Dear Friends & Supporters,
We are beginning the process of domestic infant adoption and would love your support in this process. Since Chris was adopted (as an infant from India), we know firsthand the positive impact adoption can have on a child’s life, and have always had it in mind for part of our family building process. We persevered through the adventure that was getting married during the global pandemic and have been trying to start our family for the last couple of years. As we have navigated through infertility issues this past year, the conversation about adopting someday for a second kid shifted to the idea of building our family through adoption now. And since we have not been able to have a baby of our own, at this point in time we strongly desire the experience of raising an infant to experience all those early milestones with them.
If you know Deborah, you know she has always had a heart for kids. She can often be found making silly faces at and entertaining whatever child is in the room and has long dreamed of the day she would have a child of her own. If you know Chris, you know he has been elementary school teacher for almost a decade and is ready to upgrade from uncle status to dad.
It may surprise you that the average cost of domestic infant adoption in the United States can range from 50K to 80K. It certainly was a surprise to us! It is for this reason that we are asking our family, friends, faith community and supporters to consider donating to help ease the financial burden we never anticipated would be involved in building our family.
The fees which adoption agencies collect are so high because they cover:
You can play an integral part in helping us realize our dreams of becoming parents and enable us to provide a loving home for a child in need. We have chosen to use this specific crowdfunding platform so that any donations you choose to make are tax deductible. (You can also give to the foundation via check or charitable giving platform.)
Your love, support, and prayers mean more to us than you know.
Love,
Deborah & Chris
Thank you to everyone who has given in the last couple weeks! We had a $5,000 matching grant which we just completed. Woo hoo!
You'll also see that the total fundraising amount has now been adjusted thanks to some donations received outside of the platform.
We are planning to turn in our home study application this week and get the ball rolling on that process!
We wanted to include in this update some non-monetary ways people can support our adoption journey:
- We will need to travel to whatever state we receive a match from and stay for potentially 2-3 weeks after the birth while paperwork is being completed. If you have airline miles, hotel points, or general travel points that you are able to transfer, that would help alleviate this TBD financial burden.
- Adoption wait times are based on expectant mothers finding our agency. You can help improve the algorithms and likelihood of mothers knowing about our agency and us by liking/following American Adoptions on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Praying for us as we wait and for the birth parents of our future child.
- Connecting us to anyone you may know who has done a domestic adoption (not foster to adopt).
- Sharing our Adopt Together page and our Adoption Profile once it is live with your networks.
Someone asked about donating via check instead of an electronic payment, so we wanted to make that information a little easier to find.
Checks can be made out to Hoping Hearts Foundation and mailed to:
AdoptTogether
251 W Central Ave. #278,
Springboro, OH 45066
Please be sure to include our family Fundraiser ID# on the memo line of the check. Our family Fundraiser ID# is FUN601286
Hoping Hearts Foundation is likely what you would need to search for in a charitable giving platform (rather than Adopt Together) since that is the 501(c)(3) organization.
Thank you everyone for your encouragement as we begin the adoption process! We are currently working on a large document for our agency which is our adoption planning questionnaire. This document will be used to help our agency figure out which expectant mothers to show our profile to. You can be praying for us as we make decisions filling out the APQ like what ethnic backgrounds we are open to and what sort of relationship we envision having with our child's birth mom.
