11/6/18

Happy National Adoption Awareness month! Many people are aware that adoption is expensive, but some might not know how expensive it is. Overall, this adoption will cost us between $40,000 and $45,000. This large sum of money is overwhelming, especially for a number crunching guy like Stephen. Honestly, we cannot do this alone. But we feel we cannot delay building our family because of money.

There are three phases to the adoption process and there are costs to go with each phase. I have broken down the costs of each phase, especially the first two since those are fairly set.

Phase one prepares our paperwork and sends it to Korea so we can be matched with a child. The total of phase one will be around $7,000. The completion of this phase lets Korea know we are interested in adopting and proves we can provide a suitable home for a child. We're hoping to have everything ready by the end of March or early April.

Here’s the breakdown of the cost of Phase One:

• Formal Application $250.00
• IAAME Monitoring and Oversight Fee $500.00
• Our agency fees $4,000.00
• Home study fees $2,000.00
• Core Training $300.00

Phase two begins when we are matched, about a month or two after our paperwork is received in Korea (April, May). These fees include:

• Agency fees $4,000.00
• Korean Program Fee $21,000
• Post-Adoption Service Fee $1,500.00
• Post-Adoption Retainer Fee $500.00

This subtotal comes to $27,000.00. At this point, we will have spent $34,000. At this stage, the Korean Government will have matched us with a child. They will ask if we are ready to proceed. If we want this child, then we will need to write some checks. If we cannot come up with these funds by this time, we will not be able to move forward and we will have to say no to this child. We do not want to pass up the chance to receive a child into our family because of money.

After passing these two hurdles, phase three and the happiest phase of all is bringing the child home. This requires two trips to Korea as well as a mountain of paperwork and fees for immigration purposes. The adoption agency estimates this will total around $10,000.

As I mentioned above, we cannot do this alone. So in the spirit of the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" we are inviting you to walk alongside our family. We would like you to be a part of our child’s village. Rather than just asking for money, we will be selling pieces to a puzzle. We have 500 pieces and we are asking for a donation of $20 per puzzle piece. We will write your name on the back of the puzzle piece(s). Each piece purchased will represent a member of this child's village as well as their love and kindness they have shown to him. You can buy as many pieces as you wish. We would LOVE for all 500 pieces to be filled out. We hope it will hang in our child’s room and will allow him to know his village. If we can get all 500 puzzle pieces sponsored, we will have raised $10,000, which is 1/4th of the way to completing our adoption costs!

If you would like to help us out, feel free to donate through this website. This organization is a nonprofit crowd funding site so your contribution is tax deductible. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for listening to our story as it unfolds and for any support you are able to give.

Much love!

Stephen and Kelly