The Count Down is ON!

We have started a count down for this baby boy to get here and guess what!?!  We have 16 days left!  We are so excited!  We have been trying to get ready as quickly as we can.  We are all so excited - Ella checks our countdown daily, and is usually the one to update it.  We have been cleaning and organizing the baby room, finding all of our old baby stuff, and buying some new baby boy things.

We  haven't updated anything about this adoption yet, so we thought we would do that so we have a record of it.  We got an email from our adoption agency in October (around fall break) saying that a birthmom would like to have lunch with us to meet us.   We met a few days later at Olive Garden and got to know her.  We instantly liked her and felt really good about the meeting, but didn't want to get our hopes up.  Well, our caseworker called us as we were driving home saying that the birthmom would like to meet Ella.  We set up a meeting for Friday (lunch was on Tuesday) at City Creek.  We got there and she gave Ella a present right off the bat.  It had a puzzle and bubbles in it for Ella, then buried at the bottom was blue binkies, and little blue booties.  I immediately started to cry and so did Erik.  Ella was a little confused, but soon we explained to her that meant we were getting a baby brother and she was excited.  Our birthmom also gave us a card letting us know she had picked us.  We were so overwhelmed and feeling beyond blessed.  We all went and got ice cream together afterward.  Later that day when we were talking to Ella about it and making sure she understood she said, "This just feels so right!"  We couldn't agree more.

So if everything goes as planned, the birthmom is scheduled to have the baby on December 14th.  She could definitely have it early so we are just trying to get prepared!

We do have quite a bit of money to try to raise in such a short amount of time, and will probably continue raising money after the baby is born to pay loans back.  We have already paid about 3/4 of what we needed to, but are still needing more.  We have applied for some grants and are waiting to hear on those.  And we truly appreciate all of the generous donations we have received.  We are planning a Christmas Auction on December 5th.  We have received so many generous donations, and would love to receive about 10-15 more!  We are also planning an improv workshop and show.  Lastly, we have our gofundme account (see funding tab)
and appreciate all donations there.

Thank you all for your love, concern, prayers, and support.  We have been continuously blown away and overwhelmed by the amazing friends, families, and even strangers who have so lovingly supported us in this journey!  We love you all!

Erik, Ali, and Ella

Adoption Update

We know it's been awhile since we posted last. That's because we have not been looking forward to this post at all. The situation we were matched with has fallen through. The sister of the birthmom decided she wanted to help the birthmom raise the baby. We have been devastated to put it mildly. It's taken us a couple of weeks to ourselves before we were ready to share this news with the world. We are doing better now for the most part. We are buying a house which has given us something to look forward to, and has kept us very busy. We also know that things will work out and we are continuing on in the adoption process. But as my awesome aunt put it "it still sucks."  

We appreciate all of your love and concern. And we will keep you posted on the journey. 

Guess What!?!

We are so incredibly excited to tell all of you that a birth mom has chosen us!
We are expecting a baby girl due May 27th!
We found out on Wednesday that were were selected by a birth mom whom we love and now we are just working out the details and preparing to add a little baby to the family.

Ella was super excited when we told her...(see video)

We will be learning a lot more over the next months and will continue to update about the journey through the process and all throughout the first year. We do know that the birth mom is planning on having the baby here in Utah and we will meet her in about a month.

The journey isn't over it's just beginning and the final push is going to be raising the money for this a heck of a lot sooner than we anticipated. We appreciate every penny and prayer we have already received, and please know that we understand financial situations (trust us we KNOW the feels). But, just in case there is someone out there who was waiting for the right time or something like that we will post the links to the different fund raising options we have, and we will be doing a few more things to help us raise the money that we need in the next month. We have plans for 3 more big events to help us offset the cost and some smaller things (Norwex and Noonday anyone?) but we will post those here as more plans get finalized.

Thank you for the love and the prayers, we know that this is a gift from our Heavenly Father. We know that many prayers have been said in our behalf, and we know that they came from all of you... Thank You!!

Erik and Ali

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/gunn-family-adoption-help-us-spread-the-love

or 

Visit our gofundme page at:

https://www.gofundme.com/cbhnyxbw

Erik and Ali's Adoption Fund

13

It's Official!

We got word today that we are finally official! Hallelujah! It's funny because Erik and I both feel like we have been at this FOREVER, but it has only been just over 2 months. We are excited for this next part of the process and are hopeful to get a baby sooner than later! 

We appreciate all of your love, prayers, and support as we continue on this journey! 

Erik and Ali

Share the Love

You guys!  We have started one of our fundraisers (we are hoping to have many - hopefully something for everyone)!  We are so excited to be selling these unique shirts for our fundraiser.  All proceeds of the shirt go directly to our adoption funds.  If it's something you're interested in - hurry quick!  The fundraiser end March 31st!  If you're not interested - it's not quite your style - please share with your friends and family!  We so appreciate all of your love and support in all of our efforts to raise money to be able to bring home our baby! Click the link below to check out the shirt!


Grab your own Gunn Family Adoption  Help us spread the love shirt before it ends! @BonfireFunds https://www.bonfirefunds.com/gunn-family-adoption-help-us-spread-the-love

All But There

Pre-Home Study Family Picture

We had our home
study on Monday night (we ended up having to reschedule from Saturday because Ella got strep).  We think it went well.  She checked smoke detectors and fire extinguishers,  and then we sat and talked (were interviewed) for about 2 hours!  Craig and Keri had to be interviewed as well because we are currently living with them.  That took only about 15 minutes.  She then talked to Erik, Ella, and me.  She asked Ella a few questions - like if she was excited to be a big sister, and how she would help me take care of the baby.  Ella then ran off and played with grandma and grandpa while we kept talking.  It was surprisingly fun and easy conversation.  We had to really think about our philosophies about parenting and marriage, but it was fun to do together.

So now we wait a little longer - there are a few more things we have to gather for our file, but I'm hopeful that that will all be taken care of by tomorrow or Wednesday.  Our social worker has to type up our entire 2.5 hour conversation (sheesh!), and then submits it to the executive committee of the agency.  They will review that, and our entire file, and then approve us (hopefully)!

After we have been approved we begin the matching process.  We have also decided to hold some big fundraisers to help us with the rest of the costs - we will keep you all updated as we get those planned!

Thanks for all of your love, support, and prayers!

Ali and Erik

Home Sweet Home Study

For those of you wondering where we are at in this process...we have our home study scheduled! We are having it this Saturday! Crazy! After the home study we wait (hopefully not long) to be approved. After we are approved we can start the matching process!!! We are so excited and so grateful for all of your support and prayers! 

At IKEA after turning in paperwork! The adoption agency is so close that we decided to make one of many trips out of it!