prioritize adoption with the following commitments: Lu will not purchase any new books before getting through the pile of books on his TBR that he already owns, and has already sold his Beyonce concert tickets; Kiyo will not purchase any new video games or plants and will focus on re-potting new propagations. Money that we would have otherwise spent goes into our adoption fund. We have also cancelled our trip to Japan to visit our extended family and are putting those funds into savings as well (thank goodness for WhatsApp and video call capabilities). As some of you may know, aside from our traditional jobs, we have also been participating in a local Farmer's Market with our Tilly + Reggie candle business for the past couple of years. We are investing a portion of our profits towards our adoption fund. We've got baby on the brain!

We're ready for our opportunity to meet the little one who will join our family, and hopeful that this will happen for us.

How You Can Support Us

Donate:

No matter how big or small, every donation helps get us one step closer to bringing our future baby home.

Share:

Feel free to share our GoFundMe with anyone you believe might want to support an adoption journey like ours. Spreading the word makes a big difference! The 'Share' button is located above the 'Donate now' button on this page and provides various options.

Buy a candle:

Profits from our small business will be allocated towards the adoption fund. Visit https://tillyandreggie.com to view our available scents. Help us bring a baby home by bringing a candle into yours!

Words of Support:

Kind messages, encouragement, prayers (as applicable to your faith), and positive vibes are always welcome. We know this is a long road, but your support helps carry us through it.

Thank you so much for joining us on the next part of our story!

With sincere gratitude,

Kiyo & Lu (and Reggie, Tilly, Lex & Pen)

(and a cameo of Lu's abuela below)