Our Bethany adoption specialist took us every step of the way and told us what to expect next. Rather than dumping a mountain of forms and details on us, she paced us out, saying, “This is what you do now; get this paperwork back to me, and then we’ll move to the next step.”
We still felt a sense of urgency to move quickly, but didn’t know why. We just kept following the steps and doing everything we needed to do.
After we had filled out all of the paperwork and completed the home study, we found out we were pregnant again. Unfortunately, this pregnancy also ended in a miscarriage. We then realized why we felt an urgency to get through the approval process quickly.
God knew this was coming and His timing was perfect. God knew that we would need time to grieve and rest after the miscarriage without having to worry about the approval process. Once we were officially approved to move forward with adoption, we began the waiting process to be matched up with a birth mother.
Bound4LIFE: How did you involve friends and family in the fundraising aspect?
Nikki: We had been praying about what to do as far as finances; we didn’t know where any of the money was going to come from. Once we had been approved and were in the waiting process, a friend called me up.
She said, “I’ve spoken to friends at church, and we want to do a yard sale for you to help with the coming adoption. We’ll do everything. We’ve already gotten approval to use the church building, let’s just find a date if that’s OK with you?” I began crying, I was so moved.
The yard sale was a huge success and happened because of friends, it wasn’t even our idea! In addition, we had a Facebook group and T-shirts that we branded “V3” to sell and get friends involved.
The group Lifesong for Orphans approved us for an interest-free loan, which we paid back using the adoption tax credit when we received it the next year. All of this, plus assistance from our families, helped us raise all of the funds we needed.
We’ve really seen our church family be the hands and feet of Jesus in our lives.
Bound4LIFE: Tell us about the day when you received an important phone call.
Nikki: The call came in February, right before Valentine’s Day—a very busy season at the flower shop where I worked. “We have a possible match,” our adoption specialist said. I quickly had tears of joy.
We talked about the birth mother and her journey. She asked, “Would you be willing to drive a few hours away to meet her?” I replied, “Definitely—it just has to be after Valentine’s Day!” It turns out that timing was best for all involved.
In late February, we had our match meeting with Zoe’s birth mom. She is a wonderful woman. She knew about us from the profile book we put together. We had also written a letter to potential birth mothers as well as made a video introducing ourselves.
The meeting was for her as well as for us—answering the questions we both had for each other. It went really well, we both really liked each other! Usually about a week after the match meeting, they let you know if both parties agree to move forward. But we found out right after the meeting that the birth mother felt really comfortable with us and wanted to move forward.
Erik: It was all very exciting. The call came sooner than we thought it would, and we were so happy for that. From our approval date to our match was 10 months, which was shorter than the average time frame.
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