God's Timing is Perfect

Hey everyone! We have some exciting updates about our adoption process. We officially have our home study scheduled for July 11th. Our social worker will visit our home to make sure it’s a safe space. It will take about 3-6 weeks for the home study approval to written up at which point we can begin the process of applying for grants to help with the financial part of the adoption. We should have the approved home study completely finished by mid-August.

Around that same time, we’re set up to have a meeting to discuss what our profile should look like. Our profile will be a collection of information about our family, why we’re choosing to adopt, what type of lifestyle we lead, etc. Once we begin this process, we’ll have up to 6 months to complete it. 

Our profile will include a brief video that will allow perspective expectant/birth families to see our family and our personalities rather than just reading about us. Unfortunately, the next time our agency is filming these videos won’t be until November. What that means is that until we have our video filmed, we won’t have our profile given our to expectant or birth families. 

I’ve had a day to process this reality and while I don’t like that we’ll have to wait until at least November to complete the profile part, I’m reminding myself that God’s timing is always perfect. As quickly as we’re hoping this process would go, He’s got a different timing planned for us. It’s our job during this time to go after Him and seek first His Kingdom.

Please continue to pray for our adoption process in every way: for our child, for our child’s family and for our family. We feel your prayers and know that the Father hears each of them. We love you all and thank you for all your support!

Finally an Update!

 Hey everyone! I know it’s been a long while since we’ve posted any updates, but that’s because there haven’t really been any updates to give. But today there is! Last night we finished up the home study paperwork needed before we have our home study completed. It was a very thick packet of our backgrounds, finances, clearances, you name it. After we finished and checked over it last night I was really overcome with so many emotions. I was happy that it was finally done, I was excited that we can move onto the next phase and I was hit with the surreal reality that we’re getting closer to adopting a baby. 

So, what’s next? Once our social worker receives and reviews our packet, we’ll set up a home study meeting and then home study. With our home study they’ll come into our home to make sure that we do indeed have a safe home to bring a child home to. We have no concerns about this because we’re already safely raising two children now. Our social worker has expressed the same thing to us. 

Once we’re home study approved we will move on to work on our profile. Our profile is all the information that will be provided to expectant or birth parents about us. Once our profile is completed, it will be ready to be given to expectant or birth parents to choose a family they want to raise their child. Once the profile is completed on our end, it’s totally out of our hands. We don’t choose our child; our child’s family chooses us. 

That’s our update! It doesn’t seem like much, but I’ll say this…when I dropped off our packet to the post office this morning, I held back the tears. But when I got back in the van the tears flowed. One step closer!

Thank you all for your prayers and support! We really can’t say how thankful we are to have such an amazing group of people rallying with us! We love you all so very much! 

But GOD!!

In our last update, we posted a thermometer showing that we’d received about $1,400 toward our goal. We're super grateful for every donation and the support we received from our first fundraiser. But to be honest, I was feeling discouraged that this process would take much longer than we’d hoped (I may be a bit impatient). We were at 3% of our goal and the remaining 97% seemed almost impossible…but GOD!

This past Sunday, Paul and I were surprised and blessed by our church family at Harvest Chapel. The church donated $10,000 toward our adoption!!! We were completely shocked (we still are, actually) and extremely humbled to receive this gift. Our pastors encouraged the congregation, if they felt led, to donate toward our journey. From our church family we received an additional $6,000 bringing the total to $16,000!!! 

We still don’t have the words to effectively express what this means to us. To say we’re grateful for the love and support is really an understatement. We’re now close to halfway to our goal which doesn’t feel impossible to reach now! Now we need about $22,000-25,000 to meet our goal!

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In other adoption news, last week we completed one of our required classes about open adoption. For those who don’t know what open adoption is, it means that once we have adopted our baby, we will maintain some form of contact with the birth family. The level of openness will be determined before baby is placed with us, but it could become more or less open as the years go by.

Along those lines, when we were in our class last week, we got to hear a birth mother’s story, got to ask questions and interact with her. Her story was so, so inspiring. She provided us, as adoptive parents, so much really helpful information. In telling her story, she shared that she didn’t have the support from her family when choosing adoption for her child. But through open adoption, has found support from her child’s adoptive family. 

This is our goal. Our prayer is that we will matched with a family that we can show them the love of Jesus. That idea has been something that the Father placed on my heart early on in our adoption journey. We so desperately want to love on this family and show them that they are loved, not just by our family, but the Father,  too.

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We just want to say another big thank you to everyone for their support in every way. Please continue to pray for our family, our baby and our baby's biological family! We love you all!

Donation Platform Change/Update

We've decided to discontinue our GoFundMe fundraising account and rather accept donations through various other platforms. If you would like to donate, here are several electronic ways to do so:

PayPal: wmrohrbaugh@hotmail.com
CashApp: $WhitneyRohrbaugh
Venmo: @wmrohrbaugh

THANK YOU so much to everyone who has donated or participated in our fundraiser!! Below is an update for how much we've received toward our goal!

Earring Fundraiser Update

I cannot fully express how grateful and thankful we are to everyone who participated in our earring fundraiser with Beloved Creations on Facebook!! You all REALLY blew us away with your support! We raised $400 with your help! Not to mention that you're supporting my very dear friend and her small business! THANK YOU!

I also want to give a BIG shout out to Lynnea at Beloved Creations for hosting her first ever fundraiser! You are such a rock star and I'm really, really thankful for you! 

If you missed the earring fundraiser, we will be having several other fundraisers in the coming months to help us raise funds toward our adoption. If you would like to donate now, we have our ongoing fundraiser through GoFundMe set up. Click here to donate.

Another quick update for you all: Paul and I had our first educational class last week regarding prenatal drug and alcohol abuse. It really helped us to better understand the circumstances or situations that we may find ourselves in when we are matched with a baby. The class answered many of our questions and will definitely help us when we move into creating our family profile.

I would be remiss if I didn't give praise where it's due to Adoptions From the Heart. This organization has been so incredible to work with. The class last week was run by someone who was extremely knowledgable on the subject in both her knowledge as well as her experiences. Thank you AFTH!

Education Classes and Home Study

Hey everyone! First, I'd like to say THANK YOU for all of the support you've given us! This really means so much to us.

Paul and I had our first meeting with our adoption counselor, Stephanie last week. She has been an adoption counselor with Adoptions From the Heart (AFTH) for 20 years. She has been a wealth of information so far and we're really excited to work with her.

In our meeting with Stephanie, we set up a bunch of training/educational classes that will keep us busy through March. During this time, we'll be learning more about open adoption, transracial adoption and the joining of cultures through adoption. Once we've completed all of these classes, we'll have our home study. This is basically where Stephanie will come into our home to make sure that it is a safe space for our new baby. It's my hope to be completed with these classes and have an approved home study by mid-April. 

The cost for these classes and home study will be $2,800. We know that this is the Lord's dream planted in our hearts. And we know He will provide all the funds that are needed throughout this journey. If you feel led to give to us, we do have a GoFundMe account setup to receive donations. 

Thank you for partnering with us on the journey! We love each of you!

Earring Fundraiser

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Join us on Tuesday, February 1 at 6:30pm on Facebook Live for our first fundraiser! We will be partnering with Beloved Creations - Earrings for All Ages.

During the live sale, you'll be able to see Lynnea's beautiful earrings. There are limited quantities, so be sure to check it out. But if you miss it, you'll still be able to watch the video and comment which earrings you're interested in. 50% of the proceeds will go toward our adoption fund.

Beloved Creations is a local small business who specializes in faux leather earrings. Take a look at her page to see what beautiful earrings she has created.