I will start by saying that I don't have a strong opinion on this and I am asking this as a legitimate question. I don't believe there is a right or wrong answer so before you get all up in arms it is just a question to see what your thoughts are.
We are on our fifth adoption and have never done any fund raisers. We have had some small gifts from friends and our church but have never gone out looking for donations or done a fund raiser for our adoptions. We have been very blessed that God has provided for the ability to fund 5 adoptions and has provided for our needs throughout all of this. We are thankful for anyone that has helped in any way with our adoptions and appreciate any help that we have received.
I know that many families feel called to adopt and without contributions from others they just could not afford to adopt so I believe in these cases it is necessary. I also have always felt that God allows others to get involved in things by allowing them to give money. I believe that if you feel God leading you to give money to someone or some cause then you need to be sensitive to that. Often God will use our abundance to bless others. I know that many times I have seen where God calls someone to do something that unless they step out in total faith and trust Him to provide it can not be done. But I also struggle with knowing the cost before starting down a road.
Over the years we have seen some great fund raiser ideas and some not so great ideas. We know someone doing a fund raiser right now that is really neat but has a limited appeal to those outside the adoption community but non the less it is a cool idea. What are fund raisers that have worked for you? Do any of you have a great fund raising activity that might benefit other adopting families.
There are grants and programs out there but you have to submit a lot of paperwork and there are many families applying for very limited funds. Some churches offer assistance to their members. There are also good people that give to help others adopt.
The doubting side of me wonders if the fund raising is abused at times? I am sure others have this concern at times so wanted to put it out there.
I really hate talking about the financial side of adoption. I often get questions from people about how much it cost? My general answer is "if you are called to adoption it is not about the cost it is about the child and you will do whatever it takes to pay for an adoption" But at the end of the day it takes money to complete an adoption. For China it is north of $30,000 by the time you do paperwork, pay necessary fees and travel to receive your child. For families that have done multiple adoptions it can really add up. For families that do more than one child at a time it can be very costly. Then once you get the child home if there are medical needs these have a cost too. So overall it is very expensive. But it is never about the money. I would hate to think that money was the only thing preventing a couple from adopting and know that people have to get creative in finding ways to get the necessary funding.
We are thankful for the blessing of adoption. We are so thankful that we have had the money to pay for our adoptions. It has meant sacrifice at times, driving older vehicles, taking smaller less expensive vacations etc. Was it worth it, you bet it was!
So all this said to say that I am personally still on the fence about fund raisers. I have to say I am considering it more every day. For this particular adoption we know that we have some large out of pocket expenses when we get home. Our new son is hearing impaired and will require expensive hearing aids when we get home and these are not covered by insurance. So any dollar that we can offset on the adoption leaves money to pay for hearing aids. So we pray daily that God will provide for the needs of our family and our new son. We know that He will provide. How we don't know but we have faith and trust in Him to guide us to do the right things.
If you have thoughts on this topic feel free to comment on this post. If you have fund raising ideas post those too. Also comment to let us know if anyone is still reading this little blog. You wonder some times if anyone even reads this thing.
Thanks for following along with us on this journey. Here is a newer photo of our new little guy Joshua that I wanted to share with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment