Where's My Piggy Bank?? No. Seriously.

Well what can I say? As the school year comes to and end (in 2.5 weeks) I find myself getting a little stir crazy!

We are completely home study approved. Got the letter back in January.

Now we are the waiting! Waiting for an expectant mother who will fall in love with us and us with her.

Time to put 100% of my focus on my family and our adoption, which means- PRAYING, fundraising, applying to grants (must get ink and stamps!), PRAYING and more PRAYING! These applications are filled out the old fashioned way. Pen, paper, stamps, POST OFFICE? What's that? Ha!

My brain went wondering this evening what if we get the call tonight? We would have to turn the situation down as we have to have the money up front. We've had to make a big purchase in the last month that wasn't expected for another two years. Our old van bit the dust so we had to purchase a new one. Don't worry our adoption fund was not touched! This was straight out of our savings account. This has changed our ability to save some as we now have a higher car payment. BOO!

In talks with our agency we could expedite the adoption process by applying to other agencies including out of state agencies. So goes the trek into more uncharted territory. What I found is that God is my rock. He put us in our place and for now we are not expanding our options. We can't afford to apply to the two other agencies we are interested in. Choosing Hope is one of a kind. They (and now I) understand the cost of adoption can sky rocket with little fees here and there. Just to apply to one agency was $250. Once approved we would then have to pay the step 1 (of 4) agency fee of $3,750 upfront before they would even talk to us. We are blessed to have our home study completed so that would save us $1,500-$4,000 depending on which agency was selected. Other agencies have luxury fees of "unlimited emails, phone calls, profile assembly and review" etc. for a steal at $4,000. The cheapest plan which included limited email and one phone call a month was $250, otherwise a standard fee of $60 per email and $50 per hour phone call... Not including the cost of the adoption itself, legal fees, court fees, mother fees, medical, travel and more. WOAH! Right?
**edit- not all agencies have such itemized fees! Each agency is different therefore charges differently. Please investigate multiple options and find what works for you! 
Thank you Choosing Hope. That's all I have to say. I understand that other agencies must make ends meet and must pay employees but I was humbled and thankful for our agency. God Bless them for without them I'm not sure we would be able to consider this.

So back to my rambling... I have now discovered that to be sure we cover all costs, what we initially thought would be $10,000 could potentially and realistically being over $24,000. That's a lot of money and yet very little. 

How much is a life worth to you? 

Exactly. 

Priceless. 

Keep an eye out! This crazy Mama is changing things up and will be applying to grants, looking into Crowdfunding through Adopt Together, checking out BothHands.org, Lifesong, HandinHand as well as reading books by Julie Gumm. Off I go!

Love to all! Happy Thursday and God Bless!