Growing Our Family Through Adoption

We are ADOPTING! 

You read that right!! As some of you may know, we have been completing our home study process since September 2024. On 1/27/25, we received the email we had been praying for notifying us that we have been home study approved!! YAY!  

To provide a little context, we’ve always wanted to adopt, and it wasn’t a matter of if for us, but more about when. In 2023, we started to feel that the Lord was calling us toward adoption, so we actually started the adoption process soon after, but decided to try another round of IVF first. After our last failed embryo transfer in July 2024, it was made abundantly clear to us that God was calling us to grow our family through adoption, so here we are today and let me catch you up to speed!

As you can imagine, the adoption process can feel very overwhelming when you are starting the process, often leaving people not knowing where to start. After initially meeting multiple adoption agencies and adoption consultants, we decided to sign on with Christian Adoption Consultants (CAC) versus with one adoption agency. We were comforted knowing that we had someone walking alongside us helping each step of the way. I will preface that hiring an adoption consultant is not required as it does cost extra money, but we found it extremely comforting knowing that CAC works with ethical and vetted agencies. Hiring an adoption consultant has also helped by advising us through the home study process, creating our profile book (essentially a 20 page magazine of us that is provided to expecting mothers to market us once we are a “waiting family”), and they will assist us in the matching process all the way through the completion process. 

During the last few months, we have been working with Nightlight Christian Adoptions, a wonderful agency helping to build families in a bunch of different ways. With them, we have been completing LOTS of paperwork, including background checks, physicals, bloodwork, references, interviews, dozens of pages of autobiography, and about 30 hours of education in various topics such as grief in adoption, openness in adoption, moving from infertility to adoption, child development, and so many other valuable topics. Even though it was a daunting task, we found the education SO helpful! Today, we are finally HOME STUDY APPROVED and are now considered “a waiting family” so it is just a matter of time that we start seeing “cases” or what we call “situations.” 

For us, an expecting mother will come in and share with her agency what she is looking for in a family and what her desires are such as her “level of openness” or any other details that are important to her. Then the agency will find prospective families that match her desires. Our CAC will then present us with her situation, and if we think we would be a good match, we will provide her our profile book! If she reviews our profile book and agrees that we will be a good fit, then we are considered a “match”! To note, a profile book is a book that hopeful adoptive parents create to introduce themselves to an expecting mother/parents considering adoption. This book typically includes photos, personal information, details about our home, values, and lifestyle. The goal is to give an expecting mother or parent a heartfelt glimpse into who we are and the kind of life we would provide as parents.

Something that is important to note about the matching process is not all adoption agencies help expecting mothers find adoptive families the same way so each agency will uniquely navigate how they do their own matching process. We are going to use 7 different agencies across the United States. In the meantime, as we begin to see cases come in, we are going to be getting the nursery ready and start purchasing baby items so we are prepared for when we get the call!

We dream of a home filled with love, laughter, and endless support for our child. We want to build a relationship with our child’s birth mother that’s grounded in trust, openness, and respect. It’s our hope that this process will bring us closer to the child meant for us, and we’re ready to embrace the joys and challenges of parenthood with open arms.

What is next for us is to apply to the 7 adoption agencies and send them our profile book(s) that will be presented to the expecting mother when we see a situation that we want to present to them. Then we are just waiting for us to match! It’s a bit of a fun and exciting waiting game now after we get accepted to these agencies 😀.

What we need: your support

As we continue on this journey, we are so thankful for the love and encouragement we’ve received. Adoption is a beautiful and sometimes challenging path, and having a community like you cheering us on means the world.

1. Prayer Requests – Your prayers mean more than we can express. Thank you so much for all those that have been praying for us. We ask that you continue to pray for:

• Our future child: For their health, safety, and for the Lord’s perfect timing in bringing them into our lives.
• For the birth mother: That she stays safe, healthy, and receives all the care and support she needs. We pray for her heart, her strength, and that our relationship with her grows organically and beautifully.
• For our marriage: As we prepare to welcome a child into our home, we ask for prayers so that our bond remains strong and that we can face this new chapter with unity, grace, and patience.

2. Online Registry – If you’d like to contribute in a tangible way, we will be creating an online registry with items that will help us prepare for our little one’s arrival. Every gift, big or small, will make a meaningful impact as we get ready for this life-changing journey. More info coming soon!

3. Donate financially – In the US, the average cost of adoption can be $50k+ which covers home study costs, agency fees, birth parent costs such as medical care and housing, and/or legal fees. Adoption can be costly, and while we’ve been working hard to save, we know there’s still a long way to go. If you feel led to help in a financial way, we would be deeply grateful. Any contribution, no matter how big or small, will make a difference in helping us bring our child home. Also, thank you so much to those that have already helped financially. If you’d like to donate, you can do so via our adoption fund by Venmo’ing Bryan (@bryan-keightley). Fundraising can be sensitive so please ask us all the questions you’d like. We’ve prayed and thought about this a lot and we are more than happy to share our thought process. Here is a list of what we’ve spent so far and current expected costs. We’re happy to share itemized version for those that have made a donation 🙂.

Cost Type	Amount
CAC Services + Home Study Fee	$11,498.00
Home Study Requirements (CPR training, Education, Counseling, etc.)	$1,205.02
Subtotal (Already Paid)	$12,703.02
Est. Adoption Agency Application Fees	$4,645.00
Est. Adoption Fee	$50,000.00 (agency estimate and subject to change based on the actual case)
Est. Other Costs (Healthcare, Room & Board, Labor & Delivery, etc.)	$10,000.00 (agency estimate and subject to change based on actual case)
Total Costs	$77,348.02

4. Spread the Word – Adoption is a long road, and we appreciate any way you can help us raise awareness or share our story. If you know someone who has been through adoption, or who has wisdom or resources to share, we’d love to connect.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far (ESPECIALLY OUR WONDERFUL PARENTS, FAMILY, and CLOSE FRIENDS) and to those who will join us in this journey. We know that the road ahead won’t always be easy, but we feel so blessed to be walking it with such an amazing community and support system around us. We can’t wait to share more updates as we get closer to meeting our little one. Please continue to pray for us and follow along as we walk this exciting path toward parenthood!

With love & gratitude,

B&T