NICK & KATIE WELCH

The other day I told someone that when you start the adoption process, it's almost like finding out you're pregnant! Maybe you've thought about adopting, maybe you had a plan about when you might start the process, but when you actually make that first call or sign that first piece of paper. It's real! It's miraculous! You become pregnant! And the timing or the way it happens might take you by surprise... just like taking a pregnancy test. There's a baby being formed, there's a child waiting for you and the timing couldn't be more perfect. 

I have been going crazy over here with excitement over the news that some of my dearest friends Katie and Nick have just found out that they are "pregnant"! After having one biological child and experiencing the pain and grief of two miscarriages, they will bring home a second child through adoption. Something they've wanted to do for a long time now! I've always admired Katie's honesty and bravery. She's never afraid to be vulnerable. She invites people in to walk through the hard places with her. She doesn't pretend that she's perfect! She doesn't pretend she's ok if she's not. She is so strong! Katie and Nick were our rocks when we were fighting to bring Arthur home. They rejoiced with us when we received good news, they wept with us when we were discouraged, and they continue to support and encourage us. I cannot wait to do the same for them as they begin this exciting journey!!! 

We couldn't be happier to share 20% of Love is Waiting sales with them for the next TWO weeks! Go shop!!

Read more below and follow along with the Welch family at welchpress.tumblr.com

"Nick and I have both wanted to adopt from a young age. I've always pictured my family being a large multi-racial family. It's my dream. My calling, I believe. I always hoped the man I married would feel the same way.

When Nick was young, he watched a family friend adopt 2 children from China. It inspired him, even at a young age, with the dream of someday adopting children. When we first got married, we decided we wanted to start a family through adoption. We watched a few of our closest friends start their families that way, and that made it seem less intimidating. When we began to pursue adoption, we found out we were pregnant with our first son, Judah. We were thrilled, and knew that adoption would be on our hearts forever, so we decided that maybe we'd have a couple biological kids, then adopt a few more. When Judah was 13 months old, we got pregnant again. Our plan was going just like we'd thought. When I was almost 15 weeks pregnant, I went into labor and delivered a tiny sweet baby that we named Emmanuel. This was confusing and extremely difficult for our family to walk through. Knowing that God had a perfect plan for our family, even if we didnt understand it, we marched on. We ended up pregnant again, and lost our little baby Hope at only 6 weeks. After that, a greiving process set in, but we took comfort in knowing that Emmanuel and Hope were with God, and that God knows what He is after. His plan is better than ours even when it feels horrible and out of control. The first thing that both Nick and I thought about when we lost Hope was adoption. Our heart has always been heavy for adoption. It's been a long time dream of both of ours and now felt like the time. We spend a month praying hard and seeking God's direction for our family. At the end of the month, we were both totally confident that He was leading us toward adoption now. We couldn't be more excited. Now the fun part, coming up with more money than I make in a year to pay for this crazy process. We trust that God's heart is for adoption and that He's bigger than $35,000, even thought it's SO scary. We trust Him. It was inspiring watching you and Aaron fight for Arthur. Watching you walk off the plane that December was one of the best moments of my life. The fact that we had invested in that process, and that our community had invested in it, makes the goodness in it even more beautiful. We all were fighting for Arthur. We fought for him in prayer and to raise awareness and support. We wanted him home with you guys so badly. The community aspect of adoption is glorious. I love it. I can't wait to walk into our home with our new son or daughter and be able to say that we couldn't have done it without the Lord putting a community of people around us, supporting this calling to care for the orphans of the world. Even if its just one."

LAUREN, GAVIN & ELIZA

How adorable is this family!? They have wanted to adopt for a long time, even before they met! They are well on their way to welcoming baby number 2, but with a big move to Southeast Asia next month, this family needs all the help they can get! Shop Love is Waiting this week and 20% of sales will go to the Pinkstons! Also, you have GOT to check out Lauren's blog 

http://applesandbandaids.com  

You can read more about their story, but she also rights about Motherhood, Faith and Social Justice. Couldn't be more excited and proud to feature them!

Gavin and I both felt called to adopt before we ever met each other. After four years of marriage, it seemed like the right time to begin the process! We applied for domestic adoption in 2012, but were declined when I became pregnant with our now 7-month-old daughter, Eliza. As happy as Eliza made us as parents {she is just precious!}, we continued to feel the burden of the orphan crisis wordwide. We are moving to Southeast Asia in March, and I was just certain that no adoption agency would be comfortable matching us with a child to be raised in a third-world country. God is so much bigger than our fears, though! Almost immediately after beginning our research, we found Small World Adoption Agency which specializes in expat adoptions for missionary and military families. We are finishing the home study process now, and are looking forward to awaiting a referral of a 0-1 year old boy from Lesotho. Thank you for helping us welcome our second child into our family! You can learn more about our journey here: http://applesandbandaidsblog.com/2013/11/30/the-post-ive-waited-years-to-write/.

JT AND DANIELLE CARROLL

Please take some time to read about the Carrolls. They are in the most difficult part of their journey. They've seen their child's face, he has a name, they've heard his story. He IS their son, but laws, paperwork, money and distance still keep them from being together. Join me in showing them some love this week! 

Leave a comment here encouraging them. 

Visit their adoption blog and check out their puzzle fundraiser!

http://www.loveinmandarin.blogspot.com/?m=1

And as always... 20% of  Love is Waiting's sales will go to help the Carrolls. 

http://loveiswaiting.storenvy.com

Hey there! We're the Carrolls and we're adopting a little boy from Taiwan. He'll be just over 2 years old when he comes home and while we're excited to finally have him with us we're also nervous to go from being childless to suddenly having a toddler!

This journey hasn't been an easy one. It seemed easy at first, but then we dived headfirst into it. Our home study went by quickly, a record of two weeks, until the very end when three pieces of paper decided to get lost in the shuffle of busy offices. A much-needed update on our son wasn't coming which left us with more questions than answers. Financial hurdles have piled up against us and we're praying for God to tear down walls at this point.

I'm not gonna lie: we're scared. There are so many unknowns in adoption, especially international, that you'd be crazy not to have a little fear pop up somewhere along the road. I'm in full-blown mother/nesting mode for a little boy I've never met, whose only information and photos I have is outdated by almost a year. Will he like the color I'm painting his room? What words can he say? Does he have a sweet tooth? Such little things in the grand scheme of it all but they're absorbing all of my brain power.

But in the fear and wonder are moments of absolute joy of such magnitude I've never felt before. The moment when I saw his face for the first time. The moment when my best friend told me he looks like he belongs to us, that he looks LIKE us. The moment when we truly felt that he is ours, no matter what. Maybe I'm grasping at the straws of faith here but I can't help but believe that this deeply-rooted joy is coming from the Father of adoption, the Father who knows how hard this is but how worth it the journey is. 

Adoption is full of pain and uncertainty, incredibly hard on both ends for different reasons yet ends in what can only be considered the truest form of family. It makes you understand better what Jesus went through: fighting to bring sons and daughters into a family forever. And that is ultimately the most beautiful relationship I can imagine. 

MEET AMANDA & JARROD STICHTER

After being married for a couple of years Jarrod and Amanda decided to begin growing their family. After a few months of trying to get pregnant, Amanda started to get anxious and had some tests done to make sure everything was ok. After ten months, more tests and hundreds of dollars, they received devastating news… there was only a 5% chance that they could have biological kids. 

"Hearing news like that is something that hits you in the stomach and then sinks in slowly.

And, let’s be honest, who ever truly expects to be told that? We didn’t…

And yet something in me had a feeling we’d get here when this all began."

She and Jarrod had talked about wanting to adopt someday, they just thought they would adopt after having bio kids. God has been giving Amanda and Jarrod confirmation about adoption for a long time and it is so cool to hear how their story has unfolded. 

"But even from the very first day...

amidst so much brokenness and pain...
when my husband and I looked at each other and knew we would adopt...
I have felt an abundance of peace and joy!

The Lord is already blessing us by giving us confirmation that he will lead us each step of the way until our baby…Yes,OUR BABY… comes home.

God is good… ALL THE TIME."

Read more about their story at www.addingtous.com . You can also give a tax deductible donation here.

THE SCHROCKS

On a cold, wintry morning in Houston, we introduce the Schrocks! I'm so thankful for their honesty and willingness to share a little bit of their story. Sadly, there is a lot of corruption in adoption. It's a very vulnerable process and sometimes dishonesty, greed, desperation creep in and take advantage of the situation. Read about the Schrocks and let's see if we can help them raise some of the money that they lost. I'm so happy that they didn't let this slow them down. They are believing this is all part of the journey God has for their family.

OUR ADOPTION STORY

Hello. Our names are Marlin & Rosie Schrock. We are from northern WI, where lots of snow flies and it gets COLD!, but we love the Northwoods.

We have been married for 4 1/2 years. We are in love with our AWESOME God and each other. Marlin owns a lawncare/snowplowing business and I work at a  local "north woods" décor and furniture store, and do the business paperwork. Our lives are busy.

BUT it just seems something is missing....

We have talked about adoption since before we were married. We knew having biological children could be an issue, and we knew instead of doctoring lots we would adopt! It is a very good thing we had no idea what our journey would be like. But we have learned lots of lessons and lots about just trusting God and letting things in His hands!

We started the adoption process in August of 2012. Paperwork seemed to take forever, but we were home study approved in March of 2013. We were excited... But what should be the next step, we wondered? We decided to sign on with a matching agency out of SC. They weren't as good as we wished they would have been, but in July we were matched!!! We were ecstatic! We were told our baby was due in the Sept/Oct range. We could hardly wait. But things didn't go as we hoped..... Six weeks later we were told our birth mom changed her mind and is not working with the agency anymore. We were rematched right away. We were beginning to have lots of questions about this agency, but we were rather naïve, I guess, and decided to trust. (BAD choice!) The end of Sept, we heard through other adoptive parents that were working with the same agency that the agency was saying "our" birthmom had had an abortion several weeks prior. (The agency was very bad at communicating with us) We finally reached the agency and they said, "yes, she did have an abortion, but is pregnant again and we would like to keep you matched with her." About that same time our matching agency called us and said they had just heard a lot of bad things about this agency and we should not keep working with them if at all possible. We told the agency we do not want another match, we would just like a refund and be able to move on. We had paid the agency $17,200. We were promised some of our money back for sure by the end of Nov. It never happened. We have since learned that we were double matched with another family the first time, and that lots of people have been taken advantage of by this agency. And we really don't know what is true of all the things they told us......

Needless to say we were devastated and didn't know what to do next!

One thing we did know though, is that we still wanted to adopt..... We had a hard time knowing what to do. We didn't know who was trustworthy.... We have since started working with another matching agency (Christian Adoption Consultants) whom we absolutely love! We are still waiting on a match at this point and meanwhile we are trying to raise more funds to try to make up for the money we lost, and to pay for our adoption that we know will happen in God's time.  We can't wait to learn to know the birth mom and the child God has planned for us. And we can't wait to see what color of child God has planned for us.=)

Thanks so much for helping us on our adoption journey. And please pray for us on this journey.

Sincerely,

Marlin & Rosie Schrock

BRAD & NOELLE OTTS

One morning I walked into work. It was a normal day… I was catching up with my boss and friend, Mica and she said, "Hey! My good friend emailed me yesterday. They announced that they are adopting again and want to order a custom book to sell to help raise funds." The crazy thing was, I had just finished the design for the journal that I would be adding to the store. It was all too weird! So, I reached out to Noelle to see if we could collaborate somehow. Here's what we came up with! THIS WEEK ONLY… when you buy a Love is Waiting Journal, 100% of the profits go to fund the Otts' adoptions… Yes I said adoptionS. Plural. They are adopting two more kids and when all their children are home, they will have 5! Forget the mini-van. That's 7-passenger van status. They need all the help they can get! You can also give through their Pure Charity page. Read more about their story below.

"Hello, from the Otts!
On October 10, 2012 we brought home our amazing 8 year son, Shimelis from the country of Ethiopia. We concurrently adopted Shimelis from another agency all the while remaining on the wait list for a little girl from Ethiopia with America World Adoption Agency (AWAA). We are also beginning the process of a domestic infant adoption while we wait for our Ethiopian adoption (approximately another 2 years)

You can watch our first meeting meeting with Shimelis here.

Adopting Shimelis was a wonderful surprise to us! we knew we wanted to adopt 2 children from Ethiopia and it is so exciting that our daughter might be home with us as soon as next summer!

When we adopted Shimielis, we were fortunate enough to have been able to pay fully for his adoption and still also have approximately 1/3 towards bringing our other children home, but, adoption is expensive. We're excited to have an opportunity to raise funds through Love is Waiting. We know that God is good and will provide for all of our needs.

Exciting to know that so many of you can be a part of bringing our children home. 

The Otts Family

Brad, Noelle, Shimelis, Cash & Maddie-Rose"

JUSTIN & STEPHANIE NUNES

It seems that every adoption journey takes an unexpected turn. I love the way Justin and Stephanie have been able to roll with the punches! They are ready for whatever God has for them! Read about their crazy journey and support them by shopping Love is Waiting this week! 

We said yes to adoption in the summer of 2011.  We prayed about what country to pursue and decided on Ethiopia! We fit the country requirements and loved the culture.  We were accepted into our agency's Ethiopia program in November of 2011, and we started on paperwork! We were DTE in May of 2012 for a baby boy between 0-12 months.  As we began to wait, we felt the need to open our parameters; so we widened our parameters pretty big and began to wait once again.  In early January 2013, we saw our sons face for the first time, but he wasn't in Ethiopia! He lives in a tiny country off the West African coast, he's now 3 1/2 and just so precious! We are awaiting our final documents to file our i800 and begin travel approval.  You might be wondering, "what happened to Ethiopia?!" Well, we're still adopting from there too! We still sitting nicely on the wait list, and once our little West African is home for at least 6 months, we'll be ready to accept a referral from Ethiopia! So we're adopting two kids, at once, from totally difference countries! It's kinda crazy, and it's been an insane journey so far, but we're ready for what's next! Thank you for playing a part in our adoption story!