the financial part of adoption awareness.....
In the world of adoption, there are many different spokes in the wheels. There are the obvious things, like the birth family, adoptive family, social worker, child, etc. But folks.....there are so many more moving parts......like the people who walk alongside families to help finance adoption. Grant agencies. Private donations. Fund raising efforts. These are very real and necessary pieces of adoption. With both of our adoptions, we did not have a nest egg saved up when we began the process. We were struggling financially, both times. It seemed crazy that God would nudge us to step out and do the applications, fill out the forms, prepare for the home study visits.....knowing we did not have the money.
In our community, Katelyn's Fund is a huge funding source, giving grants to dozens of families every year. This fund comes from church donations, fund-raising, private gifts, pumpkin sales, sweet corn sales in July......you name it, they will try it. There are other reputable grant agencies, that are also faith-based like ShoHope, founded by Steven Curtis Chapman, and many others......We were able to receive a gift from Katelyn's fund with our first adoption. We became part of that community of support and information and network, and since then our family has helped with blogging, fund-raising, technology and work with the orphan ministry in Haiti.
More than once, we received an envelope of cash from an anonymous giver to help with our adoption. Our lawyer cut our fee once because we were struggling to make payments. Friends came forward to change our home and make a new bedroom for our son, when we didn't have the means to do it.......financing adoptions is a big part of the wheels of this thing.
If you can, please be willing to do this part of adoption. Give a donation. Write a check. Pay a bill. Be a catalyst for a family to move forward and find the child God has planned for their family. Cost can be a huge deterrent for willing and able families unless we decide it is not. Buy the t-shirts and the water bottles and the bracelets. Withdraw cash on Saturday and put a $100 bill in the church mailbox of someone you know who is adopting. or who has adopted. or who may be praying and asking if they should adopt......if you are able, give even more generously. One of the envelopes I found in our mailbox 9 years ago had $1000 in cash. I. Kid. You. Not. I hope and pray that someday I can do this for a family who is starting the scary and uncertain journey to adopt a child. Until I can, would you? If you can? If you don't know of any families in this situation let me know. I'm sure I do.
In our community, Katelyn's Fund is a huge funding source, giving grants to dozens of families every year. This fund comes from church donations, fund-raising, private gifts, pumpkin sales, sweet corn sales in July......you name it, they will try it. There are other reputable grant agencies, that are also faith-based like ShoHope, founded by Steven Curtis Chapman, and many others......We were able to receive a gift from Katelyn's fund with our first adoption. We became part of that community of support and information and network, and since then our family has helped with blogging, fund-raising, technology and work with the orphan ministry in Haiti.
More than once, we received an envelope of cash from an anonymous giver to help with our adoption. Our lawyer cut our fee once because we were struggling to make payments. Friends came forward to change our home and make a new bedroom for our son, when we didn't have the means to do it.......financing adoptions is a big part of the wheels of this thing.
If you can, please be willing to do this part of adoption. Give a donation. Write a check. Pay a bill. Be a catalyst for a family to move forward and find the child God has planned for their family. Cost can be a huge deterrent for willing and able families unless we decide it is not. Buy the t-shirts and the water bottles and the bracelets. Withdraw cash on Saturday and put a $100 bill in the church mailbox of someone you know who is adopting. or who has adopted. or who may be praying and asking if they should adopt......if you are able, give even more generously. One of the envelopes I found in our mailbox 9 years ago had $1000 in cash. I. Kid. You. Not. I hope and pray that someday I can do this for a family who is starting the scary and uncertain journey to adopt a child. Until I can, would you? If you can? If you don't know of any families in this situation let me know. I'm sure I do.
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