How to Save for an Adoption

I know that the financial aspect of adoption of a huge issue. So many people don't think they have the money or resources to complete an adoption so they don't even give more than a passing thought. It's a huge price tag. I'm not going to sugar coat. It's a lot of money. There are a lot of things we could do with that kind of money but we chose to give a child a home instead. So how does anyone get a good start on this? Well, many people have done many different things & how we have gotten to where we have isn't going to work for everyone.

Our process to save enough money was helped by the fact that we had gotten out of debt about 2 years ago. That doesn't mean that cash is always available. We just don't use credit cards or loans for anything but Brian's work account. So that requires being diligent about budgeting our monthly income. *I leave a clause here that I could still be better at this than what I am* We took a look at our monthly spending & tried to cut out everything that wasn't necessary. We cut our auto insurance as far as we could. We looked at our cable & phone & cut where we could there. We also took almost all of our tax return & put it towards getting started. We sent in 9 grant applications & were awarded 3 of them. We've done a tip night, rib suppers at our house, garage sale & our sponsorship project. We've put in whatever we can from month to month into our adoption fund. We have been blown away by everyone's generousity of helping out & we have never been afraid of hard work. If I look at how far we have come & what God has provided for us, I am so blown away. There is no way that I ever thought that we be as far as are. We have had to decide to not go out to eat or go to movies for a time period. Cooking at home & watching movies on Netflix is just as good for us! We have shopped at 2nd hand stores for the large portion of all of our clothing & only shopped sales for new clothing. We drive a vehicles that are on it's last leg but it still gets us from point A to point B & all our vehicles are completely paid for. That is our next saving project! I gave up the money I set aside for new furniture when we sold the sauna. But not for 1 second have we ever felt deprived or unblessed! In fact, it has never been more real to us that things don't ever make you happy. The more we've gotten rid of things & gotten rid of the excess in our lives, the more that contentment has set in. I honestly thought it would be the opposite.

So, these are the things that we have done. There are many, many other things that others have done to earn or raise money for their adoption that we have not & they are also great ideas. The point is, it can be done. It might not be easy & it may be alot of work but I can say that it will be so worth it. So very much worth it!