The Adopted Closet in DeWitt!

Hello DeWitt!! My name is Brittany Berrie and I am the Director at The Adopted Closet! My  partner Branden and I moved to DeWitt a little over two and a half years ago now and have  loved getting to know this awesome community! We have three crazy kiddos that are energetic  and love to be outside. Montana is our youngest and loves all things baby and Paw Patrol.  Boston is our middle child and boy does he live up to that title; he’s loud and loves all things  trucks. Gracie is our oldest and has been a continuous blessing since the day Jesus placed her  in my arms at just three days old. She is the inspiration behind The Adopted Closet as we  wrapped up our eleven year adoption journey on July 6, 2021.  

I learned about Grace the night before she was born to a relative we didn’t have much contact  with. I could not stop thinking about her for the next couple of days and had an overwhelming  feeling that I would be apart of her life, I just didn’t know how. The first time I held her we were  bonded immediately and by the time she was four weeks old I was caring for her full time.  

When she was four years old I was granted guardianship. We had always wanted to adopt her  but knew that finances would be a huge obstacle.  

In November of 2020 my brother got married and a lot of family came in from out of town. As  my mom was catching up with my cousin Casie, who lives in Arizona, she asked why we had  not finalized Gracie’s adoption since we’ve had her since she was an infant. My mom explained  to her that the expense of an adoption was great and we didn’t think that it was something that  we would be able to afford. Casie immediately offered to pay for everything. She didn’t care  what the expense was going to be, she wanted to give us the permanency that came with a  finalized adoption. In January of 2021 we hired the attorneys needed to complete Gracie’s  adoption and six months later it was complete! Oh what a happy day that was!  

From the moment I found out about the blessing Casie wanted to give us, I struggled with how  to thank her. To simply say “thank you” did not seem good enough and as hard as I tried, I  could not express in words what this blessing meant to us. I decided that the only way to truly  thank her was to pass on her blessing to someone else. My mom, Gracie and I immediately  started buying clothes from garage sales and telling everyone about our plan to have an “end of-the-summer” sale to help another family with adoption fees. The community of DeWitt and  residents of surrounding towns rallied behind us and our cause. There were days that I would  go outside and the whole front of our house would be full of bags and boxes of donated  clothing items! We were shocked and overjoyed that so many people wanted to help. We soon  realized that what we thought would be one-sale to help one-family, would need to turn into a  store and a mission to help as many adoptive families as possible. The Adopted Closet is now  a nonprofit committed to helping adoptive families with outstanding legal fees. We were able to  help the first family after the adoption of their two boys was finalized in November of 2021.  

Our story has gotten quite a bit of media attention, not only locally but nationally as well. A  number of news organizations have published articles such as Good Morning America and  LiveAction News. We will also be featured in People Magazine so keep your eyes out for that!  This has been a wonderful marketing opportunity and a great way to generate more donations!  Our goal for 2022 is to pay for all of the adoptions that happen on National Adoption Day in  Scott County, where Gracie was adopted. We are still trying to figure out what the future holds  for the in-person store. Our four car garage holds a lot but we have quickly outgrown that  space. We would love to find somewhere that has a lot of storage room but allows us to have a  large store as well. Although the store in my garage is not open, we recently launched our online  store! You can donate and shop our online inventory at www.theadoptedcloset.com. Stay up to  date on our future endeavors by following us on Facebook and Instagram.  

Lastly, I want to personally thank this amazing community for your donations and continued  support of The Adopted Closet! You guys rock!! 

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