We need your help

Although we've adopted 8 children, this adoption is something of a first for us because it's the first time we've ever asked for any outside help in making all of this happen. It's an uncomfortable place to be, but the reality is that we dearly need that help this time around.

This adoption came as a complete surprise to us. One day (and for the past four+ years!) we were done, absolutely done, and the next - our Father in Heaven let us know in a very big way that we were NOT done. Our prayers have included a lot of "but-what-abouts," but the answer has come each time to have faith and trust that the help will come.

In the coming weeks and months, we'll be getting super serious about raising money to fund this adoption. For now, until we have our pre-approval, we're lying low to avoid letting our younger children know. It's such a long time to wait, and the wait is often fraught with so many crazy ups and downs, and we just want to spare them that as long as we can. Still, we are faced with mounting up-front costs that must be paid. So far, we're looking at $4750 in agency fees (which includes a $1000 grant we were most grateful to receive), $1000 for the initial part of our country fee, $2000 for our homestudy, and $550 for application fees. Another $1000 or so will be needed for document gathering, certifying, authenticating, and mailing.

Reece's Rainbow is a wonderful nonprofit organization that advocates for children with Down syndrome and other serious special needs to find families. People volunteer to advocate for specific children, fundraise, and pray. We have a family sponsorship listing there and have contributed to others' family sponsorships in the past. All contributions made are tax-deductible. As I said, it's a wonderful program, and any funds raised are available to help with the family's travel costs. However, the money cannot be used for any other adoption expenses, including those we are facing at this time. For that purpose, we've added a "Chipin" contribution box to the sidebar of this blog. Those contributions, unfortunately, are not tax-deductible because they go to us personally, but you have our absolute assurance that any contributions made there will be used solely for adoption expenses.

Our future fundraising efforts include having the mother-of-all yard sales in the spring, and we will be selling all of our Sonlight homeschool curricula. We will also look into other fundraising opportunities and will perhaps do some sort of a raffle. We will be as careful with our resources as we can so that we can contribute as much as possible from our own family to this effort.

This is a humbling and somewhat awkward place for us to be in, but we pray for your help in bringing our sweet little girl home. We know she is ours and that the Lord will provide a way.