Our Adoption Fund o' Meter!

"Whoever receives one such child in My Name, receives Me." - Matthew 18:5

Last night, we announced that we're planning to adopt from South Korea! 

And now that it's officially out there, we would like to introduce to you our very own Adoption Fund o' Meter over there to your right! 

(Ok, it's just a thermometer widget, but you get the gist!)

We would love for you to be a part of this awesome adoption journey from its inception. And a few ways you can do that will be listed below toward the end of this post if you feel so led. But first things first.

We need to raise about $4,000 in order to begin the adoption process for South Korea. We've done everything we can to tighten our budget and save up whatever is leftover on a monthly basis. But it's still an incredibly large amount of money to us. And yet, like a dear friend of mine reminded me last week:

IT'S NOTHING TO GOD!

He works through a multitude of unexpected ways and we're trusting Him for His provision. As you can see, the Lord has already blessed us through some spectacular people in our lives! We are so very grateful, so very thankful to our first contributors. You've already made an impact in our child's life! That blows me away!

So I wanted to make sure we're giving full disclosure in regard to this fund. I will break down the preliminary expenses for you to see why we're looking to raise that much money, and then, as we've been praying, we hope you will consider contributing to help us bring home a child in desperate need of a family.

WHAT DOES THIS $4,000 COVER?

• Our $50 pre-application Fee. - PAID!
• The $300 Adoptive Family Profile Fee (the official application) - PAID!
• The $1,600 Home Study Fee upon approval of our Profile (Home Study includes months of interviews, home checks, safety checks, paperwork, etc, and is expected to be paid upon approval of our Profile.)
• The $150 International Parent Education Workshop (Where adoptive families will take a minimum of 10hrs of training and education required before bringing home their child.)
• The $2,400 Post Placement Fee (This fee covers additional Home Studies required by both our agency and South Korea for months AFTER our child has been brought home, and is expected to be paid along with our Home Study Fee.)

As you can see, the total for these fees exceeds $4,000. But we're setting this goal to get us started. We firmly believe the Lord wants us to adopt from South Korea, and wants us to do it without going into debt. Trusting in both His call to adopt and His providence over our journey, we know He will bring our child home!

SO HOW CAN YOU HELP?

There are a number of ways you can help us out as we raise the needed funds for adoption:

• PRAY for us! We covet those prayers, guys! Any and all prayers for our sanity, hearts, provisions, faith, and that baby boy or girl far, far away, will always be the most precious and needed thing for our family on this journey.
• VOLUNTEER your time/services! You can offer to help us out with one of our upcoming fundraisers! Just let us know you're interested and we'll be happy to add you to our volunteer list when we've got something going on. We've got something for everyone!
• BUY from my online shops! All proceeds go directly to our adoption fund and get added to that there meter-thingy! You can shop my Zibbet store here or visit my Etsy shop here.
• HIRE my voice over or voice lesson services! Drop me a line and we'll discuss! View my voice over profile here.
• WATCH for some amazing fundraising opportunities to contribute to!
• DONATE directly to our cause! Everything gets transferred/deposited straight into our adoption savings account and your contribution will be added to our meter! How do you donate? You can write out a check to us in person, or you can click on that fancy "DONATE" button just under our Fund o' Meter on the right side of this page. You don't even need a PayPal account to use it! (Just be forewarned that, although it is of no extra cost to you, any PayPal donations are subject to donation/transaction fees for us. They will take 2.2% and an additional $0.30 from a donation. For example: that's approximately $2.50 on one $100 donation. We would receive $97.50.)
• PRAY some more!!!

I'll also be adding that Donate button, and Etsy widget to the right side of my blog as permanent quick links just for you! We appreciate your prayers, donations, time, and even considerations. We love you!

-Mel

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received the food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

- Acts 2:45-47 (ESV)