Recently, I joined a committee that is putting on a fundraiser for our adoption agency, Christian Adoption Services. Why would our agency need a fundraiser, isn't it government funded? Well, actually, our agency is a non-profit organization. The costs of their programs/adoptions are covered by fees charged to adoptive families, fundraising, and donations.
The agency provides pre-adoption counselling to expectant mothers, often having several meetings over many months. The social workers at the agency spend a lot of time helping to facilitate relationship building between expectant families and adoptive families, and they continue with counselling for birth mothers after placement.
CAS is a registered charity. Financial donations allow them to keep their costs to adoptive families as low as possible. Donations also allow CAS to run extra programs such as training seminars, support groups, and special events. Ben and I have already taken part in two training seminars and a dinner for adoptive families.
While less expensive than adopting internationally (mostly because of the additional travel), the cost of adopting domestically is quite a significant expense for most families. The costs will be different in each case depending on the amount of counselling necessary, distances traveled, and accommodations, etc., but will range between 12,000 and 15,000 or so by the time the adoption is finalized. This high cost makes adoption out of reach or financially straining for many families. After spending a day last month at an adoption training seminar with other waiting families from CAS, the idea of helping with this fundraiser became more important and personal to me. We met a family who had recently adopted twice. When asked about how they came up with the funding (I was a little surprised when someone asked them that!), they said that they had taken out a line of credit on their home and borrowed from an uncle! Another couple we spoke to had held fundraisers within their church. Point is, people don't have this kind of money just sitting around. If there is any chance that I can be a part of making adoption more affordable for families, I want to be a part of it!
Check out the link below to see how the costs break down for adoptive families (there are no costs to birth families):
domestic adoption fees
So, the fundraiser!!!
It is going to be a silent auction and will be held in Calgary in March 2015. If any of my readers are from Calgary, you should go (info to follow in the new year)! The reality for me is that we don't live close enough to Calgary to make it to the auction. What we are planning to do for our contribution to the fundraiser is to collect as many item donations as possible.
If any of you feel called to help us raise money for the agency (and in turn help keep costs down for adoptive families), please consider donating something! I think that gift cards for popular restaurants, clothing stores, grocery stores, itunes, or other stores would be easy to send and would garner lots of bids. Or, if you have a home based business or crafting ability, donations of those items would be much appreciated as well!
Here is a peek at what I made for the auction. I went through my fabric stash and made a few minky blankets. I'm guessing that there will be a few expectant parents or grandparents at this auction :)
In James 1 verse 27, the Lord calls us to look after the needs of the widows and the orphans. This act of caring for orphans looks different for all of us, but the call remains the same. Some are meant to adopt, others are meant to foster, others are meant to sponsor children. Are you able to help? Throw something extra in with your Christmas shopping?
Please contact me if you would like to contribute. Or, if you already have my address, send me your item by mail. Thank you in advance to all who help! Your support will help bring children home to their forever families. We are so thankful for CAS and are excited to see how God will bless them through this event!
I plan to give anything collected to the agency for the auction by January sometime.
-Ali
