On Funding an International Adoption

So, I'm not much of a blogger.  As the masculine side of this union, I rarely venture into the blogosphere to opine or share the experiences of my personal life.  But this time, God's faithfulness compelled me.  Not so much for my benefit, but for giving hope to other families who agonize over that oh-so-common question many people ask me when first broaching the subject of adoption: "How can we afford it?".  To His glory!

If you know us well, you know that we have started down this long, and expensive, road to a China adoption because we were asked to by God.  Funding this adoption was going to be unmistakably an act of God from the beginning.  God has continued to show me throughout this process that He has control of this situation.  That hasn't stopped me from worrying from time to time, but repeatedly God has provided what we have needed, as we have needed it.  I'm learning this is a characteristic of my relationship with God.  When it comes to ministry and service, I try to follow a principle of doing the work as God brings it.  He's been faithful there, too.

We had been very faithful with our finances over the last year or so, and God had blessed us with a little surplus accumluation to help get us started. The first indicator that God was there in this process was the fact that we had enough to get going and pay for the "up front fees".  I define those as the homestudy fees, adoption agency and dossier fees, and immigration fees.  We knew we'd have to find a way, or God would have to show us a way, to pay for these items entirely out of our own means.  As it turned out, He continued to provide enough as each fee became due.

Once we had an approved homestudy, we could apply for grants and no or low-cost loans to help with the remainder of the fees.  These would primarily be travel, a Phase 2 agency fee, and the orphanage donation built into the cost of every adoption from China.  This is no small sum.  A grant from our agency for our son had already been provided by God to help some with this portion of the fees, but it's not enough.  Still, we have faith God will provide for these fees through available grant and loan programs.  He also showed us that with some purposeful "tightening of the belt" we could eek out some more from our monthly cash flow to help as time progressed and our travel date got closer.  You can always find some things in your budget you can do without if you need to.

Then we were thrown a curveball.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, our homestudy ended up about $800 more than we had originally anticipated, and in addition to that we learned we were going to have to pay for all 6 of China's "post placement visits" in advance, at the end of the homestudy process.  This is because we ended up using a different homestudy agency than we had originally planned to.  Post placement visits are a Hague Convention country requirement that last several years after your adoption finalizes.  Some agencies allow families to pay for these as they go, after the child comes home, but our homestudy agency, in order to maintain high standards of ethics, has a policy of collecting all of the fees upfront, which amount to $3300.  That was $3300 we had not anticipated paying during the adoption process itself.

Frankly, when I learned this I panicked.  God had been faithful but that was going to be a large number to come up with unexpectedly in only a couple of months.  This was a mountain in our path that God would have to move.  I knew that to bring home Hudson, God would have to provide a way to get this homestudy completed, so that we could then apply for the grants and zero interest loans that I trust He will provide.  But I had no idea where that money would come from.  I just began to pray about this and my fears subsided.  From time to time I would struggle with some fears, but God would always bring peace.

Meanwhile we continued our "beans and rice" strategy.  Literally.  At the point of this writing we are not on a diet exclusively of rice and beans, but we are eating less meat, plenty of pasta, and yes, about once a week beans and rice.  Every twice-a-month pay period, our envelopes (go Dave Ramsey!) would contain surplus.  Sometimes $100, often $200.  This was after already enacting a slimmed down budged that was putting less into the envelopes and leaving more in the bank account to begin with.  I began to call our Dave Ramsey Envelope System the "widow's oil" because each pay period, God was providing even more surplus than I expected by helping us to be frugal and responsible with what He'd given us.  I didn't really have a good handle on our "new budget" because it was kind of fluid and we were just starting to try it out.  We just did our best to spend as little as we could, within our "normal" budget, and there was always some left over.

I've saved the best for last.  At this point, we have completed all 4 of our homestudy visits and the worker will be writing the homestudy.  I expect we may have a completed homestudy by the end of October.  Then it will be time to pay for our post-placement visits.  Today was pay day, when I usually take account of our "envelope system", update my check register, and replenish the envelopes.  So tonight I sat down with a calculator, Quicken, and my known major expenditures over the next few months.  I started looking at our liquid savings, our upcoming obligations, the surplus our "skinny" budget had accumulated in our checking account, and my cash flow capabilites for the next 3 months.  In my hands was a particular large payment due in January each year in Texas which is a non-negotiable.  That's one we plan for, it's always paid, and always paid on time.  I knew there was no way we could jeopardize that payment.  It would be irresponsible.  As I got out the calculator, I began to add up the savings, the surplus, and the cash flow over the next few months.  Then I subtracted out the $3300 for the post-placement visits.  That number on the calculator looked familiar.  I looked again.  The calculator told me that in January we'd have paid for our post-placement visits, continued living comfortable enough, but would fall just about $100 short of our obligation.  I was shocked.  The amount was so close to what we actually needed, but just short.  That made me a little uneasy.  But then I remembered, I had forgotten the widow's oil!  Just before sitting down at the computer, I had looked at our envelopes, reclaimed the extra cash, and put it into my wallet to be deposited back into our bank account.  That wallet contained exactly $100!  I immediately knew this was no accident, it was God confirming again to me that He--Jehova Jireh--would provide for us, and for our son.

Some might find this incredulous or coincidental.  But I know my God, and He keeps showing up and demonstrating His faithfulness to us.  I hope I can be faithful to Him.

The next time I write, we might be eating beans and rice every night.  But I will remember, that meal I will share with my family will be far better than the meal that most of the world's 150 million orphans will share in that day.

(post by Brian:)