As many of you know, my wife and I are in the middle of the adoption process to bring home our first child. We are so far 4 months into the process, and have recently come to a standstill.
Our homestudy has been approved, which means that we have been cleared to take custody of a baby whenever the right situation presents itself. With that said, the “right situation” has proven hard to come by.
Over a year ago when we first met with our adoption attorney he gave us an estimated budget of our expected costs. We sat down after that meeting and setup a budget plan to save that amount of money over the next year to be able to start the adoption process. We worked hard, saved A LOT, and were finally able to secure the funds we thought we needed by January 2012.
When we met again with our attorney, he informed us that we may very likely have to adopt a baby outside of our state. If this occurs, which is very likely, it could increase our cost by roughly $10,000.
We were floored.
Adoption costs are already crazy enough, and now we find out that we would likely have to spend an additional $10,000!!
Needless to say, we were devastated and began scrambling to find these extra funds.
To Fundraise or Not to Fundraise?
We then began to run into a “moral” dilemma. Well, more of a pride issue I suppose. Do we begin working on adoption fundraisers, or just buck up our bootstraps and get an extra job to save the money?
Asking for money is never easy, but we also realized that we had a whole host of friends and family who sincerely wanted to help us. They wanted to support us. They did not want us to go through this alone. This realization made the final decision for us, and we began exploring various ways to fundraise for our adoption.
We made the decision early on, that we did not want to simply ask for cash. If we were going to do a fundraiser, we wanted to give away a product or service of value, in return for money.
After a lot of research we settled on two different fundraiser ideas:
Just Love Coffee
We love coffee, so this was a no brainer for us. This awesome company provides an entire system of fundraising where we will earn a small return for every bag of coffee that we sell through our storefront (basically we earn the profit margin for the coffee).
You get an awesome fair trade, custom roasted coffee blend, and we earn a small commission.
You can visit our storefront here: Just Love Coffee
A Forever Family
This idea is the brainchild of my wife, and it is entirely her project (although I have helped in a few small ways).
She has discovered recently her passion for sewing, and has found a way to turn this into an adoption fundraiser. She has started sewing little baby Giraffes, burp cloths, car seat covers, and Taggie blankets. She uses designer fabrics (Michael Miller, etc…) and created custom, hand made gifts which we have decided to sell on ETSY.
You can visit our ETSY storefront here: A Forever Family
It has been amazing to see the outpouring of support through both of these fundraisers. I share this with you to:
1. Let you know what I have been up to the past few months,
2. To encourage you to share these fundraisers with anyone you think may be interested in supporting us, and
3. To give you some inspiration for creative fundraising and encourage you to go for it, even if you are intimidated. It is incredibly uplifting to see that people truly are willing to support you, and you will be blessed beyond belief through the process!
OK, here’s my decidedly biased (I was adopted just shy of 6 weeks old – 30 years ago this month, actually) opinion. Adoption is expensive, but so is having a child period. Both my kids got sent to NICU after birth, and because of this, I ended up paying thousands in medical bills on top of my own bills for labor and delivery. There wasn’t a fundraiser to help me with that. When my parents adopted me, it cost them about $12,000 (that was for a private, domestic adoption in 1982), and they paid for it themselves. Do either of your jobs have adoption stipends? I know my husband’s employer gives couples looking to adopt up to $3,000 to help cover some costs.
Elizabeth @ Broke Professionals recently posted..How to Avoid Common Investment Mistakes
This is a very important information and I think a lot of people wants to try fundraising.. Anyway, thanks for this awesome post here!
Karyle recently posted..Learning a Foreign Language Can Be Challenging but Rewarding
I support the idea of fundraising. When you have a cause and also it’s a well being, you should proceed with that. I’ll share it on ma Facebook page. The adoption will not only feel your life with joy but also it will ensure a brighter future for a kiddo.
-Claudia
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Adoption costs were one of C’s main reasons for not wanting to adopt at first. My health insurance will cover if we have a baby. My company will only give me an adoption stipend of $2,000, and not until after the adoption is finalized.
We’re going with the agency we’re going with specifically because they income adjust their rates. We’ll still have to pay for an attorney, but that will just be for the final contract. Homestudy and the rest is already taken care of.
People have long sold Avon or Mary Kay and used the money they got from that for whatever it is they wanted. That’s all you guys are really doing- you’ve started a couple side businesses knowing in advance what you want the extra money to go toward. There’s absolutely nothing unethical about having a side business.
shanendoah@the dog ate my wallet recently posted..Exploring our Options
I would say work hard. Your family is going to help you no matter what. If you fall on hard times then those that love you are going to stand with you. My best friend adopted and it was EXPENSIVE. Much more than you are quoting here… But that didn’t stop her from living her life as if she delivered her baby herself.