Arnolds Adoption Adventure

Could this person be the one? Could this house be the one? Could this job be the one?…These are questions that may cross your mind as you go through life. But, you never this of yourself as, the one. Cameron and I, in fact, are the one – the one couple that struggles with infertility. 1 in 8 – that’s 15% of couples in America.

When Cameron and I were married 7 years ago, it never crossed my mind it may happen to us. To be honest, after the first year of trying to conceive, I could hardly bring myself to say the word. Infertility was a foreign subject and it took a while for me to admit that was now the category we fell into. I am typically a private person and found it hard to begin sharing our struggles to conceive with others. As time passed, the words may have come easier, but the emotions became harder. The reality that this would impact the rest of our lives began to sink in. Fast forward 5 years through extensive testing and heartbreak, we still had no answers. We began to pray the Lord would show us our next step to expand our family. For us, our answer was adoption.

We soon both began to feel a calling to contact an adoption agency. Cameron and I both felt adoption was something we wanted to pursue, but possibly later in our marriage. It was something that took serious prayer and consideration to initiate the process of paperwork, background checks and fundraising. Our adoption journey began last September. We are currently in the midst of  the process and could not be more excited! It still hurts my heart to think we may never have biological children, but we are doing our best to seek God’s will for our family. If that means that never happens, God is still SO very good. We know it will be worth it and while infertility is part of our story, vocabulary, and emotional make-up, we are working to push through and seek joy in the journey.

#niaw # infertilityawareness #oneineight #faithoverfear #iamone #gloriousunfolding #arnoldsadoptionadventure #ittakesavillage #adoptionrocks #lovemakesafamily #joyinthejourney #domesticadoption #ifnotheisstillgood

Due to high demand, and warmer weather on its way, we are now selling adult tanks (shown below in green, purple and blue) and children’s t-shirts (shown below in green and light grey) in addition to our unisex grey adult tees (first pic below)! Pre-orders will be taken now-4/20. To submit your order, go to the tab above and click, Donate Today! Thank you to everyone who has purchased a tee so far! Don’t forget to share a pic of yourself wearing it on social media using our #arnoldsadoptionadventure. We still need a large amount of funding, so keep those orders coming!

IMPORTANT – when you see the section below on the check-out screen, you MUST add a note stating size, color, and type of shirt (i.e. Adult Small Green Tank, Youth Small Green T-Shirt, Adult Large Grey T-Shirt, etc.).

Always Pray Big,

The Arnolds

As some of you may or may not know, adoption can be very costly, and we must reach a financial goal before we can be “matched” – so we need YOUR help! We are excited to announce that we are selling t-shirts to help fund our adoption! We enjoyed designing these and were thrilled to see our vision come to life! We are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported us thus far and are excited to see the outpouring of love and blessings yet to come. We would also love for you to share our story, so others may be encouraged.

Once you receive your shirt, please take and share a photo of yourself wearing it on social media using #arnoldsadoptionadventure. Check out ours below! This is a great way for us to build a visual scrapbook of our journey, which our little one can look back on as they get older and see the “village” that helped bring him/her to us.

To submit your order, click the Donate Today! tab above. The suggested minimum donation is $28 *or $30 for sizes 2XL and larger. IMPORTANT – when you see the notes section on the payment screen, you MUST state your shirt size (i.e. Small, Medium, Large, etc.). Size Chart is shown below:

Shirt art by: Kim Godfrey

Product provided by: Missy Pope at Branded Expressions

I’ll be honest, this week has been rough. We’ve learned the term paper pregnant is a real thing and comes with all types of emotions. As excited as we are, some days it has felt like we are drowning in a sea of paperwork, forms, and documents.

On a more exciting note – we are now ready to begin our ‘look book’ (a profile from which a birth mother would possibly choose us as the adoptive parents)! We only need $100 more dollars to fully fund this next step. Every little bit helps! Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far!

If you had to write a book about yourself, what fun facts would you include?

Our Home Study has been completed – Wahoo! And now we need your help to complete the next step of the process! We look forward to taking this next step together and involving all our friends and family. We realize we cannot do this alone and will need community support, funding, lots, and LOTS of prayer! We need emotional support, as the next steps are crucial in preparing our home and hearts for a little one. We need funding (to donate, visit the DONATE TODAY! tab) in order to cover legal and other misc. costs involved in the adoption process. We need prayers to help give us a peace that the process will happen as God intends and all the pieces fall into place perfectly.

Always Pray Big,

The Arnolds