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Please pray for us
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Ladies we could really use some prayers. We are in the process of adopting internationally. We stepped out in faith as we felt this was something we were to do. We have used up all our savings to start the process and for our homestudy. We applied for a home equity loan and becuase of the housing market is down our home did not appraise at the amount we needed it to come in at. Now we owe our agency a large amount of money and nothing to pay them. We still feel that this is what we are called to do and we are entrusting that He will show us or provide the money we need to move forward. We have done fundraising and sold things but we still don’t have enough. Please pray for us as we are trying to be patient and wait for Him to show us the next step.
Sara, I’m sorry you are having a hard time with the costs. I wanted to say that God will provide. I noticed from your blog you received a generous grant from Show Hope. That amount should have been more than enough to pay for a Home Study and first agency fees (based on our adoptions from China and with our agency).
Is it possible you could look at other countries or agencies?
BTW, we have never received any grants, and we’ve adopted 4 children from China’s Special Needs Program in the last 4 years. We’ve had to pay more than $100,000 in adoption-related costs during those four years, and amazingly God has always provided. This last time it was through debt and loans, but He is providing for us to pay it off hopefully by year’s end.
Have you checked with LifeSong for Orphans to see if you could qualify for a Matching Grant or a No Interest Loan?
We did receive a grant. However, the grant will not be rewarded until we have a referrel. We are looking into no interest loans, but have not received a phone call back from them yet. LifeSong will be our next step if we don’t hear back from the other place.
We haven’t even thought about looking into another agency or country. I think our heart is really set on the country we were led to.
Oh, Sara, that makes sense. I always wondered about that. All of our adoptions were so fast (less than a year for all 4) from start to fnish that I always wondered why we coudln’t get a grant (could have really used it) but I would see other families getting them with no referral. Two of our 4 children needed to come home on medical expedites for heart surgery, but I don’t think the granting orgs take any of that into consideration. Coming up with funds on a quick timeline is hard for sure.
We could not have brought home our baby girl (home 4 months now) w/out our HELOC, which we had to borrow against numerous times as the adoption was 7 months from start to finish and we still had a little bit of remaining debt from bringing home our boys in 2010.
We have NO REGRETS as children are priceless and we do all we can to live well below our means, but sometimes you do have to do what you have to do to get to your children, even if it means taking out a loan and having debt. I really hope you can get a loan through LifeSong. I know they give out a lot of them.
Have you heard of Both Hands? It might be another option.
http://bothhandsfoundation.org/
You do a work day on a widow’s house and have friends and family help you and get sponsors for their time. All of the donations are given to LifeSong who then uses the money toward adoption costs for your family (through your agency). I don’t know though if it is applied after referral or not. We didn’t get one done b/c our adoption was so fast. Just no time.
I sold some PostCard sets this last time which were very little up-front cost. We sold our class rings (shhh … don’t tell our parents) and some other gold which ended up netting more than $800!!!! This was a welcome gift from the Lord!
We also made more than $1200 after a garage sale (and then Craigslist sales the following week on the furniture that didn’t sell at the garage sale).
Like I said, in the end, we still needed loans b/c we just don’t have any extra anymore after adopting 4 children in 3 1/2 years, but God has provided and one thing I’ll say: we’ve not gone without anything we needed. He will provide; it just might not be in the way you would expect.
I know what you mean about going to the place you feel God has called. We always thought that would be a Central American country but the doors just weren’t open for us. We NEVER saw China on the radar until it just fell into our laps. Now I can’t imagine “waiting” for a referral as all of our children from China were already waiting children, paperwork ready and just waiting for a family to step forward and commit.
Still God calls us all to unique paths and I just know He’ll bless your willingness to step out and obey His call to care for the least of these.
Are you adopting a child with Special Needs? If you are, TenForOrphans might be able to help you. If you let me know, I’m really good friends with the directors and can put a word in for you. 🙂
Sara, praying for you on this journey. We too had to find no interest loans to bring our boys home. Finances can be scary, but I so believe God wants these kids in families and will provide! BTW, have you checked out fundraising through t-shirt places like adoption bug? They have great t-shirts, fairly reasonable, and will do fundraisers. Let us know if you do one (or any other fundraiser, for that matter), I’d love another one of their t-shirts!
Blessings,
Aimee
Sara, I was brainstorming and I know many people have told me they have raised a lot of fund with puzzle fundraisers. You buy like a 500-piece puzzle and ask friends and family to sponsor a piece for a set amount. I think most people do $10 per piece, which would be $5,000 if you sold all the pieces! The nice thing about this on is the up-front cost if VERY LITTLE. You could find a puzzle that has a significance: a Bible verse, image from your child’s birthcountry, etc.
There is also a granting org. that I know many have gotten grants from called JSC Foundation. I guess though it might be the same as Show Hope in that the money can’t be used until you have a referral? I’m not sure though.
Been thinking and hoping and praying you don’t give up. The fact you were given a grant is a major confirmation, because believe me when I say most of us don’t get the grants (percentage wise). So keep walking through the open doors and look at your budget. We had rice and beans night and went to all vegetarian meals for a few months, and we don’t eat meat every night anyway, but cutting it all out really cut down on our grocery bill. Anything you cut out to save $$$, be sure you are actually putting that money in a separate acct. We actually set up a separate acct. at the bank. Anytime I made a sell on Craigslist, ebay or through used curriculum sites, I would put that money in the bank acct. (whether through paypal where I had the acct linked or cash or check).
HTH
Many prayers for your family! We brought our daughter home about three months ago from China and have been through many ups and downs. God always provided, and even as we are struggling now, God is providing in ways I would have never thought of. Please update us and if you can share your blog I would love to read it!
Hi Sara, I just joined the group today and the FIRST post I read was one on adoption prayer! God is so good! We adopted 5 children in 3 years from Russia and I can tell you God will come through. I will pray for you and thank Him in advance for your funds to come in. I pray that the money comes from the east and the west and all your needs be met. I pray that strangers hand you money and many creative people jump in to help. Bless you as you go forward…call those things that be not as though they are…He DOES provide! I know that for certain!
Blessings, tjmc
Thank you all ladies for the prayers and advice. My husband I really feel that since we did get such a large grant that we are really to be doing this. It is just so hard to wait on His timing. I started a James MacDonald bible study last week that is all about fear and God working in your lives. It is really what I need right now as it is really touching home.
I will be looking into many of these ideas you all have offered. We did get a hold of pathways for little feet today after playing phone tag for a week. They offer no interest loans up to $7500 so we are praying that we will be approved for some of that.
The problem with fundraiser is our location which is in a rural area of Indiana. We have sold t-shirts through adoption bug and coffee. A friend of mine who sells thirty-one products had an open house and gave me her commission. So I feel that people in our community are arware of our situation and those that want to give have already done so through our fundraisers.
We did put down that we would take a child with minor special needs so I will look into the ten for orphans also.
I can’t thank you all enough for lifting us up right now as I know the power of prayer works. Bless you all!
Sara, I get the fundraiser woes. We live in a larger city and go to a very large church, but only ONE family in our church supported us. I didn’t beg and plead because that is just not me (not saying you do either but some families take it too far if you ask me), but just ONE family supported us. I offered many things for sale, rather than asking for donations. Again, not our path to just ask for donations. I was sort of surprised and saddened people weren’t more supporitve as I was selling some postcard sets for just $5. I know everyone in our small group could have afforded that. I did make over $1,000 on the postcards but that was mostly from virtual strangers, who brought through my blog.
That says a lot to me. BUT my husband often reminded me that just because God called us to it, does not mean it will be easy. And it wasn’t as we walked in faith. When we finally received our tax credits for our 2010 adoptions, we were able to finish paying off the debt incurred from adopting our two boys in 2010. That was a huge load lifted.
We delayed being open to a referral until that was paid off and less than 3 weeks after paying off the debt and letting our agency know we were open, we saw the face of our sweet baby girl! God is great!!!
Now she is sitting in a chair to my right watching a show about Joseph. The sickies have hit us hard here, so I admit to more TV than normal, but it is the BEST way to keep the healthy ones a good distance from the latest sick child. This virus is hitting our children one at a time exactly 4 days apart. At that rate, we’ll be 20 days of this … can y’all hear me screaming?
OK, back to topic. Another fundraiser I’ve heard people do quite well with is ask close friends or family to consider saving their pennies for you. It doesn’t sound like much, but they do add up. We saved all of our change too and this added up to about $800 I think over just a 6-month period. We were picking up every coin we’d see on the ground and cleaning out the vehicles LOL!
I can’t wait to hear how God multiplies your efforts!!!
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