Our Next Great Adventure
Christina and Nelson
Sanford, FL
Nelson and Christina are ready to begin their GREATEST adventure yet! They will be expanding their family by adopting a girl, aged 3-5, from Taiwan.
Before Christina's cancer diagnosis in 2021, adopting from Asia was already on their hearts. Now, coming out the other side stronger in their faith and marriage, they knew the Holy Spirit was prodding them to begin this next chapter of their lives.
However, they needed to wait three years without a cancer reoccurance and obtain a medical waiver. With God's healing and grace, they will be able to submit the necessary documents and home study to Taiwan after June 1. Meanwhile, they are diligently working on all the paperwork, education, and completing their home study. A match could take anywhere from six to thirty-six months from the time of application with Taiwan.
We humbly share this page with you as a way to update our support system and provide you with information on how you can be a part of our child's story.
We have resources in place that should take care of most of the multiple adoption fees which range between $40 to $2,500 and are due at various intervals. We plan to cover travel expenses with points and miles when possible. The largest adoption fee we will be facing is a one-time fee of $8,300 that will be due upon receiving a referral.
Our support system was so generous to us during Christina's cancer journey and we are forever grateful for your prayers, words of encouragement, supplies, and financial support. We welcome you to join us on this new journey in whatever capacity you feel led to.
PRAYER! The best and most useful thing we need over the coming months is your prayer! Please pray that our home study process is swift and "easy." Please pray for the little girl God will have us matched with, for her mental and physical well-being. Please pray for Nelson and Christina's relationship, for peace and patience.
YOUR NAME! To begin piecing and weaving our little girl's story with our community together, we will be making a quilt to welcome her to her new home. Anyone who donates to this page will have their name embroidered on that quilt, wrapping her in the warmth and generosity of our community.
WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT! Do you have personal experience with adoption or know someone who has? We welcome your wisdom, funny stories, and encouragement.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about what's in store for us!
The total cost for a Taiwan adoption is approximately $35,000 - $45,000. All donations to AdptionBridge will go directly to Nightlight Christian Adoption and be used toward their adoption.
2 Family Updates
Donors
Ed and Patti Burkhalter
So happy for you. Praying for the perfect daughter to join your family.
Christina Eaton
So incredibly happy for y'all! Parenthood is the most amazing adventure of all!
Ariel + Bailey
Best wishes to you both!!
Ginger Updike
A dear friend once told me “God wants you to be a mother. Not all paths are the same.” That resonated with during a time in which I was questioning my faith and God’s intentions for my life. The truth is that God is great and it’s HIS will be done. I have no doubt his will is for you both to experience the amazing blessings of parenthood and I can’t wait to watch it all unfold. Love and endless prayers 💙
Maria & Tony Sirica
Continued Prayers for amazing family, brought together by the hands of God.
Kim & Brian Jones
Sending best thoughts to you both and to your precious little one!
Lindsay Hinesley
Can't wait to meet the newest member of your family!
Debra Walker
Wishing you both a successful journey on your next adventure to parenthood. Love, Debra and Stanley
Hi! All adoption updates can be found on our blog at https://www.livingrarely.com/adoption
We have loved reading all of the well-wishes we've received after announcing our adoption plans! We had hoped to get a start on the journey much sooner. But COVID. Then cancer. In 2022, we met with people from the His Kids ministry at our church, First Baptist Orlando. We were given some wonderful resources and recommendations and got in touch with Nightlight Christian Adoptions. Unfortunately, because of my cancer diagnosis, we learned we needed to obtain a medical waiver to potentially shorten our wait time to apply from five years to three years of remission. We spent 2022 and 2023 praying and asking for guidance and clean scans. In the summer of 2023, my oncologist wrote a letter stating my prognosis was good, and after consulting with Nighlight we determined January of 2023 would be the time to submit our official application to Nightlight. We were accepted and thus the paperwork and fee schedule has begun!
We are currently in the Orientation/Education/Background Checks phase. Once that is completed we will begin our home study which could take four to six months. But Nelson sees this as a positive challenge and is eager to see how quickly he can get all the paperwork done 🙂
We're also attempting to learn some Mandarin and have discovered some pretty cool Taiwan webcams for views of the country.