We have also received donations from two great friends of mine. Thanks Girls! You are both dear to me.
Lastly, our big Kahuna came in with a whopping $1000 puzzle piece. The biggest challenge will be finding the puzzle piece worthy of such a generous and wonderful donation. Should it be one of his sparkling eyes, or a part of what is sure to be a loving and generous heart, or should it be part of the hand that I will hold every day? Tricky, so many great choices.
I thought I should recap in case you haven't been to our fundraising page to see where all this money will go. $25K? What? Let me promise you one thing. The people involved in helping find forever families for orphans are not getting rich. Yes, I'm sure the world has it's share of swindlers out there, but when you see the breakdown of the costs involved, I think it makes better sense.
One thing you should know about our adoption. Todd and I are doing our adoption independently. That means we're doing the hard work of finding our own referral, we're putting all the paperwork together for Uganda and mailing it over ourselves, and we'll navigate the in country government requirements ourselves, as well.
What does this mean to you, our donors?
It means that we have not hired an agency to do what we feel we can, and should, do for ourselves. An agency can add $5000-$10,000 per adoption onto the cost of the adoption. We're going to do the work ourselves...OK, we'll give God a little credit but He's not charging us anything.
It means that we have not hired an agency to do what we feel we can, and should, do for ourselves. An agency can add $5000-$10,000 per adoption onto the cost of the adoption. We're going to do the work ourselves...OK, we'll give God a little credit but He's not charging us anything.
It means that instead of needing $35K, we've estimated our adoption costs to be $20K-$25K. Here's the breakdown of typical adoption costs.
Homestudy $1,100
Fingerprinting $100
I600A application $800
Attorney fees $5,000
Airline $7,000
Court fees $500
Med Screenings $100
Agency (If there is one) $5,000
Baby Home Donation $1,000
Lodging/Meals $3,000
Our list does not include items that can quickly add up like postage, copies, and the post guardianship paperwork needed to complete the adoption once we're home. Do you know why it doesn't included the paperwork needed to complete the adoption once we've arrived home? Because I have no idea what it is and I have my plate full just knowing what an I600A form is.
So you can see the money goes fast! We are under the gun too because we are anticipating a referral very soon. Like within weeks people! With the great joy of the referral will come the part where I have to submit payment to the attorney in Kampala, Uganda. Yep, glance back up there. I'll give you a moment.
$5000 buckeroos! I need that within the next couple weeks! And this week I need to file the I600A form which is $800 so round that all up and whatcha got? Uh huh, $6000!
So PELEASE send this along to absolutely anyone who you think might have even the smallest probability of donating. If you can donate, awesome! Thank you for your support. If you cannot donate monetarily at this time:
- Would you consider sending our blog to 5 of your friends and asking them to read it and consider supporting our journey?
- When we go to Uganda we will be there for about a month. Todd's laptop won't make it an hour much less a month in Africa. If you or someone you know could donate a laptop so we can stay connected to our kiddos', we would be forever grateful.
- We are going to have a fundraising event in the coming months and we would love to raffle off super cool items, if you or your company have any great items you'd like to donate, that would also be awesome!
