Support for the Ibach Family

Hi Everyone!

As many of you know, Jess and Megan Ibach have been preparing to adopt a baby for the last two years. In May 2023, after numerous home studies and extensive interviews, their adoption profile went live. Their adoption coordinator told them that once the profile is live, the usual timeline for adopting a child is eight to twelve months.

Instead of months to prepare, they had hours. On the afternoon of August 16th, Jess and Megan received a call that a set of birth parents in Ohio suddenly pivoted from parenting to placing their child up for adoption. Within a matter of hours, Jess and Megan were in their car driving to Cincinnati.

Enter baby William. On the morning of August 17th, Megan and Jess were able to hold their baby boy for the first time.*cue tears* The new parents are over the moon (and exhausted), but are so excited to be starting this new chapter in their lives.

While this adoption has been an absolute blessing, its expediency has come with a few challenges. Earlier this year, Megan had a large, invasive surgery to combat a disorder with her right hip called Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis. Post-surgery, she exhausted all of her paid time off and her twelve weeks of FMLA to recover and regain her strength. Jess also took an extended amount of time off to care for Megan and only has a few weeks of her FMLA remaining. Their employer does not provide any paid benefits for adoptive parents and Jess and Megan do not have access to short-term disability.

Their greatest wish is to spend six to eight weeks bonding with their new baby before returning to work. Due to Megan's hip surgery and the expediency of the adoption, they did not have as much time to financially prepare for the adoption as they originally anticipated. The average cost of an adoption is $50,000.

Our goal is to help provide additional funds for the Ibachs so that they can stay home with baby William and transition into parenthood together.