How Can You Afford To Adopt?

Josh and I have been asked several times, "How in the world can you afford to adopt?"

First of all, we can't afford it.  It is a step in faith, believing that God has called us to adopt and standing on the promises that He will always provide for His children, even the children that are in the process of adopting his other children:)

That being said, we are also working on several things to raise money to bring our little girl home.

• The first event we are doing is our Adoption Yard Sale!  Here are the details:

Via Adoption Yard Sale

Saturday, December 18th

At Our House here in Rolesville

8am to whenever

In light of this weeks events we have been asked if we are going to cancel the yard sale and the answer is NO!  We have been warned, by some very loving friends, that we are not allowed to cancel or post-pone this yard sale.  They have already put in a lot of hard work to help us throw this thing together.  Here's just one of the sweet things you can expect - a warm cup of hot chocolate for the shoppers:)  (Thanks Mayhugh family!)  Josh and I aren't going anywhere, so if you are still interested in donating items you can come drop them off anytime before Saturday!

• Another project that we are hoping to get done is a brainchild of Josh's.  I don't know if he wants me to share the details until it is closer to completion, so, stay tuned:)

• My book is FINALLY in production, as of the 14th, and hopefully I'll have the rough copy within another week or so, yeah!  Part of the funds from sales for my book will be going toward our adoption.

• We are working on just plain SAVING!  You know when someone says, "You can afford _____________, it's only a $1 a day" or "Just give up your Starbucks coffee every week and you'll be able to afford ____________."  Well, I don't know about you, but I never go to my bank and withdraw $.75 for every soda I decide to refrain from drinking, or the $3.75 for my Starbucks drink every week, or the $1/ day for whatever reason.  I've never been able to figure that out.

But, here is what we have been doing.  When we see something we want really bad, and choose NOT to buy it, I'll go to the checkbook and deduct whatever amount the item was and just write "For Our Adoption" in the margin.  It is still in our account, but the figures don't show that it is there and we won't spend it anywhere else.  So, for example, we don't have a Tree Skirt for our Christmas tree.  I went out to go buy one at the beginning of December and they were between $20-$30!  What in the world.  I just couldn't justify buying  a silly little tree skirt when that $30 could go toward a needed document for our adoption or 30 copies of documents.  Have I mentioned how many copies you have to make of everything for an adoption, sheesh!  Anyway, when I got home I got out the checkbook and deducted $30 from our account and now we have $30 for our adoption in no time.  I also figured out that a pretty curtain can be just as nice as a tree skirt around the bottom of our tree!  I do the same when I run out to Target and am tempted to get a Caramel Macchiato.  I'll go home and deduct $3.50 and voila, we now have $33.50 in our adoption fund!  We also got another $15 chunk for our adoption fund because we went shopping for the tiniest Christmas tree we could find.  You know, most trees are around $35-$40 and we were looking to spend about $15.  But check out our tree!  It was only $18 and it is perfect!  Now we're up to $48.50, what?!

• After we have a completed Homestudy we are going to be able to apply for grants and loans to help with everything else.  This will be a huge help!

So, that is how we are doing it.  How about you?  What have you done for your adoption fundraising or if you aren't/haven't adopted, what ideas can you offer to help us raise funds to get our little girl home?