It took a village! (aka How God provided for our adoption)

Piggy backing off of my post on Friday about the generous adoption community, I need to give a grand shout out to the countless people who financially supported us through this adoption. I can't believe our son is finally HOME, let alone that he's been home for over two months!

When we started our adoption process in March of 2010, we were YOUNG newlyweds. Will was in seminary and I was the "breadwinner" at a government office.... we weren't raking it in by any means, but God was providing for our needs and we had a little bit in our savings account. We lived very frugally- from couponing to setting up a strict budget.

We had enough to start our adoption without any help, and then got to work on fund raising. We set up a Just Love Coffee site (overall made about $1,500), did 3 yard sales (made around $5,000!), sold crafts online via etsy, blog, and 3 craft fairs ($3,000), sold Tukula ($300), and a few random things like Ordinary Hero, Thirty One, and a grant from the Southern Baptist Convention. When I mention each of those things, SO MANY people invested in each of those projects. People donated goods and their time for our yard sales. People spread the word about each of our fund raising attempts.

We were SO surprised at how the money came together. Friends that we hadn't connected with since high school or college gave generous amounts. Friends who were serving on staff with mission teams (that had to do personal fundraising for their salaries) gave to us. Fellow seminary friends and pastors donated to our adoption. Families involved in their own adoption processes donated to us. People we didn't know invested in us!

There was never a payment that we needed to make that God didn't provide for in specific timing. We had exactly what we needed when a payment was due, not necessarily before it was due. We saw God provide for our needs outside of our adoption, and he gave us grace to have reasonable bills, good health, steady jobs, and the ability to live frugally within our budget.

Thank you so much to those of you who invested in our adoption process! Thank you for being a vessel of God's provision for our family. We have seen God's hand in our family in such a specific way. This adoption will forever be a marker for God's faithfulness in our lives as we have countless ways to remember His specific care for us. He has done GREAT things for us!

My theme verse for our adoption has been "The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it."- 1 Thessalonians 5:24. This has been SO TRUE for us.

I also want to say that since we are on the "other" side of the adoption process (having completed our international adoption) I would like to share about why adoption is so expensive. Many people mistakenly call adoption as "buying children" or say "if there is such a need, why is it expensive?" or wonder WHO gets the money that we pay. When you adopt from a reputable agency, you will see a specific breakdown of fees that you pay. Your money goes LOTS of places: paying the salaries of your case manager and agency staff (they work HARD and have a stressful work!), the salaries of the in-country staff (special mothers, drivers, office workers), the care of your child (orphanage fees- food, utilities, etc), the salaries of the workers who review your case (translating documents, court officials, embassy workers), the salaries of those who process your fingerprints, official documents, etc; AND the fees for travel (plane, hotel, food, etc). Basically- there are COUNTLESS people who have their hands on your adoption (and your adoption documents!). Of course that is why adoption is also so tricky- it is so interdependent on many people, in different languages and cultures. No one person or government is getting a $30,000 check.