Our Adoption Journey: Fundraising

International adoption, in general, can cost between $20,000- $40,000.  That number stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I saw it, years ago.  It might as well have been $1 million.  I remember thinking that if God wanted me to adopt a child from another country, he would have provided a better paying job for both of us.  Ha!  What I am beginning to realize is that God will provide us the money for this adoption, if that is what He is calling us to do, no matter how He chooses to do it.  He spoke and the world was created.  He can handle a few thousand dollars. 

Why does it cost so much?  There are just so many parts of the international adoption process.  First is the paperwork.  Every paper has a fee.  Home studies.  Physicals.  Fingerprinting.  Background Checks.  Passports.  Visas.  Adoption fees.  Then, there is the travel cost.  Two tickets to China and three coming home.  Hotel fees.  Food.  And probably so much more that we don’t even know, yet. 

Now that we are on this journey, it’s time for us to begin fundraising.  We need your help.  We can’t do this alone.  We need your prayers.  If you are willing and able, we would also appreciated your donations.  We know that God will provide for us through this journey, but we would love for you to be a part of it.  For anyone that donates to our adoption we have prepared a special gift for you (and our child).  Leah has created the artwork shown on this page to hang in his or her room.  We need your help to finish it.  For each person that donates through the online fundraiser, or any other fundraisers, we would like you to participate in finishing the artwork.  Once the artwork is finished, we will display it on our blog and hang it in our child’s new bedroom. 

Please think about supporting our adoption and being a part of our exciting journey!  If you are interested in contributing a donation, please click HERE to visit our Pure Charity adoption page.  Donations should be tax-deductible.  Visit Pure Charity's website at: www.purecharity.com for more information.

Our Adoption Journey, Step 1: Application Approved!

After three weeks of paperwork, our application was officially approved by our agency, CCAI. Someone out there thought we will be great parents.   Purple hair, and all.  So, we celebrated and ordered takeout.  Here we are, being ridiculous:




But really, it WAS exciting.  It is the first time that we have had a "yes" in this whole messy process. It hit me the next day.  In this whole mess with infertility, we have spent most of it looking at the broken pieces of the journey, wondering if we would ever have a family.  We never had a "yes". Until now.  So we celebrated!  And ate takeout food.  And took cutesy pictures of rocking chairs.  And grinned like idiots until our cheeks were sore.  And cried the happiest of tears.  I know that this will be a rocky journey, with lots of ups and downs, but it is one that I am excited to take!

Our Adoption Journey: The Beginnings (a post by Leah)

I don't know exactly when God first nudged my heart towards adoption. I just remember thinking that it was something I wanted to do. As we struggled through infertility, we continued to feel that nudging. Stronger and stronger.  We watched friends adopt. We read books. We prayed. A lot. In August, after prayer, paying off some debts and research, we started our exciting journey.

Why China? Lots of reasons. We never had the experience of being drawn to adopting from a specific country. We wanted an agency we felt like we could trust. Other friends spoke highly of their agency. We did our research. Our agency has been everything we wanted. Responsive. Ethical. Knowledgeable. Passionate. Kind.

Who? We will be adopting a little boy or girl from China. We don't know anything about her or, more likely, him. Contrary to popular belief there are a lot of boys that are waiting to be adopted in China.

When? We're truly just getting started.  There is 6 months of paperwork, called a dossier, to begin. After the paperwork, we wait to be matched with a child.  This can take up to 18+ months. There are so many variables, it's impossible to say. Then, we wait 9-12 weeks to travel to China for 2 weeks and adopt our child.

How much? An amount that seems impossible today. But, I believe in a God that spoke, and the world was created. I know that, to Him, this is not the huge thing that it is for me. So, we are blindly trusting. We plan to fundraise, save like crazy, apply for part-time work, write grants and pray like crazy.  More information about this in another post.

For those with a thousand more questions, keep them coming. I love talking about our adoption!!!