Our New Adoption Video

We had fun putting this video together to share our adoption story :)

Overwhelmed - Amazing Bracelet Fundraiser :)

OVERWHELMED is an understatement for how we feel! Thank you to everyone who has already supported us with our adoption of our sweet girl! (We will share her name on here in just a few more weeks!) We started out thinking of ordering about 50 bracelets. I wasn’t sure with the holidays if there would be much interest. Jonathan suggested 100 and we went with it with the intent that all our family and friends would be receiving them as gifts from those we didn’t sale! 😂 We sold all 100 of those, then ordered 50 more and sold all of them. We just got another shipment in with 150 more and they are already flying out of the Carl home! Wow, just wow! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! We feel all of the words on these bracelets because of your love and encouragement towards our family!

I always thanks God for you! 1 Corinthians 1:4

We have received about $3,375 so far. God is good and so faithful. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Here are the new bracelets we have available. If I have missed anyone who has placed an order please PM and let me know. I am trying to keep up with all the orders with the busyness of the season but may have missed someone unintentionally. Thank you! Much love to you all!

Adoption Timeline

Everyone's timeline seems to go slightly differently, but here is our journey's timeline towards adopting our Chinese daughters (to date) 

Alia Joy

1. Applied for American World AdoptionAssociation (AWAA): 4/29/13
2. Various Home Study & Dossier Compilation Dates thru Summer of 2013
3. Request Submitted to See Allie/An Fu Ju's (adoption file name/orphanage name) Referral File (8/17/13)
4. Acceptance of Alia Joy's Referral (us saying yes and committing to adopt her): 9/11/13
5. Preapproval by China for us to adopt Alia (PA): 10/2/13
6. Dossier to China (DTC - all of our paperwork in China): 1/17/14
7. Dossier Logged In Date (LID): 1/24/14
8. Chinese Referral Acceptance (RA): 6/25/14 (a long wait, 152 days! China says yes, Alia is definitely yours!)
9. I-800 Submitted 6/26/14
10. I-800 approval 7/10/14
11. Guz# 7/17/14
12. DS-260 7/18/14
13. Article 5 Dropoff 7/21/14
14. Article 5 Pickup: 8/5/14
15. Travel Approval: 8/8/14
16. Departure Date: 8/13/14
17. Gotcha Day: 8/17/14
18. Return Home: 8/29/14

Our New 11 year old Daughter

1. Applied for American World AdoptionAssociation (AWAA): 6/8/18
2. Various Home Study & Dossier Compilation Dates thru Summer of 2018
3. Request Submitted to See _________ (adoption file name/orphanage name) Referral File (6/11/18)
4. Acceptance of ______’s Referral (us saying yes and committing to adopt her): 8/24/18
5. Preapproval by China for us to adopt _______ (PA): 8/29/18

• Home Study Complete 10/1/18
• i-800a - 11/6/18
• Dossier to AWAA 11/18/18
• Dossier to State Dept 11/27/18
• Dossier to Ch Embassy 12/4/18

6. Dossier to China (DTC - all of our paperwork in China): 12/10/18
7. Dossier Logged In Date (LID): 12/13/18
8. Chinese Referral Acceptance (RA): 
9. I-800 Submitted: 
10. I-800 approval:
11. Guz#: 
12. DS-260: 
13. Article 5 Dropoff: 
14. Article 5 Pickup:
15. Travel Approval:
16. Departure Date:
17. Gotcha Day:
18. Return Home:

A side by side comparison may be a better help...

For More Updates on our adoption and for ways to help, check out this webpage from Lifesong: https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/the-carls-adopt-again/

Log In Date - Our Dossier Officially Is In China!

So our paperwork made it to China on December 10th and was officially “logged in” a few days later on December 13th.  Since we have already “accepted a referal”, being pre-approved to adopt a specific 11 year old girl, our next step will give us full approval to adopt her.  Prayerfully we will recieve our “Letter of Acceptance” (LOA) in 6-8 weeks (end of January through mid-February).  Once we have our LOA we can share pictures of our daughter-to-be 🙂

Adoption Grants

Adoption Grants take a TON of time, energy, and dedication.  In our first adoption we were blessed with over $30,000 grants and donations.  It was a blessing to have others come alongside us so that together we could bring our new daughter home.  We have been blessed again by several of these groups with grants and have already been given over $10,000 with donations included.  We hope these links are helpful to you if you are considering adoption!  We know that the financial obstacle is real to many, but we also want you to be encouraged by the presence and reality of many who will generously support you in your dream of adoption.

The adoption grant process is quite overwhelming.  Oftentimes deadlines are easily missed because of the biannual cycles of many groups.  Other grants have enormous numbers of applications that makes receiving of a grant extremely difficult.  Sometimes grant organizations close or run out of funds, but it is always worth looking into if you are adopting.  Here are some of the grants and fundraising avenues we have applied for or explored:

1. Hand In Hand Adoption - www.handinhandadopt.org
2. SBC - NAMB - for Pastors & Ministers - http://www.namb.net/SBC_Adoption_Fund_for_Ministers/
3. Lifesong for Orphans - https://lifesong.org/adoption/ 
4. Mud Love - fundraising project, buy or host online, bracelets, mugs, etc. - AWESOME FOR FUNDRAISERS!!! We have sold 300 of these bracelets very quickly :) https://overflow.mudlove.com/collections/fundraiser-kits 
5. Katelyn’s Fund - http://www.katelynsfund.org 
6. JSC Foundation Adoption Grant - http://www.jscfoundation.org/ 
7. Families Outreach - http://familiesoutreach.org/adoption-grant-program/ 
8. Show Hope - www.showhope.org 
9. Help Us Adopt - https://www.helpusadopt.org/apply  
10. Forever Families Foundation - https://www.4everfamiliesfoundation.org 
11. National Adoption Foundation - http://www.fundyouradoption.org/adoption-grant-application/ 
12. Room for One More - http://roomforonemorechild.org/adoption-aid/
13. God’s Grace Adoption Ministry - https://ggam.org 
14. A Child Waits - https://www.achildwaits.org/adoption-grants.html   
15. Gift of Adoption Fund - https://giftofadoption.org/apply-for-a-grant/ 
16. The Buescher Foundation - http://www.thebuescherfoundation.org (domestic adoptions only)
17. Lydia Fund - http://lydiafund.org 
18. Heart of the Bride - http://www.heartofthebride.org/adopt
19. Both Hands - project for a widow that doubles as a fundraising project for adoption - https://bothhands.org/how-it-works
20. ABBA Fund - crowd funding http://www.abbafund.org/how-we-help/family-adoption-funds/ 
21. Saving Children - http://www.savingchildren.net
22. Dream for Adoption - https://dream4adoption.org/apply-for-assistance/ (just for Home Study grants)
23. Gobena Coffee - 50% profit per item sold - https://www.gobena.org/fundraising/about/

Here are some of the MudLove bracelets that have been a huge blessing to our fundraising process: https://overflow.mudlove.com/collections/fundraiser-kits

Our Dossier Is Complete!

SO this happened...

Our Dossier (informally know as our “paperwork pregnancy”, the paper application for adoption) is complete after 5+ months of hard work.  It made it through the levels of certification authentication (notarization and then certification through our county and state clerks before being authenticated at the U.S. State Department and Chinese Embassy in DC) and is now on its way to China, hopefully arriving on Tuesday 12/11/18 and logged in within a few weeks!!! This is a BIG milestone on our way to recieving our new daughter 🙂

For More Updates on our adoption and for ways to help, check out this webpage from Lifesong: https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/the-carls-adopt-again/

We Are Adopting Again!

We are adopting again!!! Currently, we have been pre-approved to adopt a beautiful 11 year old girl from China, who will be joining our family hopefully around the Spring of 2019!  

We wanted to share a small bit of our adoption journey with you:

Our Adoption Journey: Back in 2006, we felt we were ready to begin a family we never knew it would take us 3 years.  After being in and out of doctor’s offices and each month coming up not pregnant, we began discussing the possibility of adoption. Having watched several families in our community and circle of friends adopt, we knew what an amazing gift adoption is to both the forever family and the adopted child.

Our Adoption Commitment:We made a commitment that whether or not God chose to bless us with a child biologically, we would choose to help a child in need of a family and make them a part of ours!  After we prayerfully turned over the stress and worry of not getting pregnant to Jesus, we became pregnant.  God blessed us with two amazing biological daughters, but we never forgot our adoption promise to God!

Our First Adoption: Over four years ago we had the joy of following through with our commitment to God and welcomed Alia Joy into our family when she was 2.5 years old.  The journey to adoption was full of its own unique challenges, but we received so much encouragement and support along the way.  During this season, Jesus clearly showed His powerful hand and affirmation in many ways. Alia is such a gift from God.  Her personality is sweet, fun, and joy-filled.  She is a resilient, intelligent and hard working young-lady, who has endured 10 surgeries in her time with us.  Although she likely has many more surgeries ahead, Jesus has carried us through so much already that we are confident in Him for whatever lies ahead.

Our Next Blessing: The blessings we have received from God through our first adoption have shown us God’s clear will for us to adopt again.   In our second adoption process God gave us a heart for a particular young lady in China. Our new 11 year old daughter has been looking for and praying for a forever family for a long time.  All of the pictures and descriptions we have of her show her to be joy filled with an ever-present smile.  We know God has connected her to our family for a lifetime of blessings for both us and her.  We are in love with her!  We are thrilled and excited for the future with our future daughter 🙂

For More Updates on our adoption and for ways to help, check out this webpage from Lifesong: https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/the-carls-adopt-again/