Sumpter Family Adoption

May 20, 2022 Pilgrim has been home a little over one month. He is doing well. We met him on February 4 and we brought him home on April 4. We were in Boise exactly 2 months. God has been very kind to us. Pilgrim is growing big (he is over 11lbs). About the second week back, Kate got a cold (mostly a cough). Pilgrim got it the next week. He actually handled it quite well. We did have to figure out how to help get boogers out of his nose so he could breath properly. We are thankful that Pilgrim recovered well from the cold. On the adoption side, Pilgrim's birthmother terminated her rights back in February so that part is done. Pilgrim is currently under the legal guardianship of our adoption agency and we are his primary caregivers. The agency will turn over legal rights to us in a couple of months (that is called finalizing the adoption). They like to do two post-placement visits with us to make sure everything is going well (we did this same process with Epiphany). We did one visit...

Thankful for All the Little Things We know our heavenly Father had these and many other details all planned out for us. Here are some thanksgiving highlights: -He is healthy and growing. He is 5lbs 1oz. -Met him Three years to the day from when we sent in our profile book -We had no sicknesses when we were matched -Van tires had a slow leak and tire place fixed the morning we left -Adoption match fees came in about $1,000 less than expected so we used those for our first trip expenses -Traveling mercies for February -Nurses and doctors at hospital in NICU -Health and protection for Baby -Jan 19 Kate was sick but she recovered quickly before our match -Aunt and Uncle helped watch E on first Friday there -Church in Boise, we had several connections -Ronald McDonald House: free to stay, 1 block from hospital -Good weather in February so we could travel easily across the state -the first month he shared a room with another baby who required the best nurses so Pilgrim was getting the best o...

March 4, 2022 Update We walked into the NICU on Friday, February 4 to meet our little boy. We had walked into a hospital before when we adopted our daughter so we were familiar with things. But walking into a hospital is like walking into a strange world. Everyone is dressed in greens and blues, lots of new gadgets that beep, lots of different codes to give to get through, automatic doors that have to be opened from the inside. But everyone is cheerful. People were very kind to us. The NICU is on the second floor. We had to go through a Covid checkpoint at the hospital entrance but it was super easy. Our caseworker was with us. We then rode the elevator up to the second floor. We walked through a long hallway to the NICU. On the walls are lots of pictures of NICU babies who were born early and have now grown up. Each one is a picture of the little tiny baby and the grown up child at 10 years old or 15 years old. They call it the wall of hope. I tried to imagine how small the little ba...

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.” (Lam 3:22-23) God’s grace is constant and steady. Every day holds a lot of common and ordinary graces that everyone shares: breath, life, food, clothes, sleep, work, and laughter. And then some days God offers us a large dose and it reminds us of how surprising all his gifts are. We don’t own any of our days or any of our breathes. They are all gifts and they all come unbidden. God is superabundant and he just gives. Kate and I have been waiting and praying for our adoption for over three years. It was a long wait. Life was busy and God was very kind to us, providing us with friends to pray for us and also giving us the funds for the adoption itself. We were very thankful for those things. Very regularly we would have people ask about our adoption and tell us they were praying for us. Those quick conversations were encouraging little reminders from God. It was a whirlwind when God matched us with Pilgrim. We found out about the ba...

February 2022 We have been matched! Read More Here Our current need is donations for travel and legal fees. The baby boy is about 6 hours away and so Jesse is travelling every weekend to see Kate and the baby. The baby is in the NICU and he will be there until about middle of April. So Jesse will be travelling about 10 times over the next few months. Helping cover the travel fees would be a great blessing to us. We estimate travel fees to be $1000. To finalize the adoption we will need to hire a lawyer to set up all the paperwork for the court. This will happen in about 10-12 months. We are estimating that legal fees will be about $2000. We are very thankful for all the support we have received. Thanks to all the many donations! Ways to Donate: GoFundMe page PayPal: paypal.me/jessesumpter Cash App: $JesseSumpter Check: Use Contact Form at bottom for Mailing Info Ronald McDonald House Kate Sumpter #203, 139 East Warm Springs Avenue, Boise, Idaho 83712

Feb 8 2022 We are pleased to introduce our son Pilgrim Richard Gardner Sumpter. God is good. Pilgrim was born January 19 at 8:33pm. He was born at 27 weeks. He was 2lbs 4oz and 14inches. He is now at 30 weeks or 3 weeks from birth. He is doing very well for being a premie. He has regained his birth weight and is going strong. We have been working with our adoption agency for a little over three years. We met our son on Feb 4. Our caseworker told us that we had submitted our profile books to the agency on that very same day three years ago. It has been a long journey. We decided on the name Pilgrim because our son has a journey in front of him still. We have all been on a journey and we now get to share our journey together. Our son's full name means a wandering noble gardener. To wander as a pilgrim around in God's world is a blessing. We don't always know where God is leading us but He is a good father and He has prepared the journey and the destination for us. Bunyan'...

It has been several months since we posted an update for our adoption plans. Currently we are still on the waiting list with our agency to be matched. About a week ago we completed the yearly renewal process on our home study. It's a general update to the paperwork we've previously completed (fingerprints, home inspection, etc). We enjoyed visiting with our caseworker, and our agency in Boise has been very helpful. God continues to bless us with a smooth process. We are thankful for where we are. We have been on the waiting list a little over a year, but we know our agency is working to get us matched. We are notified when our profile book is shown to birth mothers. Our book was shown about twenty times over the last 12 months. We have all the required adoption funds in place so we are all ready for when we are matched. We would appreciate prayers that we are matched soon. But we know that God has a perfect time for us. Thank you, Jesse and Kate

Here is an update on our adoption plans. We have been on the infant waiting list since about the end of January. We don’t have any news at this point but we want to let you know that we appreciate your support and prayers. Over the last few months, we have been notified by our agency in Boise when our profile book (pictures and letters about us) has been shown to a birth-mother. We know that our book has been shown about four or five times over the last few months. We are thankful to be where we are and we are waiting for God’s timing in this process. We appreciate the inquiries from you all about where we are. Just this week, we received another donation on our Gofundme page . We have been very encouraged by the gifts and support we have received. We have the funds in place that we need for the adoption agency. We are still saving money for our anticipated legal and travel fees. Thank you for your prayers and support. Blessings, Jesse and Kate

An adoption in Idaho can vary in cost depending on the type (foster, etc) but with the agency we are using, the average cost is about $21,000 to $24,000. These funds go to our agency to cover their important work in the process. Here are the costs for our current adoption with descriptions for each part. Registration Fee ($250): This covers the paperwork to sign up. Training ($500): This covers the two days of training(~12 hours) that we received at the agency in Boise. Home study ($600): We are assigned a local case worker who comes and inspects our home to ensure that everything is safe: baby proofed, smoke alarms, etc. The caseworker also helps us compile all the documents the agency needs to approve our home study. The paperwork is about the size of a small book (~100 pages). The caseworker reads through and checks everything for us. Infant Waiting list ($4000): This is for the waiting list and for help compiling our profile book. The profile book is a description of...

As we began the process in September, we were planning to pay for the first few steps (homestudy and waiting list) and then raise the rest of the funds while we waited on the waiting list. That is how we did it on the last adoption. However, the agency would like us to have all the money in hand before our homestudy can be approved. This way we are ready with all of the funds as soon as we are matched with an infant. This means we are not on the waiting list yet and we won't be able to be on it until we have all the funds. Given this requirement, we have started a Gofundme page. We currently have $11,000 saved for the adoption. The Gofundme amount is set at $12,000 which covers the rest of the needed funds (that is, 10,000 for placement fee and 2,000 for travel/legal fees). We decided to do an online fundraiser to let others outside of our community know about our plans and so people know how to pray for us as we pursue this adoption.  Emily Wells, Kate's sister, is h...

Happy Thanksgiving!! After spending three days of non-stop fun with both our sides of the family, here's a quick run down of our thankfulness... *good food *tasty dessert *good jobs to buy the food *song books and voices to sing *many little people around the table *cousin gift exchange *friends and relatives asking about our adoption *a good Father from whom comes all our good gifts

A friend from church contacted us when he heard that we were hoping to adopt again and he offered to raffle one of his pigs that he had raised. Wow! What fun! He generously offered a whole hog, worth around $1,000. We were so thankful! We sold each ticket for $25 or 5 tickets for $100. Lots of the folks in our community were interested (we're in a super great farming community that loves good bacon!) so we kept the raffle open for two weeks to give lots of folks a chance to enter. We had the drawing in October and our friend hosted the live feed of our drawing. We entered all the tickets in a bowl, stirred them up, and drew two names. Both of the winners are families who have adopted and we're glad they won! The money raised from the pig raffle was $2500! The money went directly to our adoption fund to cover future fees like entering the infant program and getting matched.  Click the link below to watch our video of the drawing! Sumpter Adoption Fundraiser Pig ...

For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. Ephesians 1:4-6

The adoption process is a series of checks and balances to provide a safety net for adoptive families, birth families and adoptees. It can be long, but it's necessary.  Application - we applied to the agency in the Summer and filled out a short questionnaire. Infant Training - the training course that the agency provides is fantastic and worth every penny. The caseworkers who run it are the main caseworkers in the program. We'll be working with them later on in the process. They covered all the basics and answered any questions. Home study - this is a massive compiling of paperwork regarding personal history, family history, medical health and financial status, residence safety and other necessary information to assess the adoptive family's preparedness. As of November, we're finishing this stage of the process. Profile - this book is a short, 20 page collection of pictures and information about us and our life. It can contain info about how we met and o...

"But when the set time had fully come,  God sent his Son,  born of a woman,  born under the law,   to redeem  those under the law, that we might receive adoption  to sonship.   Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son  into our hearts,  the Spirit who calls out,  “Abba ,   Father.” Galatians 4:4-6

As we got started into the paperwork on the adoption process, we told family and some friends what we were doing. So many were excited and thrilled for us and a few immediately offered to help raise funds for our adoption! We were so thankful for these offers and as we moved forward and learned about what fees were coming up, we decided to ask them for help. We hosted a movie night fundraiser and showed Toy Story 2, which is a favorite at our house. We sold admission and also pop and popcorn. Lots of young families with little kids came and we were so glad! We had such a fun time talking with everyone. We were encouraged by people asking us about how things were going and we were very thankful for the support.

Open adoptions have been a new part of domestic adoptions. Previously, adoptions were almost all closed with little to no contact between the birth family and the adoptive family. *Closed adoption is defined as an adoption where there is no interaction of any kind between biological families and adoptive families. This includes no exchanging of identifying information such as names, addresses, family history and culture as well as medical history. *Open adoption is defined as an adoption in which both the biological and adoptive families have exchanged, in varying degrees, personal information and have the option of contact. There are many benefits to open adoption, but a big benefit is having access to medical history. This is very generous on the part of the biological family because it's personal, but when you go to the doctor's office and they ask for medical history for your parents or your grandparents, it matters. Genetics affect your health and it's so...

This past Summer we decided to begin the adoption process. We got in touch with A New Beginning Adoption Agency and applied and were accepted! We are so glad to be working with this agency again. We worked with A New Beginning with our first adoption and at that time we choose them because they were locally based and had a caseworker in our area. We also had friends from church who adopted through them; one was a domestic infant adoption and another was through the foster program. Both friends had great things to say about the support of the agency and the guidance they gave throughout the whole process.  After our application was approved, we went to the infant adoption training in early September. We drove 6 hours to get there and enjoyed the time in the car to talk. The training was fabulous! We attended sessions all day on Friday and then a half day on Saturday. We were fed meals and snacks and had plenty of time to get to know some of the other adoptive families a...

Jesse and Kate (and Epiphany!) are thankful that you are here. We are starting the adoption process in our home state of Idaho and we wanted to keep our friends updated on our process. We are still working on our home study. We are also trying to raise some more funds. The average cost of a domestic adoption in Idaho is about $24,000. We have about half of that. If you are interested in donating, more information will be coming soon. Please be praying that the whole process will go smoothly. Thanks!