So, by now you know that adoption costs a lot, and not just dollars. Adoption costs a lot of time, tears, and tedious nights doing paper work. BUT! God blessed me with the best partner to go through all the costs with.

Reed and I have thoroughly enjoyed every piece of the adoption process. We are officially HALF WAY through our home study! We still have certificates to send in, background checks, doctors visits, and so many more pieces to read, sign and read and sign again. Our signatures are getting pretty good, almost rockstar status actually :)

So, as we continue to move forward I am amazed at how much fun we are having. Reed is such a trooper. I mean I have forced him to take more pictures with me than we have in a really long time, and most of them involve self timer, lots of back and forth, stand real still, don't move, look here, smile, make a funny face ect. Last night I called him on my way home and said I needed to get some pictures for our new fundraiser, that he was gonna think I was crazy but to trust me it would be a good thing. He agreed he would help after he worked on the AC in his truck. So after 2 hours of working on his truck he came in put the head band on with no question and let me snap away.

I am so grateful for this dude and his ability to be goofy for the sake of our family. He is one of the hardest working people I have ever met and so not afraid to get dirty and take care of what needs to get done. But he is also the kindest, most loving, and fun person I know. I can't wait to see all the fun times ahead with our little Nica Nugget!

Now, back to fundraising! If you are interested in purchasing a headband or cowl you can check out our

Gathering Impossible

page through

ETSY

. Everything in this series will have a percentage of the sales going directly to Gathering Baby Lathrop. We have partnered with

East of These

out of Lakeland FL, each cowl and headband is handmade by them and a percentage of the sale goes to us! Our goal is to sell 100 head bands and 50 cowls, so please share the link and ask your friends to purchase a super awesome product and help us bring our baby home :)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/gracelangdon?ref=hdr_shop_menu§ion_id=19490724

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Holy Moly I can't believe all the love Reed and I have received since sharing the news about our adoption! I don't just mean on social media, but from dear friends and family that will be a part of our little Faraway babies life forever! Reed and I knew that we would have community interested in hearing our story and why we decided to move forward on something so many say is nothing but hard. We also know that this journey is going to be long and that not everyone is going to be thinking about it constantly like we are.

So when trying to find a way to tell our nearest and dearest about our decision to grow our family we wanted to give them a physical object that would remind them to pray along with us ever chance they get. As I was trying to use my creative juices to come up with something special to us I realized a promise that God had given us and that it applied to so much more than we thought.

At the very beginning of our adoption journey, like before we took our first step, God laid this verse on our hearts. It seemed fitting for our family that is spread out across the countries, so it ended up on our fridge as a reminder that though we see Reeds family very little God has promised to bring us all together. Then as our adoption progressed we realized the true reason this verse was put in our lives; a promise from God that He is going to bring our Faraway baby home!

We read through Nehemiah back in January when our church did a series called "Difference Makers". This series broke down the journey that God took Nehemiah on to restore His people. This was the series that broke our hearts, that made us realize we didn't have any reason to wait. God called us to make moves and He would take care of the rest.

At the time of this series, we knew our hearts had been broken but I don't think we realized the significance of the promise God gave us.

God gave us a promise that was written thousands of years ago, but it could have been written just for us. It fit so perfectly, and became something I prayed over and over again. A promise that truly has taken away my anxiety because I know God will make good on His promise to me.

"Even if your people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name."

Nehemiah 1:9

So when it came time for us to share with our family and friends it only seemed fitting to share with them the promise we were given. These little globes may not be the nicest things, but they are a physical reminder and promise from God. He IS going to gather up our little Nica baby!

If you are interested in helping us bring home this little faraway baby feel free to check out our funding page. We will be sharing many opportunities of how you can get involved, so stay tuned :)