The dreaded hiccup with an adoption

Adoption is such a great thing for any family to do! To bring a child into your family to give a better life, love like your own, raise up and equip them for the world. What a great feeling to know that you can help someone/s out. Isn't that what we are called to do? I'm sure more people would be willing to do it if it weren't so crazy expensive! For a China adoption right now you are looking at about $35,000. That just includes all the paperwork, fees, payments to the country, visas, travelling, and social worker appointments. That doesn't cover additional costs if your child has a medical need that will require attention when you return home.

That giant number really intimidates Aaron and I alot! Yes we have a way bigger house than we really need, we have way more stuff than we really need, we don't have any debt besides our house, we have a steady income, we have two working cars, and we have savings accounts started for the kids for college. And for all of this we are sooo very grateful. We try to live inside our means and be frugal with our money. BUT we don't have $35,000 dollars just waiting to be dropped on this adoption. We both know that God has called our family to go through this adoption. We know that he has this in our family story. So we know that he will help us and will provide for us this money. It's just super hard to see past that. Especially when life happens and things come up.  

One goal that we have set for ourselves is that we don't want to have to go into debt and take out a loan for the adoption. We just feel for us that God doesn't want us to go into debt and have that on our backs for the next few years to deal with. We want to be good stewards of our money and use it wisely. So if we don't do a loan, there are grants. Well we have filled out some for those but we don't qualify for many because of xyz silly reasons.  So another option is fund raising. I go back and forth so much with fundraising. I don't want to ask people for money. I feel guilty asking for peoples money. I don't want people to feel forced to make a donation for us. I feel like we need to earn your donation. I feel like since it was our decision to adopt and we knew how much it was going to cost, it should be on our shoulders to figure out how to get the money. But then I know there are so many people out there that love our story and want to help out in any way that they can. I know that God has probably put it on peoples heart to help families who are adopting. Maybe they don't feel called to adopt themselves, but they want to help other families. So I go back and forth. 

Some things that Aaron and I have talked about were things that we could make to sell to raise funds. We are both pretty crafty people and so we thought we could use that talent to help bring in some extra money to put towards the adoption. Aaron has always been really good with his hands. He loves to make things out of wood and does a pretty good job if I can say so myself;) He is currently working on a brand name for his business and plans to open a little shop and website where you can order things that he has already made, or you can place a custom order. I thought it might be fun to make some bracelets, tag fleece blankets, and bows that I could sell. I am already babysitting and selling Jamberry so I don't have a ton of extra time, but I have been pinteresting some cute ideas. Another idea we had was a garage sale. We have a ton of baby stuff that we need to get rid of and other odds and ends taking up space. We thought if anyone wanted to donate items to our garage sale that would be a way to make some extra money. And we have thought of a bake sale or even a charity work day event. 

After I started this blog, a friend of mine contacted me about wanting to help us fund our adoption. She is a local photographer and was wanting to use her talents to help us as much as she could. (She took our family pictures and the adoption announcement picture) So we have been brainstorming back and forth and we came up with a fun little event. On March 21st, we are doing a spring portrait party. It is a 15 minute photo session for your children and you will receive her services, CD of prints, and setting fee for $140. She is donating half of that to our adoption fund!!! And if you don't meet the requirements for the party, you can schedule your own session and part of that will go towards our adoption.  If you would want more information, you can contact me or you can go here. http://kathrynproto.com/portraitfriendsdetails/

So that's where we are now. If you have any ideas or you've been through an adoption, I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas, how you raised the funds, how you dealt with the guilt of asking for help, and so on.  And of course your prayers!!