I know why it costs so much to adopt

I have really pondered why it costs so blasted much for adoption. There are countless children out in this world that need families but the amount for the average family is unfathomable. Just as an example, the cost for our adoption is $34,000. If it was more affordable, more families would adopt.

However, today I felt The Lord speaking to my heart. I felt that he was telling me that there is a reason for the expense.

I was watching a video and reading a blog about the story of a family adopting a boy from Ukraine. They participated in the Both Hands Project in order to help fund their adoption. This project is called Both Hands because the bible is clear that we are to take care of widows AND orphans (James 1:27). So, families trying to raise funds for their adoption help a widow in need and in the meantime, money is raised to help bring the orphan home. If the need for money wasn't so unfathomable, there wouldn't be a need for the Both Hands Project. The widow wouldn't have been blessed. The volunteers wouldn't have been blessed. The family bringing home an orphan boy wouldn't have been blessed.

So, it hit me. Like.a.ton.of.bricks. The cost is exorbitant because the blessings are many. If the cost was small, the blessings would be few.

In our particular situation, I can see how blessings have poured out through this entire process. Countless people have given money, time, prayers, gifts, donations, etc. just to help bring Alex and Lilya home. All of those people have been blessed for their efforts and even more so, we have been exponentially blessed. If you care to see how many people have helped in this process, check out this post. And to be honest, I am sure I forgot quite a few people.

We have worked so hard to bring these children home, that it makes us realize the cost. It wasn't easy. We spent many, many, many hours preparing documents, getting signatures notarized (I feel like I should take my notary out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for all her countless notarizing - way beyond what is considered normal), going to the doctor's office (three times), fundraising, waiting (a ridiculous amount of waiting), writing checks, getting documents appostiled, FedExing documents, etc. And that is all before we even started packing!

Plus, the financial aspect of this has been challenging, as well. We needed $34,000 all together for the adoption and I still don't even know how we did it. Well, we didn't. God did. Seriously! We sacrificed and saved a lot of money. We don't have cable. We cut expenses. We put our "vacation" fund towards the adoption. We didn't go to the movies. We sold a lot of things. To read the emotional goodbye to Danny's Drums, click here. But God provided the rest. It was unbelievable how it all came together.

My faith was tested. My faith grew. I was stretched in ways I didn't know I could be stretched. And I don't say that to be cliche. I truly mean that. There were days I cried. Days I prayed that The Lord would tell me what next. Days that I wanted to give up. Days that I was so excited, I thought I'd pee my pants. And then days that I said, "Okay Lord, I can't do this anymore!!!" But in all of it, I was blessed. Beyond measure!!! And if all the people that helped along the way were even half as blessed as I have been, then that's a lot of blessings!

I now know why it costs so much to adopt. Just like Jesus paid a price for our freedom, we paid a price for the orphan's freedom.