When people have asked, we say the financial cost is comparable to buying a car. It is. Crazy, I know. There are many, many, many fees associated with adoption - agency fees, application fees, home study fees, government fees, legal fees, court fees, fees to retrieve documents, fees for the care of your child, and the upcoming travel costs and court finalization expenses. Add it all up and in our case, our adoption is costing over $40,000. When we focus on the number, its beyond discouraging. When we focus on Benjamin Tae-Ju, its just a number, and part of getting to him, another thing in our lives to give to God. Unfortunately the longer it takes, the more it costs too.
Counting the cost ... Well, adoption was a calling on our hearts. We knew going in that it was costly and we'd need to make some sacrifices. There are sacrifices in life that are very worth making, and because there so worth it, it doesn't feel oftentimes like you're actually sacrificing anything. We feel God has truly blessed us with all we need, actually with FAR more than we need. And so, to pay for our adoption, we have tried to be very resourceful, careful and disciplined. We knew it would take time to pay for and we press on. We have prayed and prayed for God's provision and He has answered, by giving us diligence to keep going, wisdom with our finances, overtime hours and the blessed gifts of others.
Honestly, its hard for us to share this need. Its hard to be candid about finances and open about expenses. Its taken us 2 years to reach this point of sharing this part of it all. Its humbling to be supported by others in the things God has called us to, and yet, through much, much prayer, we both felt God tell us to share our need and to share about the importance of adoption and the fact that there are over 143 million orphans in need of families in the world. 143 million.
In sharing about our adoption a friend said, "You really thought you could do this by yourselves?" In that moment, I realized that what we thought was a calling on just our hearts as a couple, as a family, may be far, far bigger than just us. Our actions as people are way bigger than we think. Its the ripple effect of throwing a stone in the water. What we do affects others. It is our hope that our adoption of Benjamin will tremendously bless his life, and also, many other orphans and other families lives. It is our prayer that God is doing something far bigger here. We know He is.
So far, we have paid about half of our adoption costs. We still have a ways to go, and after prayer for God's leading, we have felt led to and blessed by these two adoption fundraisers that are currently going on:
Fundraiser 1 -
On April 23rd, I am having a Thirty-One Adoption Fundraiser at our home 6 - 9 pm - you are more than welcome to come (let me know if you can make it). It is also a "Catalog Party" for those who are local and can't come, or for those who live anywhere in the world and want to participate. A portion of the proceeds will go toward the adoption process of our son. Thirty-One is a company which sells beautiful totes, purses, luggage, and storage options, great for personal use, Mother's Day gifts or graduation gifts. My dear friend Thirty-One Consultant Laura Bull has blessed us with this fundraiser (Thank you Laura so very much. That's not Laura below. :) This is from the Thirty-One catalog to give you an idea of the products.).
If you would like to order
Thirty-One products as part of our fundraiser,
Thirty-One products as part of our fundraiser,
please shop at this link:
http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E3117642&from=DIRECTLINK
(This catalog party will close April 28th.)
(This catalog party will close April 28th.)
Fundraiser 2 -
We have a Fundraising Adoption Account through an awesome organization, Lifesong For Orphans. There is a link to Lifesong For Orphans in the righthand column of the blog. Lifesong For Orphans will accept tax-deductible donations on our behalf to help us toward our remaining adoption costs, travel expenses, and legal fees. Our specific adoption account is #3230; this number must be included with any donation. (100% of all funds raised go directly to cover adoption costs--nothing will be taken out for Lifesong For Orphans administrative costs.) ***While our letter below states this fundraiser is until April 24th, Lifesong for Orphans will keep our Fundraising Adoption Account open for fundraising until Benjamin Tae-Ju comes home, which will potentially be late summer, or early fall.***
We have a Fundraising Adoption Account through an awesome organization, Lifesong For Orphans. There is a link to Lifesong For Orphans in the righthand column of the blog. Lifesong For Orphans will accept tax-deductible donations on our behalf to help us toward our remaining adoption costs, travel expenses, and legal fees. Our specific adoption account is #3230; this number must be included with any donation. (100% of all funds raised go directly to cover adoption costs--nothing will be taken out for Lifesong For Orphans administrative costs.) ***While our letter below states this fundraiser is until April 24th, Lifesong for Orphans will keep our Fundraising Adoption Account open for fundraising until Benjamin Tae-Ju comes home, which will potentially be late summer, or early fall.***
Please read our letter below
regarding our call to adopt and
our Lifesong For Orphans Fundraising Account . . .
regarding our call to adopt and
our Lifesong For Orphans Fundraising Account . . .
_________________________________________________________
Dear Friends,
Over the past two years, we have
had the joy of sharing with many of you that we are in the adoption
process. The decision to adopt was a
calling God laid on our hearts long ago.
It’s as if our eyes were opened to the global need of orphans, and we
could not ignore the Spirit’s call to care for one of these precious
children. On March 1st, 2012,
we received the referral of a baby boy from South Korea, who is now 18 months
old. We will travel to
There are currently over 143 million orphans in need of families around the world. The number is astounding and we felt moved to step up to welcome a child into our family. Family is a place where we grow
in the Lord together, where love, honor, and peace are taught. For us, parenting is a daily opportunity to
honor God. Adopting Benjamin Tae-Ju is an opportunity for us to love our sweet
boy and an opportunity to love God. It
is our desire that there are no more orphans in the world, that these children could
come to know their Lord in loving families and this is God’s desire too:
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger,
giving him food and clothing. – Deuteronomy 10:18
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy
dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families… – Psalm 68:5-6
The peace that washed over us the
moment we applied to the program in March 2011 was a blessing from the Lord, as
though the stirring in our hearts to adopt was intended for this very moment of
obediently stepping into God’s will.
When we told our daughter, Annabelle, that we would adopt, she started
to pray for her sibling and drew pictures of him and our family, and hasn’t
stopped! Watching our daughter love her
littlest brother so freely and quickly reminded us of God’s love, so freely
given. We feel so blessed to pass along
His love to Benjamin Tae-Ju.
As you may know, adoption is
expensive. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, government fees, home
study, travel expenses, legal fees, etc. to be over $41,000. Through God’s provision, we have been able to
pay $21,000. Through this process, we
have experienced the stress of adoption costs and yet, found God asking for our
trust, which we must daily place in Him.
This place of dependence on God has blessed us beyond words. He has replaced our worry with peace, and our
pride with the importance of humility.
So here we are, sharing our need with you, and struggling with our pride
in doing so but knowing quite fully, God will provide and He often does so
through His people.
Financial Support – We humbly ask you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $20,000 to bring Benjamin Tae-Ju home. Please pray for God’s leading, and if He has laid it on your heart to support our adoption financially, please know our tremendous gratitude. To support us financially, you may mail your tax-deductible gift between now and April 24th to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on Benjamin’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of our funds received.
1. Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. Please indicate our last name and family number on the memo line of your check: Maggs #3230 adoption. If you prefer to donate through PayPal, please note: PayPal will charge a 2.9% service fee + $0.30 per transation,which will decrease the amount received by Lifesong. To give online, go to: www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate/. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family” then complete the online form and fill in our family account number (#3230) and name field (“Adam and Courtney Maggs”) (NOTE: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)
2. Please mail your check to:
Lifesong
for Orphans
Attn:
Maggs/Acct. #3230
We cannot thank you enough for touching our son’s life and coming alongside our family through prayer and finances. As a family, we hope to bring God glory through this adoption and with every move we make. We thank you for those times many of you have asked us, “How are things coming with the adoption?” We feel so loved! God is faithful. He will bring our family together in His time, and we look forward to introducing you to our sweet boy.
By God’s grace,
Adam, Courtney, Annabelle and
Oliver
We are extremely blessed by you, for coming alongside us in prayer, support and friendship, and by many families who have supported our adoption financially (Thank you!!). May God bless you all. Seriously, Adam and I cannot emphasize enough how we feel "held" by our family and friends, our church family, co-workers, neighbors, other adoptive families, friends near and far, from the past and present. We feel blessed, excited, cheered up, cheered on, loved and lucky - we feel lucky to get to love this little boy - Thank you God for him and this opportunity to be his mommy and daddy! We can't wait! (We would love to show you a picture of our sweet boy, but cannot post it here. Ask us to see one!) You all have been encouraging, held us up on our sad, weary days and shared in our excitement about the newest member of our family! There is much joy ahead! We live in anticipation of uniting with our son and watching our three precious children play together. We live with the hope that more orphans will be welcomed into forever families. Our hearts were encouraged to adopt through the stories of other adoptive families; it is our hope that our lovely and bumpy adoption road to Tae-Ju will be encouragement to someone else.
_________________________________________________________
For more information about our
Lifesong For Orphans Fundraising Account,
please contact us and we can share further, as well as send you our Lifesong For Orphans Letter of Support and
our Pastor's Letter of Support.
Lifesong For Orphans Fundraising Account,
please contact us and we can share further, as well as send you our Lifesong For Orphans Letter of Support and
our Pastor's Letter of Support.
We are extremely blessed by you, for coming alongside us in prayer, support and friendship, and by many families who have supported our adoption financially (Thank you!!). May God bless you all. Seriously, Adam and I cannot emphasize enough how we feel "held" by our family and friends, our church family, co-workers, neighbors, other adoptive families, friends near and far, from the past and present. We feel blessed, excited, cheered up, cheered on, loved and lucky - we feel lucky to get to love this little boy - Thank you God for him and this opportunity to be his mommy and daddy! We can't wait! (We would love to show you a picture of our sweet boy, but cannot post it here. Ask us to see one!) You all have been encouraging, held us up on our sad, weary days and shared in our excitement about the newest member of our family! There is much joy ahead! We live in anticipation of uniting with our son and watching our three precious children play together. We live with the hope that more orphans will be welcomed into forever families. Our hearts were encouraged to adopt through the stories of other adoptive families; it is our hope that our lovely and bumpy adoption road to Tae-Ju will be encouragement to someone else.
Thanks for reading and praying
and being a part of our adoption journey!
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