March 21, 2012

• How God Funded Our Adoption!!!

   Yesterday we got a great big anonymous donation towards our adoption. As I subtracted the amount in my little spiral where I have kept meticulous notes on our adoption finances I was shocked to see that we have less than $1,000 to raise to reach our goal. Today I spent 2 hours categorizing and re-checking to make sure I had not missed anything and sure enough my end amounts matched! I thought I would post this financial journey, as personal as it might seem, in a blog because I want to have it documented for myself, but also because I believe it is just too incredible not to put out there as a testimony!

  Adoption expenses:

  $6269 – This is how much we spent during the “paperchasing” part of the process. (The first agency fee, the homestudy, background checks, adoption training, fingerprinting and immigration clearances, as well as inspections and documents we had to order)

  $7200 – This is how much we had to pay our agency when we submitted our paperwork which is called our “Dossier.” (This includes our second agency fee, half of our international fee, money to translate and mail our paperwork to Ethiopia, as well as a deposit to pay for the homestudy updates we will have to do AFTER we bring home our child.

  $5360 – This is what we will have to pay when we accept the referral saying that we DO want to adopt the child that our agency matches us with. (This includes the rest of our agency fee, the rest of the international fee, and a couple of other complicated fees

  $1000 – This is an estimated amount we are saving to pay for #1 – our homestudy update – because it has been over a year since our homestudy was done AND because we need to be approved for a wider age range than  we were originally approved for. We have to fly our social worker to our area so that she can update it. (I love her but PUHLEASE!;) and #2 – the long list of shots Blake and I will have to get to go to Ethiopia. – YUK!

  $6,000 – This is an estimated amount we are saving to pay for the first trip we will be making to Ethiopia to meet our child and go to court to become his/her legal parents. (After court we will have to come home without him/her and wait for the US embassy to approve us to bring him/her into the US)

  $6,000 – This is an estimated amount we are saving to pay for the second trip to Ethiopia to go pick up our child. This trip will be shorter and cheaper except for the fact we will need an extra plane ticket because the newest Davis will be coming home!!!

  This totals: $31,829.

  In the past 18 months we have raised $30,920!!!!!!!  Absolutely Mind Blowing!!

  And this is where it came from:

  $4,000 – A grant from Show Hope
  $6,000 – A matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans ($3,000 from Lifesong matched in total by 1 person)
  $9450 – Our own money ( NEVER would I have imagined we could come up with this much!)
  $1160 – My Photography  (Wanted this separate to “thank” those who’ve allowed me to photograph their families!)
  $430 – Selling t-shirts, coffee, and headbands
  $1710 – 4 Garage Sales (we had 1 more that paid the majority of the overhead from the tshirts we sold)
  $4800 – 3 Donations of $1,000 or more
  $2820- 12 Donations between $100-$600
  $550 – 16 Donations under $100

  So for now we are just $900 short of reaching our goal!

  IF we get referred 2 children (siblings) we will need to come up with approximately $5500 more. I’m not worried though! We have prayed from the time we opened up ourselves to siblings 5 months ago that God would ONLY give them to us if He was going to provide the extra money (not just the $5500 – but the expense of a lifetime of 4 children!!!)

  Our faith has multiplied and our guts to say yes to God has exploded! The financial journey was the most daunting part in the beginning. And there have been times it has been HARD especially when we have felt judged. At this point, though, the hard part, by far, is waiting for our child. And I have a feeling that a few weeks into bringing our child home, the waiting part will look easy! That’s the pilgrimage of Christianity. He prepares us slowly and surely for the harder things ahead. But I KNOW that I know that I know that with the harder comes the greater reward. The most amazing thing that I am learning however is what the true reward is. It is not a big donation check. It is not someone “getting” the heart of adoption. It is not even our referral or making an orphan a son or daughter. The reward is Jesus Christ and the honor and privilege of surrender.

  • 5:30 pm
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