First off I have to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone who had anything to do with our yard sale fundraiser. Whether you donated items, money, time or prayers, you played a part in making Saturday's yard sale a HUGE success. The yard sale brought in $3,561 for our adoption!!! I am still in shock. I never knew a yard sale could raise so much money. I am so aware that the Lord had His hand in this the entire time. Saturday was even more affirmation to us that we are doing just as the Lord wants us to. That is such a great feeling!
Now, that leads us to a question I have gotten A LOT. Like a lot, a lot. I'm not keeping it a secret at all so I figured I would just break it down for you guys. So here goes…
How much do you need to raise? How much is your adoption going to cost?
The short answer is $33,000.
The long and true answer is probably over $40,000. The $33,000 is the amount we will have to pay to an agency that facilitates our adoption, but that does not include legal fees, travel expenses, our home study fees, or our contract fee. Our contract and home study has already been paid for by generous donors and our savings so we are now shooting long term for about $36,000.
Now, that being said… we can go active (meaning we can present our profile and match with a child) once we have $16,500 raised. Once we do match, we have to at least know where the rest is coming from (i.e. loan, savings, grants, funds raised, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg… haha).
So, our short-term goal is $16,500. The yard sale definitely knocked a dent in that as well as some generous donations from friends and family and our personal savings. Right now we are sitting at $5,561. So over a third of the way there! And about $5,000 of that happened over the past few weeks. God is working in amazing ways, and continues to make it abundantly clear that He is driving this and it's our job to hop on and trust Him.
So for fun, I'm going to keep a meter on the right hand side of this blog that I will keep updated on the amount that has been raised so far as it pertains to our short term goal. I hope you join us in anticipating all of this coming together, and we would love your continued prayers through this!
Oh and if you would like, why not head on over and purchase a t-shirt! You have until March 21 to order a shirt. The shirts are a dark heather grey, and there are several style options… traditional t-shirt, women's cut, child's shirts, long-sleeved adult shirts, and adult hoodies. Check them out below and CLICK HERE to head over to the tshirt fundraiser! We receive approximately 40% of the sales!
But I have also gotten some responses of disgust, and rightfully so. How could someone put a price on a life? Why is there a ransom on a child that needs a home? These kids are going to end up in foster care so why make this so difficult for good families? How do you know someone isn't being dishonest and pocketing your money? I think it's perfectly natural to think that. I thought that too.
But, that's just not a good enough reason for us not to do this. First off we have done research and seen the fees itemized so we are confident in the honesty of who we will be working with. Secondly and most importantly, if the world has chosen to place a price tag on adoption and a child, we will simply ask the creator of the world to meet that. And He will. In His timing. The world is His and everything in it (Psalm 24:1)… including money. If the Lord followed through with the death of His only, perfect Son as the price for our salvation, I have no doubt He can and will send money just when we need it to match the price of adoption.
Adoption is risky, messy, and intimidating… but I'm certain it is more than worth it.
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