Blog Buzz $$$

“How do I do this, moneywise? I want to adopt, but it seems so overwhelming. We don’t really have $20,000 in the bank, ya know!” Please blog about your experience, ideas, insight, fundraisers and other ideas that worked for you while raising your adoption money.

We prayed and prayed and prayed for a child. We had NO EARTHLY IDEA how we would finance an adoption. It seemed hopeless. I had a great job, but Charles was in college full time and worked part time. We still hoped and prayed that somehow we could do this. I applied for a few grants. but we were not chosen.

About this same time I got word that I would be laid off. Certainly scary, but a blessing too. I was offered a transfer, but if I didn't take it, I would receive a very generous severence package. The trick would be to find another job quickly so we wouldn't have to use any of this $$ to live on. By this time Charles was working full time and God blessed me with another job within a month. This was enough money for us to get started!

We had a couple of fundraisers that were very profitable. The first fundraiser was a football pool for the superbowl. We charged $10 per square for 100 squares. We paid out $125 per quarter. Therefore, we made $500 per pool. A couple of friends and relatives in other towns did pools for us too. These were fun and just about effortless. One of the winners even donated their winnings.

We also did t-shirt sales for Mardi Gras. A local supplier sold us the t-shirts at their cost. We sold almost 300 shirts and made lots of $$. People were so generous and wanted to help us. We also received quite a bit of money in the mail. Yep, people just sent us money to support our adoption. In fact, my employer, paid for our airplane tickets!

We made up the difference with a line of credit loan which we paid off with our Adoption Tax Credit from the IRS.

The BIG QUESTION IS, how do we finance the next one???? ; )