The Plan

Top questions anyone asks us about adoption:

1. Isn't it expensive?
2. Are you adopting from the orphanage you've been to in Ethiopia?
3. Girl or boy?
__________

1. Um, yes.
2. No, they are not adoptable.
3. Unknown, as per usj.
__________

Adoption is crazy expensive. It's intimidating to think that we'll have to pay thousands of dollars for a child in need. It's frustrating but definitely not a deal breaker for us. There are plenty of fundraising ideas we've got our eyes on and organizations that help with adoption and interest-free loans and we'll make it happen. The first two fundraisers we have are t-shirts and prints.

Our t-shirt campaign will last for 21-days (until January 20th, 2016), and you can purchase one here! We'll make over $10 on each t-shirt that's purchased and all proceeds will go directly to our adoption fund.

Our prints are instant download for $5 each. You can purchase them directly from our Etsy account and print at your convenience.

We also have a YouCaring account where we can accept donations. We're not looking for a handout, which is why we're selling t-shirts and prints. But if t-shirts and prints aren't your thing, and you still want to donate, you can give on our YouCaring page.

We also covet your prayers. Please check out our prayer requests page to see the specific areas and things you can pray for. We can't do this without being covered in prayer for our journey, our family and the people of Ethiopia.

We are hoping to have the first $10,000 raised by March so that we can officially apply to our agency. We've been pre-approved but the director of intake has advised us to have six to ten thousand dollars ready to make the first few payments. Having this money readily available will help us to not be slowed down by lack of funds and be able to move forward quickly.

We've prayerfully chosen Ethiopia as our country. We feel connected to Ethiopia because of our past trips to this country. We know the culture and the people and the stats. Ethiopia is twice the size of Texas and there are over 4-million orphans there alone. We have fallen in love with the orphanage in our tiny little town of Ambo/Gouder and we can't imagine starting our adoption journey anywhere else.

Because Maddox is our first born, we're respecting his place in our family and we don't care the age or sex of our child as long as he or she is younger than Maddox. Realistically, we're probably looking at a child five or under, although we could have a faster adoption due to the medical needs of our child.

We're walking into a big unknown but we're so excited to move forward. It's going to be a good year!