I'm sure some of you are a bit surprised by our decision (ok, probably not Lauree, she seems to read my mind) and it hasn't been an easy one. After bringing Haven home we left the door open to the possibility of adopting again and lately we have felt very strongly that this is the right path for us to take and the right thing to do for our family. We've done a lot of praying and a lot of weighing the pros and cons. Two of the biggest factors in our decision are that we want Grace and Haven to have more siblings. We are older parents and, not to be morbid, but we may pass away when our children are still relatively young. We want them to have a support system of immediate family around them when that day comes. We also know that growing up Asian and African with white parents will not be an easy road for our kids. With three siblings there are more people in the same boat with you, no matter how rocky the seas may get.
We also feel very strongly that we simply have too much in our lives and we are too blessed not to share it with two more children who have nothing and no one! In the end we believe that this is what God wants for our family. We have never taken such a huge leap of faith, but I have also never had such peace with a decision
We know this is not going to be easy. With our first two adoptions we had a bit of a nest egg set aside, but this time we are starting from ZERO financially and we will have to do a lot of creative fundraising and budgeting to make it work. It may take a bit longer than Haven's adoption, but not as long as Grace's, so we have a little time to start scratching together our pennies.
Our goal is to raise $20,000. Eek! It's scary to say it out loud. But that is the minimum we think it will take to bring home our two new babies. We received our first $100 donation from our amazing, wonderful, dear dear dear friend Dick. I cannot tell you how much that first deposit into our new adoption savings account means to us!!! And last week I found $5 in the parking lot at Walmart. I took it as a sign, so it's going into the account, too.
Some other plans we have for reaching our Adoption Goal:
- I have added a PayPal Donation button at the top of the right column of my blog. Just click if you have an extra few bucks that are burning a whole in your pocket :)
- We're are having a giant Bring Our Babies Home Garage Sale on April 24. Our goal is raise $1000 (about half of what we will need to complete a homestudy) so hopefully people will really like our junk! If you are a local reader and have anything you would like to donate to our garage sale please let me know and we will swing by and pick it up!
- I have signed on to do a fundraiser with Barefoot Books. This is a wonderful children's book company. Just click on the button in the right column and if you make a purchase 20% of your total will be credited to my account.
- We are also hoping to somehow sell our property in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. We can't build on it because of zoning issues, so it doesn't have much value, but we're hoping. Maybe God will bring about a zoning change!
- I plan to do some giveaways on this blog. People who make donations of $10 or more will have their names entered in our drawings. I will probably do a new giveaway every 2 to 3 weeks. I have some goodies stashed away from our travels to China and some beautiful hand made jewelry and other folk art items brought back from Kinshasa, DRC. If anyone has anything they would like to donate to our giveaways, let me know.
- As soon as our homestudy is complete we can start applying for adoption grants from a variety of adoption support groups. We aren't holding our breath to receive any because there is huge demand and not much supply, but we are going to apply for lots!
- I may try to start selling pillowcase dresses on the blog after school gets out. It just depends on if I can get any sewing done with Grace and Haven in the house. They have put a huge damper on my ability to sit in one place for too long. And sewing requires long stretches of sitting. My plan is for every dress I sell, I will make one to take with me to DRC on our adoption trip.
If any of you have any other brilliant ideas for fundraising please pass them along. And please pass my blog and facebook page on to others. It is really hard for me to ask for help from people, especially to ask for financial support. It is simply not in my nature. But I am putting myself out of my comfort zone because I know that this adoption is the right thing. I know that there will be two less children that will live out their lives in the despair of an orphanage or two less children who will die of malnutrition, malaria, or neglect.
So I am asking: please help me bring home these two children. I need your help! And I need your prayers!
Thank you all for reading my blog, being my friend, loving my children. The adoption community has changed my world and blessed me beyond words.
