Leach Family Adoption Story

Dear Sweet Baby Girl,
Our Lily Grace. . . .Evidence of God’s Faithfulness and Grace. Lily Grace your name means pure, undeserved gift. We are so thankful to the Lord for you. We have waited 4 ½ years to have our arms filled—and the Lord chose you to be the one to fill them! We loved the idea of you for so long and had prayed for the Lord to act quickly. If He had acted when we had wanted, you would not be ours. We are amazed and thankful for the Lord’s work! There is so much interweaved in the joy that we have now that you are ours!

One month before you were born, we were pursuing adopting a different baby girl who is just 3 weeks older than you. On March 27th, 2008 we traveled to pick her up (you were still not born, but a week overdue. . .you would not be born for 2 more weeks!). We named her Amber Kate and held, parented and loved her for five days. Her birth mom changed her mind about placing her for adoption, so we had to give her back and come all the way home empty handed and broken-hearted. Little did we know that God was making a place you in our hearts & home!

Just two weeks after we came home, our agency called us with news of you! You were born on April 10th, 2008 weighing a healthy 9 lbs. 9oz, 20 ½ in. long! They said we could wait as long as we needed to pick you up, but we could not wait! We loved you instantly! As soon as everything was in place, we were on our way! The Lord provided in amazing ways—financially & circumstantially! There were over 500 people praying for us to be able to be parents and the Lord answered those prayers in giving you to us! You have been with us for three weeks now and we love the life you bring to our home. We pray daily for you to grow in the grace of the Lord. We love you so much and we are so glad that the Lord had us wait for you!
Love,
Daddy & Mommy

Why did we adopt?

We both desired to be parents early on in our marriage. The Lord prepared both of our hearts differently for adoption. For Katie, adoption was already a part of her family, with having several adopted relatives. Growing up with this “culture” it was a desire of hers to grow her own family some day through adoption. For Weyland, it was experiencing adoption through other church families around him. By observing their model and reflecting on adoption, he also gained a desire to grow his family one day through adoption. After we married, through physical circumstances, adoption seemed to be the Lord’s answer to us in fulfilling our God given desire to parent and share the gospel in this way.

Why Domestic and Trans-Racial?

(These reasons should not dismiss international adoption, There is a huge need to adopt from countries less fortunate than ours, we simply felt lead to adopt domestically.)

We investigated both international and domestic adoption. We decided upon domestic adoption for a few reasons:

1.There are many children here in the states waiting to be adopted
2.The timeline is faster
3. It is generally cheaper and less complicated

When considering domestic adoption, consider the fact that there are more African-American children waiting to be adopted then any other race. We felt comfortable with not specifying a race on our “child preference” application. Since there are many Caucasian American families waiting to adopt Caucasian children, we knew that we would most likely be adopting trans-racially. If you desire to adopt trans-racially, you should take the necessary steps to educate your self and extended family members.

An Example of Domestic Adoption Expenses

It should be a note of encouragement that we received $18,000.00 in adoption grants. It is worthwhile to apply to as many grants as are out there. There are application fees for most grants, but is well worth the effort and small expense. These estimates reflect our experience and adoption agency. Every person's experience could be different and vary with the agency they choose. Grants are dependent upon family income, etc.

Home Study: $1,500
State Background checks-1 for every state you lived in the past 10 yrs.: $60
Federal Background Checks-44.25/adult (not always required) $88.50
Adoption Agency Application Fee: $250
Profile Picture Book Printing (not always required): $80
Adoption Fee: $14,000
Lawyer Fees, forms, certificates: $3,000
Travel: $1,000
Estimated Total Domestic Adoption Expense: $19,978.50

This does not include little “hidden” expenses like cost of multiple mailings and grant application fees, etc.

If you have any more questions about domestic or international adoption, please contact the Alexis Orphan Care ministry leaders through the main information page.