It’s launch day! Approximately 2.5 years in the making, I’m beyond thrilled to have “You Can Adopt Without Debt: Creative Ways to Cover the Cost of Adoption” finally available!!
The book was written with one goal in mind – to equip families wanting to adopt with the tools and ideas to make their dream come true and do it without going into debt. Unlike my previous book,” You Can Adopt Without Debt” is designed to even help someone just beginning to think about adoption. It explores the different kinds of adoptions, gives pros and cons to each, guides you through choosing an agency, what to expect during the process and the wide range of costs.
Then, of course, it delves into the nitty gritty of paying for adoption should you choose private domestic or international adoption. (Adoption from the foster care system is generally free or VERY inexpensive.)
It’s filled with tons of practical fundraising and income-producing ideas with varying levels of time commitment and return. (Don’t let the word “fundraising” scare you off – you don’t necessarily need to flat out ask for donations as you’ll see.)
(A Table of Contents is at the end of the post so you can see all the information we crammed in!)
SPREAD THE WORD: I would love it if you would help spread the word about the book! I’m giving away 3 signed copies and there are lots of ways to enter at the bottom of the post!!
BOOK HUNT: Of course the book is available at all the major online retailers BUT I’m wondering where else it’s going to be. The first person to find it in a brick ‘n mortar store and take a selfie in front of shelf it’s on wins a special awesome prize from me. (Email pic to julieATjuliegummDOTcom.)
AVAILABLE AT MAJOR RETAILERS
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christian Book | Cokesbury
Table of Contents (*completely new chapters)
Introduction
- The Adoption Adventure*
- Our Story
- What Type of Adoption Is Right for You?*
- Choosing an Agency or Attorney*
- What to Expect in the Process*
- Considering the Cost*
- The Debt-Free Approach*
- Adoption Debt: Wrong or Right?*
- It Starts with Sacrifice
- Adoption Grants
- Employer Benefits*
- Sacrifices and Second Incomes
- Fund-Raising
- Event Fund-Raisers
- Sales-Driven Fund-Raisers
- Social Media Fund-Raising*
- Debt-Free Adoption Is Possible*
- Adoption Tax Credit*
- Giving Back*
- Our Journey to Ethiopia
Appendix
Notes
My husband and I are currently in the process of adopting a sibling group from Bulgaria. We’ve had multiple adoption fundraisers to date, but our most successful was a mammoth yard sale we did last spring. We raised nearly $4,000! I would encourage the use of yard sale type events for fundraising, but I would offer a word of caution that in order for them to be as successful as possible…the better organized you can be, the better. We spent a lot of up-front time making sure we had lots of donated items to sell by visiting other area yard sales and offering to haul away their “leftovers” if they’d be willing to donate them to our fundraiser. That was amazingly a huge hit! We also priced everything! People will often not buy something or even attempt to bargain over a price if it’s not priced to begin with. We secured a “staging area” to store all of the donated items in ahead of time, and it also gave us a place to price. In our case, we didn’t have enough space in our home, so we rented a storage unit. We were able to get the owners to give us one month free, so we had it for two months! We advertised heavily to make sure the crowd was plentiful, and it was! We also worked out an arrangement with a local thrift store to come pick up all of our unsold items to use in their store at the completion of the sale! A win-win!
Using a storage unit short term is a great idea if you don’t have the room. Love that the owners gave you a break too. I love garage sales because it’s also something you can do more than once if you have room to store the leftover in between sales.
yes! I’m going to buy several copies.
Thanks Curtis!
Do you have any biological children (I have only read a couple of posts so far, so I am unsure if this was previously mentioned)? I ask because my husband and I currently have a 7 year old and we have begun to touch on the subject of fostering/adopting with him (we are still a couple years out from starting the process as we are focusing on getting a house first), but there are so few resources that I have found that cover how to talk to your biological kids about fostering/adopting kids. I want to make sure I haven’t left anything out, but wasn’t sure if you might have some insight as to what kinds of questions might need to be asked, how to approach, and how to balance afterwards. Additionally, how did you approach subsequent adoptions with your kids? I worry that it might make them feel like they weren’t good enough so we are trying to find a “better” kid or something. Any advice or direction on resources is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
We have two bio kids as well. At the time of the adoption they were 8 and 5. We broached the subject as something we were “thinking about” and asked their thoughts. The 5 year old was all for it (we knew she would be). The 8 year old was good as long as we didn’t adopt TWO girls. (One girl, one boy was okay.) Most children are extremely supportive of the idea – they worry less about the hard stuff then we parents do. I don’t think it’s too early to maybe just do some “education” with him. You know share stories about adoption, foster kids, etc. I would imagine that there are a lot of great blog posts out there on how other moms have dealt with the subject.
My husband and and I are in the very begin stage of adopting. We are currently planning on adopting from Haiti, but are open to special need adoption so the country could possibly change depending on where God leads us. We are on a pretty tight budget. We feel that God has called us to adopt at this time, and we know he will provide the financial resources. I know that your book will be a if great value to us. Thank you for taking the time to put together all of these resources in one place.
We are about halfway through our first adoption. So far our best fundraiser has been a garage sale. We got donations from friends and family, and filled up our church basement!! We did not price anything, just asked for donations! We advertised via social media and our local newspaper. We made almost $4000!!
My husband and I are considering adoption as I have several health issues that will make it difficult for me to conceive and if I were able to conceive I’d be an extreme high risk case. Therefore we’ve talked about adoption or surrogacy. I plan to purchase this book, but I’d like to know is this book guided more towards overseas (out of the US) adoption or in country adoption too? I haven’t looked too deep into the process yet, as we’ve only been married 1 year and we’d like to wait at least another year before we have a child, but it appears that out of the country adoptions are actually cheaper than to adopt within the country. Which breaks my heart because I know there are children here within the United States that need adoption but people can’t afford to adopt because of the various agencies causing everything to be so high.
My husband and I are considering adoption as I have several health issues that will make it difficult for me to conceive and if I were able to conceive I’d be an extreme high risk case. Therefore we’ve talked about adoption or surrogacy. I plan to purchase this book, but I’d like to know is this book guided more towards overseas (out of the US) adoption or in country adoption too? I haven’t looked too deep into the process yet, as we’ve only been married 1 year and we’d like to wait at least another year before we have a child, but it appears that out of the country adoptions are actually cheaper than to adopt within the country. Which breaks my heart because I know there are children here within the United States that need adoption but people can’t afford to adopt because of the various agencies causing everything to be so high.
While our experience was an international adoption, the book also talks about domestic adoption – both private, domestic (like a newborn) and adopting from foster-care. Adopting from the foster care system is usually free or very inexpensive and may be an option but no matter what type of adoption you pursue, the book will help you figure out how to afford it. Also, there are some great groups on Facebook – I’m an admin in this one which has some great people in it who have gone the domestic route if that’s what you’re interested in. https://www.facebook.com/groups/144428099091259/