Feature Family of the Week: The Foster's

The Fosters are a great family full of giggles and fun!  They have five children, and are excited to add more love into the mix with a new baby!  The Foster's have a great video showing the love and fun that you can find under their roof. 




They have some neat fundraisers on their blog too, go check them out at http://frogmama.blogspot.com/. 

 

As we kick summer off, lets KICK START their fundraising!  You know what to do!! Click the link below to back their adoption fund, send them $1!

Featured Family of the Week: The Schoenecke Family

We would like to introduce to you our new featured family of the week, Bryan and Samantha Schoenecke.  

I'll let Samantha tell you a little about their story:

In the fall of 2011 when we had been married for about a year and a half, we both felt like God was speaking to us that it was time to begin having a family.  The timing didn't make complete sense as I had been having some health problems, and we thought that a move might be in our near future, but we trusted God that His timing was/is perfect.  By the summer of 2012, we had had 3 miscarriages and really began to pray about where God would have us go from there.  We saw a specialist wondering if maybe we should do some medical testing, but God made it really evident that we were not to pursue any further testing, at least for right now.  About this same time, a friend of a friend asked us to adopt her beautiful newborn son.  We said, "Yes!" and were so excited to welcome him into our family!  Sadly, after we had loved this sweet boy as our son for 11 days, his mom changed her mind and decided to parent him.  We were heartbroken.  Our time with him did really stir our hearts for domestic adoption though, and after much prayer, we began the home study process officially.  In November 2012, we were matched with a birth mom who was expecting a baby girl.  We spent many long hours getting to know her over the phone and over Skype.  We even made two trips across the country to visit her in person.  After two months, she let us know that she too had changed her mind about her decision.  Now we are waiting to be matched again, and hopeful that our next match will be our precious firstborn baby!  

Even though it has not been an easy journey, God has been so faithful!  This process has really strengthened our marriage and united us as teammates.  We've also both grown so much in our relationships with the Lord and are learning to place our hope in Him rather than in the hope of growing our family.

As the Schoenecke's wait for their match, let's show them love, dollar by dollar.

Featured Family of the Week: The McMillian's

                I'm happy to introduce to you our first family of 2013, Brittany and Christian McMillan.  This amazing couple has been married for 8 years, and cannot wait to grow their family through a private domestic adoption.  They struggled with both male and female factor infertility, but through all the struggles, their desire to parents only burned stronger.  Brittany and Christian were in the process of starting the foster care process when they were lead to this adoption through a relative.   They are currently matched with an expectant mother due in February.  This was a very quick match for them, so they didn't have much time to prepare.  As they wait the final month before delivery, they are working on raising money to pay off the final lawyer bills.  Let's kick off this new year with a bang and show Brittany and Christian how awesome this group of supporters are!

For the next two weeks we will be featuring The McMillian's and we ask that our Give1 community donate $1 (or more) towards their adoption costs. You can donate to the McMillian Adoption Fund by clicking the donate button below. Thanks so much!

Featured Family of the Week: The Robison Family

Together over the past week, our Featured Family, the Caulks raised over $1,000 with the help of the give 1 community towards their adoption expenses! We have a new family we will be featuring from now until Christmas. In the meantime, if you would like to be one of Featured Families of the Week, please drop an email to Bonnie at onesweetworld67(at)gmail(dot)com for an application. We will be back after Christmas to feature some new families who need a little boost to bring their children home. In the meantime.....

Meet our new Featured Family of the Week....The Robison Family!

For the next two weeks, I'd like to introduce the Robison Family to you. This amazing family is hoping to complete a second embryo adoption. This is our first family we have featured that is in the process of completing an embryo adoption, so if you are confused about what exactly this is or why a family would choose this route to create their family.....check out Shannon Robison's info page here.

Rhea and Shannon Robison have been married for over twenty years and are parents to five children. The Robisons have known that adding children to their family through adoption was something they wanted to do. They first pursued domestic infant adoption and international adoption before moving to embryo adoption. Their daughter, Sarah, who was adopted through embryo adoption, was born in 2011. Now the Robison Family is hoping to add one more to their family through a second attempt at embryo adoption.

Like domestic and international adoption, embryo adoption requires a homestudy and background checks. It requires a "match" with birthparents. The journey to adopt an embryo requires much waiting, paperwork, and financing. At Give1, we'd like to help the Robison's move a little closer to the reality of adding their newest little one to their loving family by raising funds during the Christmas season.

Please take a minute to check out the Robison's amazing AMAZING video below that they put great work into. In their video they explain additionally why they have chose to advocate for those pursuing an embryo adoption.

"Well, a couple of months ago, our teenaged boys and their friends from church decided they wanted to produce a video as a gift to their family and to their future adopted brothers and sisters. They spent weeks planning and many hours filming, editing, composing, recording, eating not so healthy munchies, editing some more, and though they did not procrastinate, worked on the project until just hours before the deadline. Always smiling, even through sagging eyelids, these young men came with their Christmas offering. 

We pray that you are blessed by their efforts." ~ The Robison's

Robison Adoption Give 1 Save 1 from R&S Robison on Vimeo.

For the next two weeks we will be featuring The Robisons and we ask that our Give1 community donate $1 (or more) towards their adoption costs. You can donate to the Robison Adoption Fund by clicking the donate button below. Additionally, the Robison Family asks for prayer in this process as well as your social donation of sharing their message.

To find out more about the Robison Family and embryo adoption, you can check out their blog, Room for More Kiddos as well as their info page, What is EA?

Featured Family of the Week: The Caulk Family

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a restful and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday with their family. I am excited to let you know that I have gotten many emails from those interested in Featured Family applications over the last few weeks. Through word out mouth, Give1 Domestic is starting to grow, which is very exciting! Now that we are off our short break, we will be introducing two new families between now and Christmas as well as some other opportunities for giving this holiday season. First up.........

The Caulk Family

Scott and Dessie Caulk are waiting to adopt an infant domestically. They have adopted once before, bringing home their first son through international adoption from Kazakhstan in October of 2012 after pursing different routes to bring home a brother for their son Roman, the Caulks got word of a domestic match. The child they were matched with is due 1/23/13!!! The family has been feverishly pulling together the funds to pay off their remaining adoption fees. The Caulks still have $15,000 remaining to raise between now and January.

Roman is excited about the newest addition of a little brother and he would like to share with you some ways you can help below....

Let's help Roman out by sharing this link to the Caulk Family Fundraiser!

You can help the Caulk Family by donating $1 to their adoption fund by clicking below, giving a "social donation" by sharing this post through Twitter and Facebook, and praying for the Caulk Family during this last leg of their adoption process.

Click here to donate to the Caulk Family Adoption Fund.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's that time of year when we sit back and say thanks for all of the blessings in our lives. This year, we are happy to have all of our children home for the holidays. Although our adoption journey is completed, we are happy to begin all the new adventures involved with parenting our three energetic little toddlers.

I am immensely thankful for the opportunity Beth gave me to spearhead our new domestic blog to help families who are in the process of raising funds for their own adoptions. In this way I'm able to give back to families who are in the process of creating their own families. Give1 was one of things that helped us bring home our own children and I'm more than happy to help other families come together through adoption as well. 

We will be taking a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday from regular posting and we will be back on November 26th with a new featured family of the week.

If you are interested in being a featured family or becoming a regular or guest contributor for our blog, please drop me an email over my break this week. We are always looking for voices from all parts of the adoption triad to contribute.

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! 

Any Families Out there???

Just a quick check in since it has been a bit quiet around here lately.

We have so far featured 4 domestic families on our site since we launched over the summer. Together, we have raised over $3,000 for these families combined!

We are still looking for families to feature as Family of the Week. If you would like an application to be featured, please email me at onesweetworld67 at gmail dot com. We have had a lot of interested families ask for applications, but not so many returning them. So if you are waiting to turn yours in - now is a great time!

We are also looking for contributors for guest posts. If you would like to write a guest post, or you have a blog and would like to add a previous post that you think relates to our audience, please let me know. Some great topics include........

• How to choose an adoption agency
• Older child adoption
• Adoption from foster care
• Tips for transitioning
• How you were lead to adoption
• Birthparent support and resources
• Birthparent perspective
• Adoptee perspective
• How to prepare extended family for adoption
• Unique perspectives from transracial families
• Adoptions of special needs children

Your Partner in the Process,

Featured Family of the Week: Meet the Bolingers!

Please join us in welcoming the Bolinger Family to Give1Save1 as the newest Featured Family of the Week!!!!

Chris and Misty have been married 11 years and have a son and a daughter. Although they are a happy family of four, they still felt that someone was missing. As an adoptee, Chris and his wife Misty felt that adoption was a special part of their family that they wanted to continue. The Bolinger's are fellow BSU alumns (Go Cards!) and live in Zionsville, Indiana.

The Bolinger's have a completed home study with a local adoption agency and are hoping to raise the last funds needed in order to move forward. Their next step is to present their profile to potential birth mothers to see if they might be able to find a match for their family.

Check out Chris and Misty, and the two littlest Bolinger's, Max and Whitney below.....

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Let's help get the Bolinger Family a bit closer to adding the 5th member to their family by donating $1 or more at the link below.

From all of us here at Give1Save1, thank you Bolinger Family for sharing your adoption story with us this week!

The Bolinger Family is waiting for a match with a potential birth mother. If you are looking to make an adoption plan and are interested in contacting the Bolinger Family, you can contact their agency, ABL Adoptions c/o Cheryl Reed at 317-507-7628 for more information on their profile.

New Week, New Family! Meet the Sharpe Family!

Meet Dan and Katherine Sharpe who are an adorable and faith filled couple who are waiting on a son or a daughter to add to their family through adoption.

Dan and Katherine have just renewed their homestudy, which means that they have been waiting for over a year to be selected and matched with an expectant mother who would like to make a domestic adoption plan. Waiting is always hard, but Dan and Katherine have been faithful and are prepared to welcome a little boy or girl into their home in His time.

To learn more about Dan and Katherine, check out their cute little video below or their blog over at Waiting For Baby.

We'd love to help the Sharpe Family move a little closer to meeting their child by sharing their story and asking our readers to donate $1 this week, or more, to their adoption fund.

The current running total raise for the Sharpes is $107.31

If you are an expectant mother and would like additional information about the Sharpe Family or to view their personal profile, please contact Kristie Hall via Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota at tel:320 251-7700