Fundraising an adoption may sound crazy, but we aren’t the first to think of it. In fact, there are lots of ways to fund-raise your adoption. Who knew?

Pinterest has plenty of ideas for fundraising your adoption. So, pins in hand, we created an account on GoFundMe.com.

GoFundMe

We were afraid to post about it at first because we didn’t want to appear needy or incapable of funding our adoption. However, the bottom line is that adoptions are expensive and if people want to donate to our cause – we will graciously accept.

Next, we created an Amazon Associates account. Amazon Associates allows us to advertise products on our blog, you click on it to shop, and then we earn advertising revenue. Basically, you get to enjoy the fun of shopping online and it helps us as well. Win – win.

So, as our first advertisement we chose the documentary Stuck. Stuck is an amazing film that brings to light the hardships that international adoption is currently facing with the Hague laws.

Stuck


We can provide links to other products if you want a direct link to the product you are buying, otherwise you can click on Stuck and then search through Amazon for your product.

Next, we want to send a H U G E thank you to those who have donated towards our adoption. Giving to our cause just made everything feel so much more real. It’s hard to fathom that our followers and readers genuinely want us to be parents. Not that we feel we would be bad at it, but we honestly haven’t got a clue as to what we are doing (as every first-time parent feels, we’re sure). And to our anonymous donors – you know who you are – THANK YOU.

Now onto adoption etiquette. There are certain things said very casually that are hurtful, though unintentional. Feel free to Google “Positive Adoption Language” to learn more. When referring to someone who has placed a child for adoption, has adopted, or is an adoptee please be sensitive and courteous.

• real mother/father/parent or natural mother/father/parents = birth mother/father/parent. There is nothing “unreal” or “unnatural” about parents who chose to adopt.
• foster child = child in foster care. Always use people-first language.
• available child = waiting child.
• is adopted = was adopted.
• gave away or given up = placed for adoption. Oh man. This one is so insensitive it makes me cringe. The last thing you would ever want to do is make someone who was adopted feel unwanted or unloved. It is also disrespectful to the birth mother. Here is a quote from a birth mother that describes perfectly what placing is all about:

We as birth mothers did not GIVE up our children! We did what we knew was best for them. We made the conscientious decision to give our children a life that we (at the time) were unable to give them. It’s done out of pure love for our precious babies. We gave them more, but we did not give them up. We gave LOVE, gave LIFE, but we NEVER gave up! The one thing we did give away was our whole heart, to that child.

Perfect.

And now, *drum roll please,* our latest update is that we’ve been approved to move forward with the home study! Once we are home study approved, it’s officially a waiting game until we are matched. CRAZY! We couldn’t be more excited. Keep your fingers crossed that this round of paperwork won’t take months to complete.