Know a Good Tattoo Artist in Indianapolis or surrounding area?

We met with our adoption specialist Susan yesterday...and we are excited to be "doing things" to get the adoption process rolling. Our homestudy has officially started and we are collecting our first round of paperwork to be used. We are looking forward to completing our homestudy within the next next month or so! That said, we have our first "chunk" of funds do at the completion of our homestudy!

I've got an idea...that I'm hoping will work, but haven't been able to find a tattoo artist willing to help. This is where all of you come in! I would like to find a tattoo artist who will donate a percentage of his proceeds during the month of November to our adoption fund. The catch is that we only expect his donation from people we send him! So, if you know of someone who could assist us with the tattoo's or if you are interested in getting a tattoo (what better time than now), let me know!

Did you know that NOVEMBER is National Adoption Awareness Month? What better way to spread the word:)

Feel free to re-post this and spread the word! Thanks in advance!!!!
The Brown's

Bethany Informational Meeting Tonight!

Tonight is another item we have to complete on our checklist...attending one of the monthly informational meetings at Bethany! We are looking forward to the meeting, but we are also going to meet a family who has adopted from Ethiopia prior to it. We have so many questions about the the process and their experience.

We have the initial paperwork ready to submit tonight as well.

Let the Homestudy begin!

First Payment...PAID!

So...went out for a great dinner with Jake for my birthday and we came home to some AMAZING news! Our 1st payment of $550 has already been paid for us! We don't even remember telling anyone specifically what it costs, but OMG it's done. We just received the request for the funds and paperwork this afternoon, and it's taken care of already!

Seriously, God is AMAZING!

Our little Girl will be home before we know it!

Formal Application...Accepted for the Ethiopia Program

We received an email today from Bethany Christian Services saying we have formally been approved to start the process to adopt from Ethiopia! We also received a list of 8 documents that need to be submitted so we can start our homestudy. This also means our first payment is due. Let the fundraising begin...here we go!

I'm ready to tackle all the documents...and get our little girl home!!!!

Couldn't ask for better news on my birthday!

It's been over a year since a post!!!

Well, where do I begin? In May of 2009 we were expecting to adopt a little girl. Instead, the birthmom disappeared on her due date. It was a horrible 2-weeks of my life. We couldn't locate her until then she had the baby and went home. It was sad, but in the end she had changed her mind and didn't know how to tell us.

During the Fall of 2009, we met another potential birthmom. Both times, the birthmom's just came into our life through people we knew. The second time around, we had a time to get to know the birthmom. When the baby was 4 days old, we were told the birthmom had changed her mind. It was very difficult to handle the second unsuccessful adoption. We had really expected this to turn out differently, but with domestic adoption, the mother can't legally sign away her rights until after the birth. I still keep in contact with the family, and wish they were doing better! The baby was born in January!

So, why start the blog back up again? Well, we are starting the adoption process yet again! We decided to go the International route and adopt from Ethiopia. It's going to be a long year+, but we are game for the adventure. I wish things would have been different, but let the new adventure begin. We are going to hopefully adopt a little girl who is 2 or under. We want to make sure that Jack stays the oldest child in our family. We are submitting our formal application today! It is my hope that you will take a moment and click follow this blog...to keep tabs on our family. This will be our main mode of communication about the adoption, fund raising efforts, and what's new with our family. We can't wait to share this journey with you!

Here we go....