1. Why El Salvador?
After literally countless hours of research over the last few years, we have chosen to adopt from El Salvador for a few reasons. Besides the fact that God has pulled our hearts toward that country, some of the other realistic reasons are:
- Travel was doable considering we have three other children. We are hoping to have some miles saved up from my American Express business card to pay for our airfare. Depending on how old Jake is, we may take him with us.
- There are many orphans in El Salvador who need homes due to extreme poverty.
- We fell in love with the children at Love and Hope Children's home and are learning so much about the country and people from them.
- The fees are substantially lower in El Salvador. Instead of $30,000 to 40,000 they are around $20,000. This was not quite as overwhelming to us.
- Our child may actually come to us from foster care which would e nice opposed to coming from an orphanage. The people are very loving there and would take good care of him while we wait to bring him home, which is a comfort to me.
2. We were asked why we don't just give the money to an orphanage as opposed to adopting.
For starters, we don't have $20,000 sitting around. We are working our tails off trying to save and raise the money to bring this little guy home. But, if we did have it, we would not do that because we believe that children should grow up in a home with a family NOT an orphanage.
3. We have been asked how we could love someone who is not "ours biologically"-
That has never crossed our minds. I hope it doesn't. God loves us unconditionally and He loves each of our children. We will too.
4. How old will the child be...
Our request is to adopt a child that will be the youngest in our family. Abby will be about 3 1/2 when he comes home so he will hopefully be 0-18 months.
5. How are you going to pay for this?
Honestly, I (Jeni) ask God this question all the time. I don't know. I don't know how we paid for all of Abby's and my medical bills the last year and a half. I don't know how we paid for new flooring to help Abby's asthma. Some things just weren't in the budget, but they were paid for. God has provided for us faithfully over and over.
Our goal is to come up with as much of the money as possible without taking out a loan. I am working very hard with Carabella's. It is a young business so there are a lot of expenses, but it is growing and we are excited about that.
We are going to apply for as many grants as possible and we are going to save as much as possible. We are open to any fundraising suggestions too. Basically, we will do whatever we need to do to bring our little guy home.
That's it for now. If you want to read a great book on adoption, our current favorite is "Fields of the Fatherless." It is short and easy and it is awesome!!
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