Advent is a season of waiting for the birth of Christ.  It is also a time of preparing our hearts for the Christ child.  A time of determining what in our life needs to change in order to give ourselves more fully to Christ.  This Advent has had a special meaning to us as we wait for our child to be welcomed into our home.  We know that at the end of the waiting, the reward will be unbelievable!  And this time of waiting is preparing our hearts for the changes that are to come when our baby is in our arms. 
     During this time of Advent, I cannot help but think of Mary and the challenges that she went through being an unwed mother.  2000 years later, many women are facing similar challenges.  Many of our friends and family have inquired about what birthmother support entails.  No, we are not buying a baby or giving a birthmother cash.  But, we are here to help and support her.  We believe that all life is sacred, this includes the life of the birthmother.  The support that we offer the birthmother allows her basic needs to be met.  When the mothers come to the agency, the staff does a wonderful job assessing the needs of the mother.  A birthmother may be in need of a safe place to live, and she may have the means to pay monthly rent.  However, saving up the necessary first and last months rent may prove very difficult and may keep her from obtaining a safe place to live.  Our role is to assist the mother in caring for herself.  This may come in the form of providing the financial means to put down that deposit on the apartment.  Whatever the needs that come forward, we desire to show the birthmother that her life has dignity and she is deserving of support.  A portion of the funds that we are raising is dedicated to supporting the birthmother as needed.  Your generosity gives us the ability to show the birthmother that she is worth the gifts we can share with her.     
     Our profile is has now been sent to a total of 25 potential birthmothers.  We hope and pray that one of these birthmoms decides we are the family for her.  We pray that these (and all) birthmothers find hope and support in the challenges they are facing with their pregnancy.  We continue to pray for all of our supporters, please know of our appreciation and gratitude.  May peace be with you all as we wait in hope for our miracle baby.
Steve & Annie     

     Somehow summer flew by and fall is now upon us.  Over the summer, our adoption profile was viewed more than 200 times online and was given to 12 potential birthmothers.  Unfortunately, we do not get to know if these birthmothers ended up choosing adoption, choosing another agency, or another family.  What we do know is that we are praying for all of these birthmothers, we pray that they will have the grace and strength to make whatever decision is best for their baby.  We still pray multiple times a day for our baby, that God will protect them and bring them into our life quickly! 

     At this point in the process, if a birthmother selects us, our agency will contact us to begin the communication process with the birthmother.  This could happen very early in a pregnancy or as the mother is going into labor.  The birthmother could also be anywhere in the continental US, meaning we will pack up and drive!  Whatever the timing is and wherever we are called to go, we are ready!  We cannot wait to arrive at the hospital and look into the eyes of our little one for the first time. 

     We are holding all of you in prayer as we wait for our baby, please continue to pray for us. 

Steve & Annie



Still Waiting...

Well... We are still in the waiting game.   Our profile has been up for a couple months now and it has been viewed many times.  It has also been sent to some potential birth-moms.  Birth-moms can hold onto profiles for months before making their final decision.

We have slowly started putting a baby room together.  We don't know how long our waiting is going to be, but we are very hopeful that the right birth mom will be guided to us.

Thank you again for all your support and prayers.


Steve and Annie

Angel Adoption Visit

Today we were able to stop by the offices for Angel Adoption. It was wonderful to put faces with all the wonderful staff members. We loved seeing all the pictures of the babies who have been placed into loving families and cannot wait to have our baby placed with us! Thank you for all your support and prayers! If you feel called to support us financially in our adoption, please visit our youcaring page.

Love,

Steve & Annie

Home Study is Complete!

Another big part of our adoption process is complete! We recently completed our home study and it is on its way to our adoption agency.  This report was the last part that we needed to complete before our profile could be shown to perspective birth moms.  For those that are unclear what a home study is, we had to meet with a local adoption agency to have an extensive background check, interviews and have them come to our home to make sure we had a safe home. They send the report our agency and basically say that we are a good fit to adopt a child.
 
We are about to enter what might be the hardest part for us.... another time of waiting.  Our profile will go live on the adoption website in a week or so.  The birth moms will be able to see our profile and hopefully pick us.  Once a birth mom chooses us, our agency will contact us and let us know.

We are so grateful to everyone for your support throughout our adoption process.  Please know of our prayers for all of you.

Update on our progress

Update on our progress...
The contract has been signed and received by the Adoption Agency, our home-study paperwork is complete, our background checks are being processed. Now we wait, wait for the proof of our profile to be ready, wait for our background checks to clear so we can setup our interviews, wait for the baby that is coming into our family.  While we wait, there are a few things that you can help with!  We are so grateful to everyone who has already supported us financially in our adoption process, however we still have a little farther to go. If you are looking for a different way to help, we have a few opportunities...

1. A generous co-worker of mine is going to be hosting an online Thirty-one party April 1-15.  She is going to be donating 25% of her profits to our adoption fund.  So, if you have been eyeing up a certain bag, this is the time to purchase!  Not only will you end up with a great product, you will be helping us fund our adoption as well.  
2. We are going to be hosting an Adoption Garage Sale/Bake Sale on April 30.  Our neighborhood does annual neighborhood wide garage sales the last Saturday in April.  Here is how you can help, we are accepting donations of items to sell at our Garage Sale.  (**Note, unless there is a special circumstance, items that do not sell will be donated following the sale).  We are looking for bigger/specialty items to sell.  If you have something we might be interested in, please contact us!

Thank you again for your support.  Please keep praying for us, the adoption process, all expectant mothers facing difficult decisions and our baby.     

Another step in the works....

Our home study is officially underway!  We are hoping that by March 1 we will have enough funding to be able to officially sign our contract with the adoption agency.  We cannot express our gratitude to everyone who has supported us financially in making our dream of bringing a baby into our home a reality.  We are humbled by the outpouring we have received from our family and friends.

The next chapter!

My daughter and son-in-law, Annie and Steve Grass, are embarking upon a courageous and blessed adventure. That is, they are moving forward with an adoption process.  We ask your support – whether it be in prayer or monetary or both as they open themselves, their hearts, their home to bringing a new life into the family. This step has been 11 years in the making, as Annie and Steve both worked on and received college degrees, found careers, bought a home and made a good life for themselves.  We look forward to this next adventure - that of being loving caring parents.  Thanks to everyone for standing with Annie and Steve as friends and family.  Blessings to all, Marie Marden

Step 1: Accepted!

We heard back from Angel Adoption and they have accepted us into their agency!  We are very excited to be working with them and feel that they are a great fit for us and one day, our new little one.  We have many things to check off a list and a road ahead of us.

Our next few steps will be doing a home study, talking with a "family" lawyer and working with the agency to create a profile for potential birth moms to start getting to know us. This process of waiting for a birth mom to select us to take anywhere from 6 - 18 months, but the average for the agency is around 111/2 months. 
     
The hardest thing to do now is wait but also find the money to cover all the costs.  As you have read in our previous posts, adoption is expensive.  I don't want to ask, but If through your prayers, you feel called to assist us financially, we would be forever grateful. It truly does take a village to raise a child.  We have a compassionate crowdfunding site set up at youcaring.com under Grass Family Adoption or feel free to contact us directly.

Thank you all for your prayers and support as we begin this next part of our life adding to our family.

Steve (&Annie) Grass

Next Exit: Adoption

 

     Steve and I have both always had a love for children.  When we began our preparation for marriage, there was no question that we would be open to whatever children God wanted to give us.  We married young and anticipate being young parents.  This thought both excited and terrified us.  What if we were not ready?  We were both still enrolled in school.  What would we have to let go of in our current life to prepare for a baby to enter our family?  Month after month, we waited in anticipation for the timing to be right for us to learn we were pregnant.  Month after month, we lived through the emotions of being disappointed to learn we were not pregnant and the feeling of hope that next month would finally be our time.  It is amazing to us, you would think that after 138 months of disappointment, you would begin to anticipate the outcome and would not get your hopes up time after time.  However, we have never found that to be true.  Although the logical part of us realizes that it will take a miracle for us to become pregnant, there remains a part of us filled with faith that this time our miracle will take place.  The journey of infertility that we have traveled is a isolated and lonely road.  Infertility is not a common subject to broach in a public setting.  Over the past 11 years, Steve and I have often been on the receiving end of the question "So when are you going to finally have a little one?" or "Why don't you have any children yet, don't you want any?"  Although most individuals are posing these questions without any ulterior motive, the questions cause pain each time we are confronted with them.  What are we supposed to respond with?  We have come up with a common response of "We would love children, whenever God is ready to give them to us."  When we do respond with a more detailed truth of the pains of infertility, people are often unsure how to respond resulting in awkward silence.  Some people would come back with the lines "well you are still young, you still have a lot of time" or "just relax and it will happen eventually."  Although we knew that they were trying to be supportive, these responses left us feeling unable to relate to most others.  For our family and friends close to us, we have been honest from the beginning, do not hide your pregnancy announcements from us.  We love children, we are going to be ecstatic for another niece or nephew in our lives.  However, we have also been honest with our friends that despite our excitement for them, we do grieve for ourselves.    

     In 2007/2008 we began to look into the adoption process.  At that time we choose a very small agency based out of Minnesota.  We went into this process with great anxiety and trepidation.  We held onto the fear that we were too young to adopt and that we would never end up being matched with an infant.  As time passed, it became clear to us that although this agency was a great ministry, they were not the correct match for us in our journey towards adoption.  We decided to put our adoption process on hold while I went back to school for my nursing degree.  All the while, praying and hoping that our miracle would appear and we would become pregnant.  

     Well, I graduated with my nursing degree in December 2013 and my BSN in June 2015.  As time as drawn on, and I have settled into my new career, we have begun to pray about beginning the adoption process again.  This time, the process feels different.  Rather that being anxious and fearful, we are anxious and excited.  We feel that adoption is the process that God is calling us to in order to grow our family and become parents.  We have researched many different agencies, and have finally found one particular agency that seems to be a great match for us.  We wait with hopeful anticipation to be accepted by this agency.  

     While we wait, we ask for your help.  Adoption is a very expensive process.  The fees include the agency fee for advertising, adoptive couple profile management and birth-mother needs.  Then there is the fee to have a home study completed and legal fees required to process the adoption.  Finally, our child could be born in 44 out of the 48 continental United States, this may require last minute travel arrangements and housing for a period of up to 14 days.  We are asking for your prayers throughout this process.  Please pray that God will lead us to follow his will.  Pray for all mothers who find themselves with unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.  Please pray for couples who are suffering the pangs of infertility.  Finally, please pray for Steve and I, that our dreams of adopting a child will be able to become a reality.  If through your prayers, you feel called to assist us financially, we would be forever grateful.  We have a compassionate crowdfunding site set up at youcaring.com under Grass Family Adoption or feel free to contact us directly.  

With the Love of Christ, 

Annie (& Steve) Grass

August 6, 2004 was the beginning of our married life.  We looked forward to all the gifts and graces that would be bestowed upon us as we embarked into this new journey of marriage.  From the beginning, we have been eager for the day that God would make us parents.  However, God apparently had different plans for our life.  While waiting to become parents, we have directed our love and attention to all of our Godchildren, nieces and nephews.  Now, 11 years into our marriage, we feel God calling us to become parents through the gift of adoption.  We look forward to the day we are able to carry a child through our front door and welcome them home.  We are asking you for your help in fundraising in order to make our prayers and dreams a reality.