SHE’S HERE!!!

1,620 days.

We prayed. We cried. We struggled. We hoped. We believed.

I am so, incredibly happy to say, the wait is over.

We would like to formally introduce:
Charlotte Elaine Braelynn Kallstrom.

Her sweet birth mama chose Braelynn for a middle name. We found out about her Monday at 2pm and were matched at 4:10pm. We met her the next morning. Then we came home last night just in time for big brother to come home from camp. This has been the most redemptive, beautiful experience of our lives. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support the last 5 years. Thank you to Erika for picking Blake up and lying to him about where I was so we could pull off the best surprise of all time!!! We will share the whole story very soon.

We could not be happier.

She’s here.

WE ARE ACTIVE!!!!

WE ARE ACTIVE!!!!

For those of you who don’t know what that means... We are now able to receive info summaries on birth moms. When we receive one, we read all the information listed, and decide if we would like her to view our adoption profile book. Then she decides if she wants us to adopt her baby.

Anyway, we are SO excited! Things are already moving along pretty quickly. We’ve already received two info summaries within MINUTES of being active! As a comparison, with our last agency we received 2 info summaries within 6 months. So this company is 500 times faster because they work with hundreds of agencies instead of just one.

Thank you for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. Over the last FOUR years. Our waiting time is coming to an end. FAC has an average placement time of THREE MONTHS.
Here we go!!!

Adoption is expensive ($35,000 or more), and SO many of you have graciously donated. Thank you, we appreciate your help and love you so much! If you haven’t and/or would like to donate you can do so here:

https://www.paypal.me/gunnarkallstrom

Adoption Update

So, we have been quiet the past few months about our adoption due to the busyness of the move to North Carolina. Here is where we are at now:

Our home-study was approved on March 4th. We then had to do an annual update almost two weeks later. That was a fee of $375. Then an additional $150 to get clearances updated.

Today, we met with our new social worker and did another home tour. Which cost $500.

In between then and now we have been matched with a birth mom five times. Each time has been a "no". Or as I would rather put it, "not yet".

It has been rough waiting these past few months. Most days are easier than others, but when those rough days come, they hurt. When people ask me what the waiting is like, I always respond with this: "It's like waking up on your due date. You could have your baby today..but maybe not. That's every day until it actually happens. And that could be as long as 4 years or as short as one day."

If any of you know me, you know I despise talking about money. I don't like asking for donations or fundraising. But I will say that the outpouring of donations for our adoption is the only way we could afford this. When I say every dollar counts, I mean it. Currently we are up to date on all fees, with the exception of two. And that's because of our donations and saving every penny we can.

The next fee is $4,000 which is the matching fee.For when a birth mother selects us. And the final fee is the placement fee. Which is $16,000.

So that leaves us with a remainder of $20,000. Pocket change, right?! Thank you so much to everyone who has been vigilantly praying over us during this process. Also, to those of you who have donated, thank you it means SO much to us.

If you would like to donate, please feel free to click the link below.
paypal.me/gunnarkallstrom

-Brooke 

The last 6 months

A LOT had happened in the past 6 months since our last blog post:

•Our home study was finally APPROVED on March 4th. 

•We've had four "no's" so far 

•We moved from Alabama to North Carolina in May.  

Today we had a home study meeting with our new social worker. She visited our home for about 30 minutes, interviewed us, updated some paperwork  and toured our house. We also paid a $500 fee for the home study update and relocation amendment since we moved from Alabama to North Carolina. 

We are in the "waiting process". They said that this would be the hardest part and it definitely is! 

These are essentials when a social worker comes to inspect your home (or so we thought, she actually didn't even check for them..) 

                                       *Our puzzle fundraiser is still going on.*

If you would like to buy a puzzle piece (or more!) please click here ---> donate

Reminder of how this works:

We have 1,008 piece puzzle. Each piece is worth $10, which makes the entire puzzle worth $10,080. Every piece will have the donors name on it. After the puzzle is complete we will double side frame it and hang it in the nursery so our child can see who helped bring her home.* We've currently sold 247 pieces and there are 761 still available. 

We are SO incredibly thankful for all of your support, emotionally and financially! We couldn't do this with out your help.


-Gunnar

Puzzle!

Hey guys!

It's been awhile since I've written anything. The process has been going well, we are waiting for our home-study and our profile to be approved. Hopefully that will be done by the end of the month or January at the latest.

We have a new fundraiser! It's a puzzle!

Here's how it works:

There are 1,008 pieces to the puzzle. Each piece is worth $10. Which means the puzzle will end up raising $10,080!!! 

When you buy a piece (or more) we will write your name on the back of the puzzle piece(s).

Every week, We will show an updated version of the puzzle coming together with all of the wonderful names displayed.

Once the puzzle is completed, we will reveal the picture on the front! 

Lastly we will have the puzzle put in a double sided frame and it will hang in her nursery. So she can see who helped bring her home :) 

If you would like to donate please click here, or feel free to send it via PayPal - email me for more info!

Thank you for all of your love and support!

Brooke

Television Interview

A few weeks ago a public relations worker with gofundme.com contacted me and said that she wanted to share our story with the media. And so of course I said yes. About a week later, I was on my way home from work and received a call from a television reporter who wanted to run our adoption story on the news. They were doing a piece on how thousands of people have used crowdsourcing to help fund adoption and IVF. He was very adamant about filming us that very same day, and so we agreed. It was a mad rush to get the house cleaned and then of course he showed up 45 minutes early. We were interviewed for about 15 minutes and then right before he left he said that our story would be aired that night at 10 o'clock!!!

If you would like to watch the interview here is the link ----> 

http://m.waaytv.com/videos/?clipId=11898873&autostart=true

We all had our turn to be interviewed. Here is a picture of Blake from behind the scenes. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and love!

If you would like to donate, click here!

Gunnar

Prayers for Birth Mom

During our adoption conference, we were able to hear a Birth Mom speak. Her story was absolutely incredible! One thing she focused on were prayers, we could pray for our future Birth Mom. Here is the list she gave us:

Prayers for Birth Mom

God Puts Her in the Right Place at the Right Time

Her Safety

She Knows God's Unconditional Love

She Follows God's Will

She Finds Peace

She Has a Strong Support System

Healthy Pregnancy & Safe Delivery

She Knows She Made the Right Decision 

She Chooses the Right Parents

She Continues to Grow and Achieve Her Goals

Her Future Family

Such wonderful things to keep in mind while praying for our Birth Mother. I can't wait to see what God has in store when our stories meet.

Thank you for all of your prayers and love!

If you would like to donate, click here!

Brooke

Adoption Conference

Whew!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but we are back in the swing of things and have A LOT to post. Hold on to your seats!

On our way to the conference!

The weekend of August 8th, we were able to attend an adoption conference/workshop that was required to complete our home study. It was truly an amazing experience. We learned so much I thought our heads were going to explode. It was an emotional, exciting and informational weekend.

We were able to meet other couples that were also in the adoption process. When you are in the middle of it, it really feels like you are completely alone. But when we walked into that conference room and saw over 200 other people on the same boat, it is such a relief. Everyone in there was just as scared, excited and nervous as we were. There were people from all walks of life, all different backgrounds but all of us were on the same journey and had the same goal, to bring our baby home.

Throughout the weekend we attended a series of workshops, which were smaller groups and we discussed different topics that applied to our adoption journey.

The first night we got to hear an adoption story from birth to adulthood. Which was amazing, mainly because it was about our social workers supervisor, Christy's adoption. She was adopted as a baby and her parents told their story. It was amazing to hear how they told her she was adopted even before she could communicate. When she was a baby/toddler they would love on her and say "my darling adopted daughter!" Such a wonderful idea, because even before she knew what the word adoption meant, she knew it was associated with love. They also made sure that they always spoke about her birth mother with love, even celebrated her on Mother's Day.  They urged us to make sure we keep our adopted child's story, their story. and not to tell anyone until the are old enough to hear the full story. The last thing we would want is for our daughter to hear something about her birth mother or about her story from someone other than us. So we have decided that the details of how she came into our family until she is old enough to hear it from us.

The next morning we were able to hear from a birth mother that used Lifeline to place her son for adoption, when she was a teenager. It was a tear-filled testimony. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. It really brought us a lot of perspective. We learned how and what to pray for our birth mom, and how to treat her during the process. It was incredible to hear her story, and we truly learned a lot.

We did it!!

It was a great weekend, it was so informative and we left there feeling like experts on adoption! Plus since this was an overnight thing, we had to leave Blake with a friend of ours and he did great for his first sleepover!! Words can not express how thankful I am to have friends willing to help us that way. We were able to make it a little weekend getaway, too which was awesome. And of course we got our traditional treat, Krispy Kreme donuts :)

Thank you for your love and prayers!

If you would like to donate, you can here!

Brooke

3rd Adoption Interview

We are officially 75% done with our home study!! WOOHOO!!

This morning we had a meeting with our social worker, Meagan. It was basically about attachment and parenting. Which is something we are already doing, since we have Blake. She wanted to know what our philosophies on parenting were. We talked about discipline and reconciliation, and how we would parent our adoptive child. We told her that we get on Blake's level and correct him, and use time-outs. We were hesitant to talk about spanking, which anyone would be with a social worker sitting in front of you. We are honest so we told her that spanking is a last resort, and we warn him before and pray with him afterwards. She said that is perfectly normal and we are doing it the correct way and as long as we keep it up he will be fine. However, with adopted children spanking could be an ineffective punishment and can be a trigger for them. Especially if they were older when they came in our family, or if their Birth Mom used drugs or alcohol while pregnant. So she suggested a "time-in". Instead of sending the adoptive child to their room we sit with them on the couch so they don't feel unwanted. Such a great idea!

It was a very easy meeting. She told us that we are doing everything right, and to keep doing so! It was such a relief. Plus hearing a social worker say that you are doing a good job parenting is pretty much the best compliment you can get! We have one more meeting with her, which will be sometime next month. That meeting will take place in our home and will be about four hours long. She will go over creating our profile and get to meet Blake, which he is super excited about!

After our meeting Gunnar and I treated ourselves :)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

If you would like to donate please click here!

Brooke

Naming our Baby

Before we had Blake, I already had a name picked out if he was a girl. Now that we are adopting, that name didn't feel right. I came up with a long, long list of girl names that I liked. And then one night I had a dream about having our daughter with us, we were all playing at the park and I heard her name for the first time. It was such a real dream it was sad to wake up from. But, I knew then that God gave me her name which is Charlotte Elaine Kallstrom. I am so happy with it, and so are Gunnar and Blake. I can't wait to meet her.

Right after Blake found out what his baby sister's name was going to be he drew a picture, totally unprompted, he said its a picture of him and Charlotte at the park. If that's not a God thing, I don't know what is! :)

Hurry Up and Wait

    We are almost done with the Home-Study portion of our adoption. We just scheduled our second to last interview with our social worker, Megan. This interview will be about 2-2.5 hours, We have one more interview and a conference and we are DONE. Then its focusing on getting grants and raising money to pay for it.
    This week we have been working on making sure our references have sent in their forms. Hurrying trying to make sure all of our paperwork is in on time so we can be done with this by August. So we can wait. Most people say the Home-Study is the worst part of the adoption process. I have a feeling this will be the easiest. Mainly because we have something to do, when our profile is created all we can do is wait. And wait. Until something happens. That sounds worse than having something to do. We are praying expectantly that we won't have to wait very long. We will have to keep ourselves busy. For now, we hurry through the mountains of paperwork so we can wait to meet our daughter.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support! If you would like to donate please do so, here!

Brooke
 

A letter of love

A few months ago Pastor Leisa at our church gave me some advice about our adoption process. The first thing she said to me was " Girl you about to have the ride of your life!!" She is so right! It has already been crazy! Another thing she suggested was to get a nice journal and write to future child. Most adopted children don't know much about their birth parents or where they came from; but it will be really nice for her to be able read about our journey. This will include prayers, updates on the process, things her big brother says about meeting her, quotes and Bible verses.

Our adoption journal

I am calling this our love letter. I may not be able to labor and give birth to her but I will show her through this journal all the blood, sweat and tears we put into bringing her home. It is encouraging when I write in it, because with each journal entry we are that much closer to the finish line.

Thank you SO much for your love and support! If you would like to donate please do so here.

Brooke

Let the fundraising begin!

Our agency's fee for our adoption is $24,500. That is just the fee for the agency. That doesn't include $250 in multiple background checks, child abuse clearances, possible plane tickets, hotel stays and not to mention thousands of dollars in legal fees. Which puts us closer to $30,000 - $35,000. 

Here is a break down:

Application Fee: $250

First Home Study Fee: $875

Last Home Study Fee: $875

Profile Submission Fee: $2,500

1st Match fee: $4,000

Placement Fee: $16,000

So, we started out with opening a Go Fund Me page. Within 12 hours we received $1,500. It brought tears to our eyes to see all of the love pour in so quickly! To date we have saved and raised $3,405. Which is awesome!

 Next we decided to send out fundraising letters. I typed up a letter explaining our story and included a little picture magnet of our family to remind the recipients to pray for us and a stamped and addressed envelope if they wanted to send money.

Blake insisted on signing his name on every letter!

A few weeks later we pulled everything out of our garage, plus a few friends donated and we had a huge yard sale! It was a decent turn out and we made about $300. Unfortunately, it started to rain about 4 hours early so we didn't get enough time to sell everything. But, Blake got to have his first lemonade stand! He was SO excited to help raise money for his baby sister!

So Cute!!!

Our next plan is to do a fundraiser night at some restaurants in the area. Chipotle will give you 50% of a bill if the customer brings in the flyer or donates their receipt. Which is a pretty great deal! More to come!!

Thank you for all of your love and support!!

Brooke

If you would like to donate click here!

First Post!

As most of you know, our adoption journey officially started in January 2015.  We were approved by Lifeline Children's Service to begin our Home-Study on February 2, 2015. So far the process has been flawless. We couldn't ask for a better social worker. Here is a little break down of the process so far:

                                                                 Our approval letter!
                                         
Orientation Interview:

This was our very first interview and meet and greet with our social worker, Megan. The meeting was broken up into three sessions. First, she interviewed us together asking various questions about our lives. Second, she interviewed us separately and then together again. It lasted about three and a half hours. Grueling. Gunnar and I felt like we had been sent to the principals office. However, the meeting couldn't have gone better. She emailed us immediately along with over 80 pages of paperwork! WOOHOO!

                                                                    So.Much.Paperwork.


Home-Visit Interview- AKA Home Invasion!!

For this meeting, Megan came to our home. I was positive she was going to judge me and my dirty baseboards and my garage that lacked any form of organization. I was completely wrong! She was simply there to make sure we actually lived in a house and had enough room for another baby. The meeting consisted of a lot of questions about our marriage and conflict resolution. It lasted about three hours, by the end of it we were both mentally exhausted, but incredibly happy to be done with our first home visit!

Second Interview:

For about a month after our home visit we had to put together our autobiographies. Which ended up being about 4 pages long for both of us. It was pretty easy, but a little challenging when it came to some questions. The second interview was done individually. Gunnar did his first because he was leaving to go to training for 6 weeks. I did mine a few weeks later. The meeting lasted about two hours and mainly focused on our autobiographies. Both of our meetings went great. We also learned a lot more about the process.

We have two more interviews and a conference in August and we are DONE! Then we will have an adoption profile ready to be shown to birth moms!


Thank you for all of your love and support! If you would like to donate please click here!

Brooke