You might know already that Sarah and I came home last night with our beautiful, perfect son, Oliver Navgale Lonsdale Bledsoe. He’s perfect. We’re over the moon, and we’re overwhelmed with all of the offers of love and support. So many people have asked how they can help, and we are so grateful for our village.

You might also know that we struggled with infertility for four years before we got to the point of starting the adoption journey and then bringing Ollie home.

You might also know that we are not particularly young parents, and many of you have been praying for weeks, months, or years for us to grow our little family.

You might also know that we have the two greatest sisters in the entire world, who both recently moved out of the baby phase into the toddler and young children phase, and who have showered us with pretty much all the stuff we could ever need. Throw in the hand-me-downs from some of our wonderful friends, and we are beyond blessed with stuff.

So here’s where it gets more awkward, because I am about to ask you for money. We chose to adopt through an agency called Cradle of Life in Beaumont. They’re wonderful, and provide loving, kind, and patient support to birth parents seeking to place children for adoption. They provide support connecting with doctors, getting healthcare, food, emotional support, counseling, postpartum support, and even parenting classes for folks who chose to parent rather than place. They do this work by charging placement fees to adopting families, and we think that it is money well spent.

In addition to our payment to Cradle of Life, we had to go through and pay for the home study process, where licensed professionals evaluate our fitness to parent before the adoption as well as in the time between placement and finalization.

Because of all these things, what would be most helpful to us is a financial gift to offset these costs. We have a couple different ways for you to give, and we hope that one of them will be convenient for you and speak to you. The first one is to just Venmo us! (Here’s a link to our Venmo page, or you can just go into the app and send money to @RevNayte) This is the easiest, there aren’t any fees, and we promise we’ll treat the donation with the care it deserves.

The second is to make a donation to our Adopt Together page. Adopt together is a 501c3 that is designed to help families like ours. You make a donation to them, they take a fee for their costs, and we then turn in receipts to receive funds. If you’re more comfortable donating this way — or want your gift to be tax-deductible — this is the route for you. (Here’s the link to our page on Adopt Together)

If neither of these works for you because you’re into Zelle, because you want more info, or whatever the case may be, reach out to me and we’ll figure something else out. Also, if you’re not in a position to give, we’ll take all the prayer and love and vibes we can get. Thank you for being a part of Ollie’s village, and ours. Bonus beautiful baby content below!

Love,

Nathan and Sarah