When considering adoption one of the toughest choices you will make will be which adoption agency to sign with. Most people make mistakes during this process that end up costing them emotionally and financially. Prior to signing with any agency you should research the agency to make sure that you are making the right choice for your family. Listed below are some tips that I wish we would have known prior to starting our adoption journey. (more…)
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Adoption Agency Tips
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Gotta Love Dates
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
At church on Sunday our pastor reminded the men of the church that they need to date their wives and treat them like they did while they were dating. I am so glad that David does not need that reminder. For the past several years we have made a consciouses effort date each other. No matter what we do on the date it is always nice to spend time alone and to focus on each other without distractions. (more…)
Weebles Wobble- Devotional
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
David and I have been married for 19 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and a day. This past year has been by far the most difficult year we have ever lived through and believe me we have been through a lot during our many years together. This year has been particularly hard because we have experienced so many issues with the loss of our child, my health issues, and the devastating fire at David’s office. It is only by the grace of God that we have survived as individuals, a family and a couple. I have seen many marriages destroyed by far lesser circumstances. I am so thankful that we have a strong marriage that we both value and treasure. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 really speaks to how our marriage and family life has been for the past several months. (more…)
Back to shopping
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
It has been four weeks since my last formal shopping trip. For the past several weeks we have lived off of our stock pile and the wonderful meals provided by the ladies of our church. I am very thankful for my friends and stockpile because they have enabled me to focus on recovery and not shopping. Today as I looked up sales on-line, matched, and clipped coupons I realized how much I had not missed this task. Coupon shopping takes time to organize and this type of shopping takes time to execute in the store. However, the savings I achieve from coupon shopping are well worth my time and effort. (more…)
Adoption Cost
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Last week I posted suggestions on how to save money in order to fiance an adoption. Several people asked me why adoption is so expensive and why there is such a big difference in the possible cost of individual adoption situations. There are many factors that affect how much the adoption of a child will cost. These factors can include which state you live in, which state you are adopting from, the type of agency you are using just to name a few. (more…)
Icebox Melon
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
In our garden I planted a few Icebox Watermelons. These melons are much smaller than a normal melon so they do not require as much space to grow. Icebox melons are round and twice the size of a softball. We have harvested and eaten one of the melons. When I cut it open it was a nice bright red. It was a bit on the seedy side but still really good. I like that the melons are small so that there are not left overs taking up room in the fridge or going bad. We have several more of the melons, and are hoping that they will continue to ripen up so that we can enjoy them.
Almost back to normal
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Life is starting to get somewhat back to normal around the Lloyd house, but we are not there yet.
Caleb seems to be enjoying school. He has joined the drama club and is going to be working behind the scenes on the first play of the year. He plans on moving from behind the scenes to the stage later this year. In addition to drama club Caleb is still active in scouts and has several activities planned with them during this month. It looks like the Lloyd taxi service will be up and running at full speed this year. (more…)
Contentment- Devotional
Friday, August 13th, 2010
The past can not be changed and it must be accepted and life must continue. There is no need to sit around playing “what if games” because these games will only result in sadness and tears. While being content with our circumstances is hard and may seem unbearable we must learn to trust God completely in order to reclaim peace in our lives. Contentment does not come naturally it seems almost against our human nature to be content. (more…)
Adoption Finances
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
There is no question about it adoption is expensive. Most people who adopt have to save for years in order to be able to afford adoption. Some people prefer to take out personal loans in order to finance their adoption more quickly. The average domestic adoption in the US can run between twenty to thirty thousand dollars.
Some people falsely believe that David and I had a pile of money just sitting in the bank and were able to finance our adoption without any financial struggles. Our adoption finance story is nothing less than a miracle. After researching and praying about adoption for our family we began to save money in an adoption account. We applied for adoption grants, but were not approved for any of the grants we had sought out. After months and months of saving and getting nowhere fast we had basically given up on adoption being a reality for our family. I remember telling David one afternoon that if God wanted us to adopt he was going to have to make a check turn up in our mailbox, because without a financial miracle we would never be able afford adoption. We were not willing to go into debt for adoption, we had been there and done that during our efforts to conceive Caleb.
No more than three days after I told David that a miracle check would have to arrive in order for us to adopt we received a check in the mail. We were both shocked and puzzled. The check was from the IRS for overpayment of taxes. After contacting our tax accountant it was determined that a transposed number on our tax forms had been detected and corrected and the IRS had sent us a repayment check. Since David pays his taxes quarterly we did not realize he was overpaying. We knew we were paying a lot of taxes but we assumed our tax accountant had told us the correct amounts that we should be paying. The check was large enough to cover 1/2 of the average cost for adoption. This check gave us the hope we needed to continue our adoption quest. With our hope restored we began to be more aggressive with our savings and monitoring of our spending. We were both ecstatic when we finally had enough money squirreled away to move forward with our adoption plans.
Most people will not have a financial miracle occur and will have to find other ways of raising funds for adoption. Listed below are ways that others I know have raised funds to help offset the cost of adoption. You should also open a separate account in which to maintain and monitor your adoption funds, this will help you track your saving goals more easily.
- Spending Habits– Make changes to your spending habits buy only what you have to have. We were able to save about $500 a month just by evaluating every dollar that we spent, and only spending what was necessary. If you are unwilling or can not do this you will probably never be able to gather the finances needed to peruse adoption.
- Employer donation– some companies will pay a small amount toward the adoption of a child.
- Yard Sales/silent auctions– family and friends donate items and all proceeds are used for the adoption fund
- Arts/Crafts– Are you and your family into arts and crafts if so you can you make stuff to sell on-line or at farmer markets, or antique shops.
- Host Dinners/breakfast– you can do this at your church and ask those who attend to donate to your adoption fund.
- Product Sales– donuts, fireworks, candles etc. It has been rumored that with TNT fireworks you can make up to $5000 profit for just a few days of work if you sale during peek season (4th of July and New Years).
- State Adoptions– check you states Foster-to-Adopt program. These adoptions cost much less than other adoptions
- Home Refinance– several years ago people could refinance their homes and use the savings to beef up adoption funds quicker. This option may still work depending on the type of home loan you have.
- Adoption Grants: These can be located online and many adoption agencies have information concerning grants that can be applied for.
- Church donation– some churches will help pay adoption cost as part of their charitable giving.
Hopefully this list will help to get your creative juices flowing if you are trying to raise funds to pay for an adoption.
It’s about dead
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Well my garden has about had it. I have been unable to work the garden for several weeks due to illness and surgery, and Caleb has started back to school and is dealing with limited mobility due to having an ingrown toenail cut out. David is too busy taking care of the rest of us and meeting deadlines for work to spend any time in the garden. To say I am disappointed with the results of the garden would be an understatement. (more…)