Another Baby Todd

Ok, I feel a little bit like I’m living in a dream right now. It has been exactly 21 days since we applied for approval to begin the adoption process with our agency. And guys, we have already completed everything we are required to do for finalizing our home study. This is a 2-4 month process and we are just…done! While we absolutely worked hard on our end, we are beyond grateful to the experts who squeezed us in for appointments and are rushing to finalize reports so that we can take our next step.

Right now, we are only waiting on two reports to be reviewed, approved, and finalized. Then we will be able to apply for our first US approval to adopt!

We are so excited to be flying through the parts of this process that we can fly through and are preparing ourselves for all the patience we will need in the future times of waiting.

Thanks for being with us on our journey!

The wait to adopt is a long one. In these first weeks, we have been amazed and encouraged by the kindness and excitement of the people we are depending on to complete paperwork. They make us feel like they carry the same urgency we have to finalize their part of the paperwork. We are so honored to be working with such compassionate and knowledgable people.

For Amara’s sake in waiting, we have told her she would be 8 years old before she gets to meet her sister. The entire process takes 18-24 months, and this has given her an anchor – a time she understands and can cling to with anticipation. This week has been adorably filled with questions like “Will these shoes fit me when I am 8?” She is so excited to show her sister everything she has and to share (some of) her things with her sister too. We love processing with her how life will be different when the time comes and to see Amara’s excitement and understanding grow.

Our continued efforts are focused on completing the Home Study. We have collected 90% of the paperwork, have appointments scheduled for remaining documents, and have our Home Study visits scheduled.

And as we wait, life continues on. Amara has officially returned to school and I’m sure everyone in class already knows she has a sister waiting for her in India! 💕

We are one week in to our adoption journey and by far the most repeated sentence in our home is from Amara: “I want my sister!” For How I Met Your Mother fans out there, hearing this sentence repeated feels about like listening to 500 Miles over and over on a road trip. 😊

Over the past week we have gathered nearly all the documents required to complete our home study. Our goal is to set some records for how fast we finish tasks and gather paperwork. After all, we have a little girl waiting to meet her sister and we can’t keep our daughters waiting on us!

As you think of us and pray for us in this season, the most difficult moments will be the quiet ones. The moments of waiting where it is not dependent on us to accomplish paperwork or tasks, but on other parties. Our goal during those times will be to settle into the moment, remembering this is the last season we will have with just Amara here at home. We hope we can make the time special for her as she also waits with great anticipation.

Thanks for joining us for journey! It will be a long one, but we are so glad you are in this with us.

And also.. enjoy our precious Amara and her “I want my sister” expression 😉

Ah, here we are again with a new baby blog. A year ago, we would confidently claim “one child is enough.” But our hearts have been changing. A growing love bloomed in our hearts: we have another child waiting for us.

These past three years have been an incredible journey. Becoming a family with Amara has been miraculous. Our bond has grown deep and we are so proud and amazed at the growth of our little girl. This year, Amara is six and starts first grade! Her only surprise about our news may be that we finally caught on. She has been telling us she has a sister in India since she could speak the word sister.

So here we go! We have officially begun the process of adopting our second child from India. It isn’t a decision we made lightly. The wait is long, the costs are high, and immigrating to a new country is hard. Yet three years of watching our precious daughter bloom has made this a mountain we want to climb.

We would be honored if you would consider climbing this mountain with us. The biggest hurdle we face is, once again, the finances. You can view our Funding page to learn more and consider supporting us on this journey.

Our hearts are filled with excitement. We now confidently claim “we willl be parents of two!”

More updates to come!

-Stephanie for the Family