Friday, January 22, 2016
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
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Step 1: Accepted!
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
Monday, January 11, 2016
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
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. Saturday, January 9, 2016
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)