November 2, 2018 – written by Katie
So far this has been a quite interesting adventure. We originally thought the only way to adopt was to go through an agency and wait for the right mom to come through that agency and choose us as the parents for their child. We heard about FAC (Faithful Adoption Consultants) from a couple friends and thought we should check them out. Consultants for adoption that work with lots of different agencies to help find the right match faster – what a great idea! So we filled out an application and received our acceptance email from them on Thursday, October 11. We had to get their fee and notarized contract to them in just a few days time so we scrambled around and made it happen. We have a long list of 26 items we need to complete or gather before we can become “active,” which means we’ll be able to present to birth moms. It’s all quite overwhelming at first so we’re just trying to take it one thing at a time and slowly but surely, we’ll get everything together.
One of the more pressing items right now is getting our home study done. We called a bunch of different places around the state of Indiana (and one in Kentucky that ended up not being certified to do Indiana home studies) to try to find one close and at a reasonable price. At first, we were given ones that were in Fort Wayne and they wanted something like $2600 PLUS mileage PLUS $50 an hourly wage while traveling – talk about expensive! After more searching and asking FAC for more references, we found a place out of Indianapolis that is about a $1000 LESS on their basic fees but we still have to pay mileage from Indy and back with each visit – still much more manageable! I’ve completed their application and we’ll be getting started with them ASAP, as the home study can take up to eight weeks to get completed.
The biggest item on the list is our finances. We have to prove we have the funds to adopt before we can become active. This doesn’t mean we have to have all the money in hand but if we have part of the money and get pre-approval for an adoption loan (definitely not what we want to do in the end though), we can go ahead and become active and while we’re waiting to be matched, we can continue applying to grants and fundraising. The average wait time for a couple to be matched with a birth mom after becoming active with FAC is 4 1/2 months. Although that’s not long, we can make a lot happen in 4 1/2 months and I suspect that because we’re being a little picky on our options (minimal substance exposure, caucasian mix, specifying gender) and we already have kids of our own (some birth moms — I would say the majority — are looking for a couple without any kids or maybe just one other child). I’ll be honest, the money required scares me – it’s HUGE and we just don’t have the funds to do it ourselves or to add a huge monthly payment to pay off a loan. But I know that God is behind this and he will help us find the ways to gather that money to bring our little girl home.
Back to the big list of to-dos! Please pray for this process and for everything to come together smoothly!