The BIG Why?

When we tell strangers, family, and friends about our adoption, usually questions come up as to the where, why, and when. However, the number one question people, from the bank teller who’s brother is interested in adopting to the sweet couple trying to start a family that we met at our yard sale, is...

“Why does it cost so much?”

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We don’t blame people for asking about the cost, as we were also clueless before dipping our toes into the adoption world not too long ago. Personally, I thought we’d have to write out one big fat check for $25,000 and be done! Thankfully, that’s not the case. Instead, as we’ve come to understand, international adoption is expensive because you’re paying a lot of different people small and large amounts at multiple different times throughout the process: agency fees (for home studies, social workers, etc.), the American government (to file to bring a foreign orphan on US soil, notarize papers, etc.), the Chinese government (to approve our dossier, etc.), the Chinese consulates in America (to seal papers), etc. And don’t forget all the shipping costs to send these papers all over the world, as well as travel cost to get and stay in China for two weeks! If you want a complete break down of a China adoption costs from our agency, see here: http://ccaifamily.org/AdoptExpenses/WCP-AdoptionExpense

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CCAI estimates that their adoptions will cost between $24,600-$27,700, which is actually quite low. Quite low?! Yes, it seems ludicrous, but compared to the other NGO certified adoption agency, their agency fees alone are over $20,000, with the grand total being over $30,000! Thankfully, CCAI’s mission is to make adoption as affordable as possible so that as many children as possible can be brought into their forever families. However, even with these “cheaper” costs, it’s obviously still expensive. And as teachers, which is a profession that we love, but isn’t so lucrative, that’s a ton of money.

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Although we don’t mind hard work and supported ourselves during graduate school with sometimes six jobs between the two of us and only one car, we knew from the beginning that this amount was bigger than our personal hard work could accomplish. While waiting to begin the adoption process almost two years ago, we were praying for opportunities to make extra money. One of us was offered a second job out of the blue: coaching teachers how to be their very best! It has been a huge blessing to set aside that extra money every month these past two years to help assist with the adoption and coming home expenses. 

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Even with working extra hours, we knew that we could not make the $25,000 we need in a year’s time. Hence for our son's adoption, we applied for every grant we qualified (totaling in the ballpark of 16!) and began to organize a yard sale. Through grants, yard sales, a Both Hands project, and some extremely generous family and friends, we were able to bring our son home in exactly one year, never having to stop the adoption process due to lack of funds. Praise the Lord! He stretched our faith and we know He will provide again! This time around we want to use our love of coffee roasting to help others enjoy quality coffee at a low price, so they can be apart of our journey to bring Hao Bao Bao #2 home! 

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Is fundraising hard? Yep! Do we wish we had $30,000 in our back pocket so we wouldn't have to rely on others to partner with us in bringing our precious baby home. Absolutely! But we would have missed "this."

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“This” was getting to know people we barely met before at our church.

“This” was making new friends at our church and community and being able to share our story with them.

“This” was being humbled by the generosity of perfect strangers, some who have adopted children or were adopted themselves and wanted to give back.

“This” was getting to share about adoption, specifically the needs for families to adopt precious children from China, with literally hundreds of strangers, as well as hopefully pointing them to a piece of the Gospel message.
“This” was seeing so many sweet friends literally bend over backwards to help make our fundraisers a success!
And “this” has been learning about, talking to, hearing from ministries all over the States who are so gracious to partner with families to bring home as many of God’s precious children as possible!

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And we wouldn’t trade all of these “this” experiences for anything in the world! So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for your prayers, love, and coffee purchasing. Drink coffee and help us change a child's life forever!