you know you want to smile. :)
Here is Baby D before his cleft palate repair.
He is such a cutie-- I could just eat him up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This fundraising thing is hard. It is humbling to say the least. It is pretty much my thing because John works all day. As a stay at home Mom, I have the desire to help out as much as I can to help bring our boys home. John is the breadwinner and does an amazing job of providing for our family, but adoption is still expensive. Really expensive. Homestudy costs, immigration fees, fingerprinting, notaries, apostilles, agency costs, foreign fees, plane tickets, etc.-- I have yet to find one adoptive family who just happened to have 30k laying around.
One thing I did this week that will save us lots of money was change our full coverage auto insurance on our vehicles to just liability. After calculating what we were paying for coverage vs. what our cars are actually worth, it was a big chi-ching. Baby steps. :)
I trust that God is in the driver's seat. He has put the desire in our hearts to do all that we can to bring these boys home, and we want to be obedient to that call.
If you have any fundraising ideas that I can do at home in my spare time (because you all know I have lots of it-- wink wink) please leave a comment. I would sure appreciate it.
Have a wonderful weekend.
I think you should sell your cinnamon rolls. What other baked goods do you and your kids make that would travel easily for shipping?
ReplyDeleteHmmm- Would I mark the package fragile? I wonder if they would ever make them to their destination if the postman knew that cinnamon rolls were inside!
DeleteHe is so adorable and such a sweetheart. We met "Doyle" in June/July when we went to get our son "Cliff" aka Joshua now. I even did my own blog post advocating for him. I have 3 pictures that we took of him while we were there if you would like me to email them to you! He is such a loving little boy! In fact, my husband said if we ever went back it would be for him :)
ReplyDeleteLisa, I would love whatever pictures you have of him! Thank you so much!
DeleteLisa, I got the pictures. Oh, you made our day. John and I were smiling at how well he will fit in.
DeleteI smiled!!! What a cutie!!
ReplyDeleteI think u should sell your bags at a set price . Teach the
ReplyDeleteGirls too ! I'm sure you can sell them 25 a piece . You have
Many followers !!!
Good Luck !!!
I agree, you could even set up an Etsy shop. Tell all your friends, neighbors, church friends/congregation, blog readers that you are raising money for your adoption and refer them to the site. Ask them what they would want to buy that you could make. You could even take some custom orders for bags/etc.
DeleteThis is not aimed for your family or any family who feels called to adopt internationally and I do know God to be faithful, but is informational for those who are feeling a call to adoption, but can't, for whatever reason, do so internationally. To adopt domestically through the foster care system in our state is virtually free in most cases. Our family has done so 3 times in the last 5 years and the most expensive one was a total for all expenses of $165. Some kids come with all expenses paid medical insurance if your family doesn't have that available. Many will receive a monthly stipend until they are grown. Some come with at least 2 years of college paid for.
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge need for families for these thousands of hurting kids who have gone through so much rejection and pain and with the financial help that states offer it makes it possible for most families financially to adopt.
Don't feel called to adopt, maybe you are called to do foster care, or maybe take a single mom who is pregnant into your home and make her able to cope with her pregnancy and not abort, or maybe someone's calling is to be of emotional support to a teen who has aged out of the foster care system. Kids aging out may have no place where they feel loved. No one to be their family at Christmas time.
God has called all of us to care for the least of these in some fashion even if it is only taking one of these kids you have shown into your hearts and bring them before the throne of God on a regular basis.
Carol, I agree with you that not all people are called to adopt internationally or locally. Or they are called to embryo adoption. Some folks just do not have the finances and while I have seen God work miracles to provide those funds so people may feel like they really are not able to financially support a child OR their professional job is working with children. We have a little guy in our family who was adopted internationally who is an adorable and well loved little boy. But, the cost was astronomical! I think it is sad that to adopt internationally costs so much money for travel, paperwork, gifts, etc. I'm not sure how I feel about that. However, I do think it's awesome that people like John and Christine are willing to go through the hoops to provide children with homes. Not everyone is a John and Christine, but we can all certainly find a way to help orphans or those less fortunate than us.
DeleteI agree foster care is a great way to adopt. Too bad there are so many rules. When we first adopted we looked into it and were told we didn't qualify as a family because of our house size. Families email me all the time how they are still waiting for a match after waiting over a year. It should be easier.
DeleteChristine, you are correct there are rules for foster care and adoption from foster care and those rules vary state by state. Our state, for example, has a rule that 40 sq. ft. bedroom space is required for ea child. I also believe that at least in our state their are rules about the maximum size of a family--exceptions can be made under certain circumstances.
DeleteThere does not have to be any long wait for matching to adopt from foster care. The more requirements a family places for the child they would accept, of course, the longer a placement would take. I believe all states have a list of children who are on a waiting list to be adopted. On that list would be harder to place children, sibling groups, older than 3 or with some medical need. Actually, I mean they are probably not white, blond, blue eyed, infants who look just like the adopting family. Local foster care offices in our state do maintain a list of prospective adoptive families, but a family can always go to their state's list of harder to place children, or can even go to another state's list site.
Another way to adopt through foster care is to become a foster family. Yes, being a foster family does open a family up to loss if a child is returned to their bio parents or family, but oh, the gift of love that has been given to that child during a horrible painful time of their lives. All 3 of the kids in our family adopted through foster care came into our home as foster children. 90% of children placed for adoption in the system do go to their foster family or to other bio family members.
I just did a quick internet search to find how many kids in the U.S. foster care system are currently on a waiting list to be adopted and found that number listed to be 107,000. That is 107,000 ready to be adopted immediately.
In my looking around on the internet a bit, I just read the bio of a darling 8 yr old who is living in a medical facility. Her doctors say that she could flourish even more if a forever family could be found for her. She has never had a forever family.
I would pray that someone reading your blog would feel God's call on their lives for that girl or some other child in need of love.
Oh Christine - he is gorgeous!!! :)
ReplyDeleteYou could design T-shirts for a fundraiser maybe??
Love,
Allison D.
www.togiveafutureandahope.blogspot.com
I am looking into it. I wonder though if people would want to buy them.
DeleteThe T-shirt idea sounds great! Perhaps with a Bible verse on it somewhere, not necessarily an adoption-related shirt, one that a more general crowd would be interested in. Maybe you can create something on zazzle.com? They have a lot of options, from mugs to clothing to water bottles.
ReplyDeleteA raffle for your bags maybe instead of just bidding?
And what about the cook book idea? Or is that too time consuming....?
He is adorable! I was thinking how you must be so excited to have toddlers again. Such a precious time. I have to comment also on the saving money thing. We too have been trying to tighten our budget, rebundle cable, phone, internet packages, refinance our house, get into different electric plans and save money anyway we can. I do want to donate to your adoption fund as I think there is no better cause than to bring these little ones into your loving home, but I have wait another couple weeks budget wise to do so. In the meantime,I saw a cute preprinted fabric children's first faith book at Hobby Lobby I bought and am trying to finish this weekend to donate for a raffle or fundraiser for you. It's not much, but very cute, and with my sewing skills it's about all I can manage. I think a raffle as Anonymous suggested for items, say $5 or $10 for an entry for items might be a good idea and raise more money.
ReplyDeleteA raffle is an excellent idea. I've seen other bloggers do this for different causes. They have their readers and friends donate items like gift cards, bubble bath & body wash packages, books, toys, handmade items etc, and then ask for $5 donations for each ticket.
DeleteChristine and Chelsea, thanks for the great ideas!
DeleteHi Christine! Sending lots of prayers for smooth sailing with your adoptions. I wondered if you have ever considered selling adspace on your blog? I have absolutely no idea how much $$ it would generate, but thought I'd suggest it just in case. ;) Best of luck!!!
ReplyDeleteI've inquired about adspace on our Smiles and Trials blog. This one is too knew to be considered. We'll see. Great idea!
Delete