Look What GOD Can Do!

We feel strongly it's important to be very open and forthcoming about the financial aspects of adoption primarily to show what our great God can do!  It is our hope that our story serves as an encouragement to other families.  We hope by showing what God has accomplished through our journey, it will give you hope in beginning yours.  I do apologize that this is so long, and I hope it doesn't deter you from reading it in its entirety!  (Hopefully you read the post "An Important Piece of Information", so you'll understand the duality of info below.)  :)

Adopting ONE Child - Estimated Costs $28,000
                                          Our Goal                15,030

Adopting TWO - Estimated Costs            41,580   
                                Our Goal                        28,610
*Updated the costs 9/14/13 based on our current figures from our agency.

As you can see, our goals are lower than the estimated cost.  This is because there is an adoption tax credit of $12,970 that reduces your tax liability.  For example, if our taxes showed we needed to pay the federal government $2000, the adoption credit would reduce that liability to zero, and we would carry $10,970 in credit to the next year.  This can be done for 6 years.  This is different than our first adoption because they refunded the entire amount the year we claimed it.  Because of this change, we may not be able to use the entire $12,970 in 6 years unless our tax liability exceeds that amount, but we feel this is a part of the process that we should bear completely on our own.  Our plan is to apply for an interest-free loan from a wonderful organization such as LifeSong.  They allow payments to be made based on how our taxes are actually reduced each year.  Should we not be able to use the entire credit, we would repay the difference. 

Other than that, we are determined to save, apply for grants, and fundraise for the remainder, fully trusting that it is God's plan for this adoption to be debt-free.  So far:

We have saved - $2100
Tshirts - $915
Origami Owl Fundraiser Party - $150
Individual Donations - $1476 to date!!

It's pretty encouraging for being almost 2 months into the process!  A friend recently told me that partaking in the fundraising gave her the sense the we are ALL getting a new child!!  I love that!  We really are.  It takes a lot of people to change an orphan's story, but together, we can do it!

An Important Piece of Information

We've come up with our financial goal, but there is one aspect that remains undecided.  At first, we felt led to adopt two children this time, possibly at the same time or one right after the other.  Looking at where we are right now, we realize that may simply have been God's way of leading us to one specific child.  We are reviewing the file of a little 3-year-old boy and researching his special need.  To make a long story short, the evolution of events has been such that we don't believe we would have seen this child's file had we not sought to adopt two.  We have been careful in asking for advice in this regard (although we have been diligently researching the pros/cons) because our desire is to hear an answer from one voice.  Of course you know who that is!  Quite frankly, it sounds on the verge of insanity to us, it feels scary to the point of a gripping fear, it seems impossible with our current circumstances.  But if we know for certain it is the call of Christ to do this, we will do it.  I feel selfish in asking for more prayer, but it is definitely an area where prayer warriors are needed.  We want to make sure we keep the needs in focus of the three beautiful blessings we already have, as well as the needs of the child or children who will be coming home.  I can imagine about two dozen ways Satan would try to use this against our family.  When we post our financial goal and progress so far, we wanted folks to be aware of the reason we actually have two goals.  We'll also post when the final decision has been made on how we are proceeding.

Thanks for the prayers, and smiles!

Many Ways to Lend a Hand

* Pray for our child in China, our children at home, our process, the financial aspect, etc.

* Tax-deductible contribution to our adoption agency

* Donate an electronic item, themed basket, or gift card we could use in a silent auction

* Donate postage so we can send sponsor letters

* Pass the word on to anyone you think may want to help!  :)

* Participate in one of fundraisers (and there will be many!)
   Here is what we have scheduled so far:
   TEES - We placed our final order on tees, but we ordered extra in various sizes.
   BRACELETS - We have plenty of bracelets left, $3 or $3.50 mailed to you.
   BOOKMARKS - Grace wanted to help, so she designed bookmarks she is selling for $1!
   ORIGAMI OWL PARTY - a sweet friend, Amy Boswell, got together with her friend who is a
      consultant for Origami Owl and is hosting a party where a portion of the funds will go to our
      adoption expenses!  June 20th is the party date, and you can order online at 
      www.samanthameadows.origamiowl.com   When you check-out, there is a drop-down box
      under "Jewelry Bar" that says "Fundraising Party - for the Hudson's" (#162812).  Make sure you
      select it!
   YARD SALE - if you have items you would like to donate, we'll arrange pick-up.  You can also
      attend the sale, which will be held at Macedonia Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky
      sometime in late August.  (We will update when we have the date for sure.)
   CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA - November 2nd we'll be having a shoppers dream!  We hope
      to have 5 - 10 direct sales companies (like Thirty-One at www.thirtyonegifts.com) who will
      have tables all at one location, Macedonia Baptist.  You'll be able to visit all the different products
      at once while a portion of proceeds benefit our adoption!  Thanks to Amy Bellamy and Brittany
      Zik, Thirty-One consultants, for their support and help in this venture!!
   

How Long Will It Take?

When does our precious child come home?  Every country is different, so this is only regarding our process through China at this particular point in time.  Our estimate is 12-18 months, but many factors can lengthen or shorten that span, so it is approximate.  There are basically 5 stages:

HOMESTUDY -  a social worker visiting your home, looking through every aspect of your life including your marriage, parental style, childhood and life experiences, finances, criminal history, etc.  This process typically takes around 3 months.
IMMIGRATION - sending an application and copy of our homestudy to US customs and immigration to ask for permission to bring a child into the US for purposes of adopting that child.  Once the application is mailed to approval is around 3 months.
DOSSIER - a packet of forms all about our life, with almost every single piece of paper requiring a type of authentication.  Sort of like having each paper notarized, except it goes through a series of 4 authentications.  These documents go to the county level (in Kentucky), the state, the US Department of State, and the China Embassy or Consulate.  We will probably wait for our immigration approval in order to save mailing costs, so after immigration approval, 2 months is the estimate for the authentications.  Then it goes to China!  It takes 2 - 6 weeks for it to be logged into the system there.
REFERRAL - this is when you receive pictures and information on the child that has been matched with your family, or you get a referral for the child who you have requested to be matched with.  These children are called "waiting children", because they may be older or have some type of special need that makes them harder to place.  Right now, we are actually reviewing the file of a little boy with a special need.  Should our family request to adopt him, we would receive his referral once we were approved as a match.  I have the estimate as 5 - 12 weeks, with 8 weeks as the standard.
TRAVEL - once you have accepted your referral, travel would be somewhere around 4 months later!
 
This time our homestudy itself was super fast (2 weeks!) because we had a homestudy just a few years ago, and our social worker is rocket fast and super awesome (GO LYDIA)!!!  But, we have one document that I requested on May 6th that has to be received to complete the homestudy.  Even though the government agency that issues that document has a policy requiring it to be mailed by June 8th, I called yesterday and it could still be two more weeks.  Once that single sheet of paper arrives, we are ready to roll!  The homestudy will be complete, which means our paperwork to immigration can be mailed off (and believe me, the paperwork was filled out by yours truly a month ago :), and as soon as the immigration paperwork is processed, our dossier can be authenticated and mailed to China (again, our part finished already)!!

The immigration paperwork involves fingerprinting, so it takes at least 2 months for the application to be approved and the fingerprint appointment to be scheduled, fingerprinting to be completed, and preliminary approval to be received.

The dossier is almost a little comical, because it's like the forms get notarized, then someone certifies that notary is able to notarize, then someone certifies that the person who certified the notary is able to do so, etc.  :)  But it is what it is.  Now that we have done all that we can do with gathering documents and filling out applications, we are pretty at peace with the process.  I fully expect to have my moments of panic or impatience, but the good Lord will get us through!  :)

Smiles!

The Cost of the Adoption Process

So you really want to know the costs involved in the adoption process?  Are you sure?  Before you read on, you must solemnly promise that if you believe God is calling you to adopt, you will not allow this information to be discouraging.  Did you promise?  Wonderful.  :)  You are also required to memorize Luke 18:27 -

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men, is possible with God."

 

You have it engraved in your memory?  Good.  It is very important to note that you are not "paying for a child", you are paying for the processes and professional services involved.  Here are the average estimates of the costs involved.  The huge variance is a result of several factors that vary from adoption-to-adoption.  Some of those variables are:  the costs of traveling to the country, the area of the US where the adoption is taking place, if the child has special needs, domestic adoptions might include legal/living expenses/medical provisions/counseling for the birthparent(s), if the adoption is between relatives, mailing costs, differing costs between adoption agencies, etc.

 

Foster Care Adoption - approximately $2500

Domestic Adoption - approximately $20,000 to $40,000

International Adoption - approximately $20,000 to $50,000

 

I'm assuming that sound I just heard was your jaw dropping.  :)  Before looking into the costs ourselves, we had no idea it was so expensive.  This link has an interesting break-down of costs:

http://www.theadoptionguide.com/cost/articles/how-much-does-adoption-cost

 

Many people are very surprised to find that domestic adoption is so close in cost to international adoption.  I think we all make the assumption that traveling expenses alone would cause an international adoption to cost more.  For the record, our adoption process through Korea was a total of $35,000 (the site above lists Korea as $38,000), which included attorney fees for finalizing his adoption and paying $550 for his Certificate of Citizenship.  Thankfully, we received the fully refundable adoption credit, which left our costs at around $22,000.  We saved and held fundraisers for the remainder, as well as receiving frequent flyer miles from my parents that were astronomically helpful with our flight costs.  We give the good Lord all the glory for providing completely for our first process!!

The next chance I have, I'll give the specifics on our estimated adoption expenses through China's Special Needs Program.

Smiles!