WHAT IT'S LIKE TO FUNDRAISE FOR A CHINA ADOPTION

UPDATE 8.20.18:  We've reached our goal!!  Thank you so, SO much!!  Click here to go to our 
GoFundMe page for the most up-to-date numbers on our adoption fundraising efforts!

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Let's talk about money, shall we?  In our last post, we asked for help raising $3,000 so I'd love to share some thoughts about what fundraising for our adoption has been like so far.

Okay, so let's get the obvious out of the way: adoption is expensive.

Check.

I think most people assume that and Brad and I would have been included in those people before we started the adoption process.  However, it wasn't until we started seriously considering adoption that we learned just how expensive it was.

When God brought adoption to our minds in January, the cost of it was intimidating.  We have lived on a budget since the day we were married but we didn't necessarily consider building in an adoption line item so it hadn't been a part of our budget which means we hadn't been setting any money aside on a monthly basis in order to pay for an adoption.  And seeing a price tag that equated to almost 70% of our yearly income was intimidating, to say the least.  But when God asked us to trust Him by adopting, we said, "yes", trusting that He would provide the means necessary to carry out what He asked us to do.

Brad and I aren't new to raising money.  Brad has been raising funds for Young Life (which includes his salary) for the last 13 years.  In some ways, you'd think that would make us comfortable raising money for adoption, but actually, it has been harder.  We have so many family and friends that support the work we do through Young Life (some for all 13 years) and we are beyond blessed to know so many people that generously give on a regular basis not just financially but also of their time and their talents and their prayers - for us.  It's very humbling.  To ask more of those that already give so much is even more humbling.

In some ways, fundraising for Young Life is exactly that: fundraising for Young Life.  Yes, Brad's salary is included in that fundraising but it feels less like we are asking for money for ourselves and more like we're asking for money for the mission we get to be a part of in Young Life.  The adoption, however, feels like we're asking for money for us, and that's been humbling.

It's funny, after using the word 'humbling' three times in the last two paragraphs, I looked up synonyms for the word so it wouldn't sound so repetitive.  I was surprised to find that every single synonym listed here for the word 'humbling' connotates that the word is a negative one; including phrases such as "take down a peg", "pop one's balloon", and "make eat dirt".  Yikes.

I have to be honest, I don't think I've ever really associate 'humbling' with those phrases.  The Bible not only talks about humility, it calls us to be humble (Philippians 2:3-4 is just one example).  But is it calling us to "eat dirt" and "pop one's balloon"?  I don't think so, at least not with the same connotation that the world commonly sees those phrases.

The Biblical perspective on humility is one of surrender.  But not the kind of surrender where you throw in the towel and walk away in shame, devoid of hope.  It's the kind of surrender where you discover that the God who created you is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing.  It's the kind of surrender where you realize that the God who created you on purpose and with purpose, ultimately knows what's best for you and that the wisest thing you could ever do is allow Him to call the shots.  And so, in humility, we yield to Him instead of yielding to ourselves.

I think that God asks us to do things that are outside of our comfort zone and outside of our realm of capability because when we only do things inside our comfort zone and inside our realm of capability, we will mistake successes as ours and not God's.

Do I think God called us to adopt so that a child who doesn't have a home can have one?  Absolutely.  But I think God called us to even more.  God wants to reveal Himself to us.  He wants to be in relationship with us.  He wants us to know Him, His goodness, His kindness, His power, His love.  And what better way to do that than to call us to something we couldn't possibly do on our own and then prove Himself faithful?

So far, for me, fundraising for this adoption has been humbling but in a revealing way.  Because it has felt like we're asking for money for us (as opposed to for Young Life, as I mentioned earlier), it has been revealing more about myself - my lack, my doubt, my selfishness even, and revealing more about God - His surplus, His truth, and His generosity.  God has made this fundraising process more personal, I think in part, because He wants me to know Him more personally.  I've seen God provide money for Young Life, now I'm watching Him provide money for us.  And that's different.  That's deeper.  That's why God would call me out of my comfort zone and out of my realm of capability.  So He can show me (and Brad) what He can do.

Did you know you're a part of that?  God is using you both to provide a physical future home for a physical future child and He's also using you to reveal to us more about just Who this God we serve is.  Thank you.  Thank you so much.

As far as where we're at in the fundraising process, we've paid about half of what we will ultimately need to ($18,592 of approximately $37,500) which is a miracle in and of itself!  If you missed the last post here, we've been generously given the chance to have $6,000 granted toward our adoption expenses but we have to raise $3,000 first.  Because of your generosity, $995 has already been given toward that goal in just a few days!  Wow, thank you, thank you!

If you'd like to contribute toward that goal, you can donate to our fund here.

Feel free to read on for a complete breakdown of our financial costs for the adoption.  I will be posting the same information to our adoption funding page and you can go there to see our most up-to-date progress as the days unfold.

If you have any questions about adoption costs or fundraising or if you would like to continue this conversation about humility, we'd love to talk more.  Just leave us a comment or scroll up a little bit to look for the box to email us directly, located on the left side of this page.

Much love and in Him,
Brooke

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Below is the current breakdown of all our adoption fees, what's been paid, and what is still owed, as well as what has been raised:

ADOPTION FEES:
$500 - Adoption Application Fee  PAID
$3,000 - Professional Services (1 of 2)  PAID
$500 - Hague Monitoring and Oversight Fee  PAID
$250 - Home Study Application Fee  PAID
$2,175 - Home Study Fee  PAID
$1,600 - Prepaid Post Adoption Supervision  PAID
$116 - Criminal Background Fees  PAID
$215 - Adoption Education Expenses  PAID
$25 - Required Reading  PAID
$282 - Passport Application Fees  PAID
$139 - Travel for Home Study Interviews  PAID
$300 - Home Study Review  PAID
$775 - I-800A Application  PAID
$255 - FBI Fingerprinting  PAID
$2,000 - Dossier Prep and Authentification  PAID
$1,100 - Dossier Registration Fees  PAID
$600 - Domestic & International Mailings/Couriers PAID
$260 - Dossier Translation PAID
$4,000 - Professional Services (2 of 2) PAID
$500 - Charitable Aid & Development PAID
~$1,000 - Dossier Documents Fees 
$5,000 - Estimated Travel Costs for 2 people
$2,400 - Estimated Flights for 2 people
$1,500 - Estimated Hotel Costs for 2 weeks
$1,500 - Third Party Fees for Professional Services
$325 - Visa for Child
$1000 - Post Adoption Bond (refunded after final report)
$500 - Post Adoption Tracking, Submission & Translation
$1,100 - Prep of Chinese Adoption Documents
$3,000 - Suggested Amount for Orphanage Donation
$300 - Medical Exam and Vaccinations for Child
~$1,275 - Miscellaneous Expenses 

     TOTAL PAID: $18,592
     TOTAL OWED: ~$18,900


FUNDRAISING:
Gifts and Donations: $8,650
Yard Sale: $341
     TOTAL RAISED: $8,991