One of the most common preconceived notions about adoption is that it is wildly expensive. The response I got most often from people finding out about our adoption plans was “Wow-that’s really expensive right? I could never afford it.” I certainly would not call the adoption process cheap, but I would call it doable. We are certainly not wealthy, but we found ways to be able to achieve our dream of adopting. I realize that everyone’s situation is different, but I hope some of what worked for us will help someone else.

The very first step to affording adoption is to cut every non-necessary expense from your budget. No more eating out, going to the movies, extravagant shopping, et cetera. While this would be extremely difficult during any other time of life, knowing that every dollar you save will bring you closer to your child should help lessen the sting of tightening the purse strings. The yahoogroup "Frugal Adoptions" has some great ideas.

The next step for us was to purge what we already owned and no longer used or needed. We had two large yard sales and cleaned our house a bit while raising money for our adoption. I went crazy with eBay and raised quite a bit selling online. I would also search warehouse sales, outlets and the like to find items to sell on eBay and turn a profit. It took a good amount of time, but the financial reward was worth it.

We were extremely lucky in that we had financial support from our parents. It was offered without us having to ask, and we were (and still are) so appreciative. I know that many people send out letters to close family and friends letting them know about their adoption plans and giving them the opportunity to help financially. As hard as it may be to send out a letter of this kind, I feel that this is the time to swallow some pride and let others who care about you help you.

We did two fund raisers that were successful beyond anything I had expected. We did them both at the same time to try and generate more sales. One was with Ranch House Candles and the other with Current Catalog. We recruited friends and family to bring in the catalogs and order forms to their workplaces and get orders for us. Both fund raisers gave us 50% of whatever we sold and we wound up profiting over $2000.00-very much worth the time and stress of organizing it.

We attached a letter to the catalogs explaining that we were fund raising for our adoption fund, and a little about our adoption journey. When orders came in, we included a note of gratitude with a link to our website so people could feel connected to our family.

Lastly, consider creative financing to help you reach your goal. A home equity loan or line of credit with a low interest rate can help you get to your total, or provide you with a place to transfer higher interest rate credit cards. If you can lower your monthly bills, that’s a little extra to go towards your adoption fund.

I learned a great deal from the yahoogroup “Fundraising for Adoption” and would encourage you to check it out. If your agency breaks your costs down into smaller amounts due at different stages in your process, take advantage of that and try and focus on only the amount due next. It can be overwhelming, but it is definitely possible. Good luck!



Related Links:
Fund Raising Idea on Hoping to Adopt Blog
Fund Raising Basics from the Guatemala Adoption Blog
Family and Fundraising from the Transracial Adoption Blog