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Exciting Announcement!

We have an exciting life update to share with everyone.

First of all we want to thank everyone for all the prayers and encouragement we have received.

As we all know, life is full of things you didn’t expect. We make plans and then everything changes. Well….we’re no exception. We had been pursuing adoption for about 2 years, a year of preparation and a year of waiting. Then, change. We have been so blessed by all of your support and we wanted to share with you our story, and the path that has lead us to the most exciting news.

Jaclyn had a major surgery in April 2018 that was quite life altering, in many ways. She has seen such a drastic improvement in physical health from this surgery and we thank the Lord daily for the gifted hands of her surgeon who helped restore her quality of life. This surgery also brought about some changes in her fertility. Some recurring issues we had were made better, and we found ourselves a year out from surgery, a waiting family, and fertility treatments seeming like a possibility for us again. We saw our doctor multiple times before making our final decision. We spent about 7 months praying and wrestling with having to go on hold as a waiting family with Bethany. When you are a waiting family with Bethany they ask you do not pursue any fertility work. If we wanted to pursue fertility treatments, we would need to go on hold. We decided in June to go on hold and revisit treatments – something we thought would not be an option for us again, but God had opened the door. We did a round of IVF starting in mid July and in August we got the miraculous news that Jaclyn is pregnant!!! She is due in April 2020. We give all glory to God who has blessed us with this precious life.

We are still planning on continuing our adoption process in the future. We have no idea what that timeline will look like but we are excited to see the Lord’s timing in that.

We covet your continued prayers as we prepare to bring this life home and continue to build our family.

We love you all,

Joe, Jaclyn, Lainey (our dog) and BabyDolan2020

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Waiting Family

The moment has finally arrived, we are officially a waiting family! It took us a little longer than planned, but we are thankful for the Lord sustaining us through some set backs and two surgeries! This feels like a huge accomplishment, the kind you celebrate with Thai food or Sushi (or both). We have no way of knowing how long our wait will be, it could be months or years. We humbly ask you to pray for us, pray for our future child. It feels as though the last 4 years have been about waiting and as we enter a different type of waiting we want to make the most of it and wait well. We will be doing another fundraiser sometime in the fall, keep an eye out for those details. We still have t-shirts! Check out the t-shirt section on our website HERE.

We were chosen to be a “featured family” for a great website called Honeycomb Hope, make sure to go like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram. A portion of their sales will go towards our adoption fees during the week we are featured – July 11th – 17th.

Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers.

Joe and Jaclyn

“For all its complexity, the experience of adoption can be reduced to this single dilemma: Shall we be driven by fear or shall we put our confidence in love?”

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December Update

It’s December already! Time is moving quickly and we’re getting closer to completing our home study. Originally we had planned on being a “waiting family” by mid-November but it’s now looking more like the end of January. Since our first post back in August we have felt so much love and support from everyone and want to express how grateful we are for all of you.

Many have asked where we are at in the process and what it entails so we wanted to give an update on our progress and what still needs to be completed. We are currently in what’s called the “home study” phase. This includes a lot of different paperwork, background checks, personal interviews, education courses, books to read, CPR training and a visit at our home with a social worker. Some of these things are now complete and we’re close to being done with the rest.  As we wrap up our home study we also will attend a one day adoption seminar on January 19th which will qualify us to become a waiting family. At that point the timing is uncertain. We’ve been told it could be anywhere from 3 months to 3 years before we are matched with a birth family.

As we continue through this process we are doing some fundraising if you would like to support us. We have been pre-selling T-shirts and are only a few away from hitting our goal of 50. Once we hit 50 we can order the shirts and get them out to everyone who has already purchased one (thank you so much!!). You can order the shirts directly through our website here and pay with Paypal, or in person via check or cash.

Once again, we want to thank everyone for their prayers, love and support. Please continue to pray that God would guide us in this journey and that we would be patient to trust in His timing.

J&J

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We’re Adopting!

We are so excited to announce that we are adopting! We have both
desired to be parents for such a long time and the Lord has led us to
adoption to grow our family. We will be updating through our website
dolanadoption.com, you can sign up there to receive email updates from us. Currently we are in the middle of completing our home study with Bethany Christian Services. We are expecting to be finished with that portion of the process by mid November and then we will be a “waiting family.” We will be adopting through their domestic infant adoption program. Please pray for our future child and us while we prepare to be parents. We are so excited for this next stage in our life, the blessing of parenting.

We will be doing different fundraisers throughout this time of waiting to be placed with a child. Firstly we will be selling t-shirts, those will be available in the near future on our website or if you live locally you can get them from us in person.

Again, we thank you for your prayers.

J&J