The Kelly Journal

We turned in the first chunk of our homestudy paperwork and the first chunk of fees to the adoption agency! Hallelujah, the process is underway!

Now we will set up times to meet with the social worker and work on finishing the rest of our paperwork. We get to do fun things like go get fingerprinted (did you know it’s all digital now? No inky fingers for us!) go to the doctor for physicals and fill out more forms (yay!).

Doesn’t sound too exciting to you? I suppose the tasks themselves aren’t too exciting but when you think of each one as one step closer to holding an itty bitty bobo in your arms and telling him/her how much you love them, how you’ve dreamed about them and how wanted they are… well, it puts it all in perspective.

Want to help us get to the next step? We need to raise about $500 more by the time we have our first homestudy meeting and another $3500 by the time we are matched with a birth mother. Click on the “costs” tab at the top of the page for more information on how to give towards our adoption. And keep your eyes peeled for our fantabulous t-shirts we’ll be selling soon! Oooooh, they’re fun!

This past week we received all the paperwork needed to begin our homestudy for adoption #2! Yay! There’s quite a bit of paperwork, but luckily, I have that strange gift of loving to fill out forms. I know, I’m weird. So, I’m excited to print it all off and start filling it out.

With the beginning of the paperwork comes the beginning of fees and therefore the beginning of another fundraising adventure. I know you were just waiting for us to announce how you can help fund the arrival of the fourth member of the Kelly family! Wait no longer, your chance is here!

We will be planning a couple of fundraising dinners like we did last time as well as other creative opportunities for you to get involved. In the meantime, we need to raise about $2500 just to get the process off the ground. Would you like to help? Well here’s what to do…

Make your check out to Tekoa 211 and mail it to us (The Kellys • 8204 E. 103rd Terrace • Kansas City, MO 64134). Tekoa 211 is a couple of awesome adoption-lovin’ folk who have created a non-profit so that families like us can offer a tax deductible way of giving. All the money you give will go towards our adoption. Also, please do not write our names on the check. And if you want to receive your tax deduction for the 2011 year make sure it’s postmarked by the 31st!

How much will we need to raise total, you ask? Well, that’s a good question and depends on a number of variables we don’t know yet. We are going with Hannah’s Dream, a local IHOP-based adoption agency. Because of this the costs will probably be less than if we were going with a traditional agency. The staff at Hannah’s Dream take minimal to no salary so that they can offer their services at the lowest cost possible. How awesome are they?! They are an amazing group of people dedicated to loving adoptive parents, birth mothers and children alike with compassion and respect. If we had to guess, we’d say the entire process from homestudy to finalization will cost us between $12,000-$30,000. That’s a pretty big range, we know! So, we’re just going to start where we’re at and update y’all along the way. The cost will depend on the state the birth mother lives in, whether she has medical coverage, her living needs, etc. We know no matter how much it costs that Jesus has our back because he loves this incoming little bobo!

We feel like adoption is not only a wonderful way to grow our family, but it is also one of the ministries God has called us to. It’s not just about getting a baby (although we do hope that’s the end result!) It’s so much more. It’s about offering an alternative to abortion. It’s about loving someone in a difficult situation (aka. an unplanned pregnancy). It’s about caring for the orphan before they ever even become an orphan. It’s about compassion. It’s about raising up a lover of God who will impact the next generation for Christ. So, with that in mind, we are inviting our friends and family to partner with us in this ministry and help us make a difference in the life of a birth mom and in the life of a child. Thanks!

Today is National Adoption Day! (and all of November is National Adoption Month). Courts around the country are open to finalize adoptions with a special emphasis on adoptions out of foster care.

We thought today would be a fitting day to announce our decision to pursue a second adoption! We’ve been thinking about it for awhile and finally got our act together this week to turn in our application to Hannah’s Dream adoption agency here in Kansas City. We still have a ways to go before this decision becomes a reality in the form of another member of the bobo family, but nevertheless we’re super excited! To sum up the process from here: we wait to hear if our application is accepted, complete another home study, wait to be matched with a birth mother and then wait for placement of baby bobo #2.

We’d appreciate your prayers in this time as we prepare and wait. For the right child to be placed in our family, for baby bobo #2′s birthmother, for peace during the entire process and for God’s perfect timing :)

Thanks! Love, Jason, Kara & Joshua