Message From Evan

Adoption Update

Dear Family & Friends:

THANK YOU!! With your amazing generosity we have raised 50% of the funds we need to complete our adoption and bring our son into our family in just 5 weeks! We are humbled by your commitment to support us financially in our journey!

Just this week we were accepted as an official Cradle Family and we will be able to complete our Illinois home study update with this amazing agency that has been helping place children with loving families for 89 years!! (http://www.cradle.org/)

While we are working on our home study update, we will also be working on our dossier, the paperwork we will need to give the Ugandan government. We are working closely with Holt International the agency that will actually facilitate our adoption on this. (http://www.holtinternational.org/uganda/)

As many of you know, we have partnered with AdoptTogether, a brand new non-profit that exists to help families that want to adopt with raising the funds they need to adopt. We are their very first family and we have been able to start coaching some other families that are looking to work with them as well. (http://adopttogether.org/)

While our fundraising is going amazing so far, our agency has set a goal of $19,000 for us before we can move forward with the next part of our home study update. This means we need to raise at least $2,000 as quickly as possible. If you have not contributed financially would you consider donating now? http://adopttogether.org/thewittigs/

Also, would you consider talking to your family and friends and sharing our story on social media? We have had several donations from the friends of our friends already and are amazed by people’s generosity!!

Thank you so much for your encouragement, prayers, and financial support!! Without all of you we could not be moving towards our son so quickly!!

We love you all!

Andrea & Mark

32 years, 32 people, $32

I thought I would get a little creative with our need to raise funds to be able to continue on with our adoption journey. :-) I am turning 32 on January 7th so I put a goal out there on social media asking 32 people to contribute $32 (or more:-) to our adoption. I have been blown away at the 14 people that have chosen to donate on behalf of my birthday thus far. Thank you to all!!!

Each time I think and reflect on the ways our friends, family & acquaintances have have chosen to support our family - I get emotional. Now those of you that know me, know that is not much of a surprise, but I sit here in such surrender and amazement of the ways so many of you have loved us and supported us. In 5 weeks of asking for support we have reach about 40% of our financial goal. I am so amazed!

We literally would not be able to grow our family through adoption if it were not for AdoptTogether and our friend, family & acquaintances that have been and I know will continue to be so generous. We have a 60% to go, but we are EXTREMELY encouraged & feel so LOVED!!!

These words - THANK YOU - are not enough to express our gratitude.

https://adopttogether.org/thewittigs/

UPDATE:

Over 32 people contributed to our adoption on behalf of my Birthday and we are now about 48% to our over all $$$ goal. GRATEFUL!

Merry Christmas!

Will you join our community supporters?

Dear Friends,

Almost four years ago Mark called me on the phone somewhat emotional and said, “Andrea, we need to adopt.” He had just gone through an AIDS in Africa experience in which he felt the tug on his heart and deep desire to love and adopt an orphaned child into our family.

After listening to Mark share about his experience, without hesitation I said, “OK, let’s do it!” I have often thought, I am not extraordinary at any one talent, but one thing I know I am meant to do in life is Love. I have learned that being a mother is one of the greatest ways to be able to LOVE another human being. I deeply desire to love a child who no longer has parents of his own, to become his mother and love him for the rest of his life.

Now, four years later we are ready to grow our family again and this time we long to do it through international adoption. Last spring we completed a home study in California and last summer we received our USCIS (US government) approval. Currently, we are working on updating our home study for the state of Illinois, updating USCIS and working with Holt International‘s Uganda program. Holt is our placement agency and they will actually facilitate the adoption. Our hope is to adopt a little boy between the ages of 0 – 3 years old. We have been working on the adoption process for almost a year and we expect to work and wait another 8-12 months.

The adoption process has been and will continue to be long, emotional and resource intensive. We cannot continue to go through this process without encouragement, prayer and financial support from our friends and family. We would like to invite you to journey with us throughout this process.

Will you partner with us and support our family in bringing our Ugandan son home to our family?

If you have the financial means to support our adoption, no amount is too small or too big; $5 to $5,000 - any and all funds will help! Our goal is to raise $35,000. And, 100% of your financial support will go toward our adoption costs, thanks to Adopt Together.

We also very much need your encouragement and prayer support! Paperwork can be tedious, interviews are nerve racking, waiting can be hard & traveling twice to the other side of the world – things can go wrong or missing…we need a community of supporters to walk through all of this with us.

Will you join our community supporters?

We are so grateful for the love and support you have already shown us and we long to continue our journey together and share the joy of bringing our son home with you!

Love,
Andrea, Mark & Evan

Ways to support the Wittig’s throughout their adoption process:

1. Prayer. Commit to praying on a regular basis for our son, for us, and for this process to go quickly and smoothly.
2. Encouragement. Check-in with us. Send us letters and emails. Share your experience with adoption. Help us to remember what the work and wait are for.
3. Financial. We are working to raise $35,000 to cover the costs (legal fees, social workers, government documents, 2 trips to Africa) involved with bringing our son into our family. You can contribute by going to: https://adopttogether.org/thewittigs/

Adopt Together is a non-profit created to help families raise the funds needed for adoption.

Ways to stay connected with our journey:

1. Our blog: http://markandreawittig.blogspot.com/
2. Twitter: @WittigsAdoption
3. Phone, Email, Letters

Adotption

About a month before Evan was born in 2008 we decided to adopt.

As many of you know, last year we decided its was time to grow our family again, and began the adoption process. In December 2010 we started our CA home-study and completed it in March 2011. Mark's job change put a hold on things until we were settled into our new home here in IL.

Its taken a few months to get the ball rolling but we are finally gaining momentum in process with updating our home-study and we were accepted into the Uganda program with Holt International adoption agency (check out their Uganda Program info here:http://www.holtinternational.org/uganda/).

Mark and I are so excited to be working towards bringing another child into our family.

Race weekend in Minesota

Evan and I went up to Minnesota to cheer on my sisters and dad while they participated in the 13.1 Minneapolis half marathon. We also had the opportunity to cheer on Evan's cousins, Caleb, Mikayla & Anika at a triathlon they do every year on behalf of cancer and caner survivors (which Mikayla is a Leukemia survivor).

Both events were super fun to be a part of - cheering everyone on & celebrating these accomplishments.

Cousin's at the tri

(left to right) Zoe, Evan, Caleb, Anika, Ella (from Texas) & Mikayla.

Erlenborn family after the tri

The three, youngest in their family, cousins waiting to cheer the kids on as they finish their run.

Evan and Caleb after his finish

Mikayla and I after her finish.