Sunday, June 24, 2012

Financial Matters

Hello again,

So we are having this concert at which donations will be accepted to help cover our adoption expenses. If you are considering donating, and, like us, are new to adoption, we thought you may want to know what adoption expenses are like.

But first you need to hear something very important that a wise person shared with me this week.

We are not adopting this boy for charitable reasons and we don't want you to give money for charity either. We do not feel that we are rescuing this boy and we don't want you to think that either. Yes, his life in Ghana would be more difficult, in many ways, to what he will experience here. But that's not why we are doing this. We are adopting him because we love him and we want him to be in our family. There is no other reason.

There are lots of contributing factors to our decision and they all relate to the effect of Jesus Christ in our lives. If you are interested in knowing more about that, ask us and we will be glad to tell you. The truth is, because of Him, we would adopt this boy even if it cost ten times as much and we were not given a cent. Money is not a concern for us. Not that we have tons of it, but it's just so much less important than our son.

So, the financial update. To date, we have spent:

$350 - Application fee
$750 - Administrative/Homestudy Review/Dossier Prep Fees
$2000 - Agency Fee 1
$890 - Department of Homeland Security (covers immigration application and biometric fingerprinting)
$4000 - In-Country Processing (fees for the Ghana side of things)
$2000 - Agency Fee 2
$96.20 - Various clearances
$960 - Homestudy
$89.51 - Miscellaneous stuff ranging from co-pays for blood work, passport photos for the dossier, original copies of marriage and birth certificates, etc.

So far, that totals $11,135.71.

We have an upcoming bill of $9500 that will cover child documentation and legal fees, post-placement reports, a final agency fee, and other stuff.

The rest of the bills are ambiguous at best. We know that we have to travel to Ghana twice, once to adopt him and then, after his paperwork clears, to go back to get him. I priced flights to Ghana and they are in the neighborhood of $1700 per seat. Multiply times four for two people to make two round trip flights, plus a one way ticket for our son on the final trip home (which is about the same price, go figure), and you come up with $8500 in flights. There will also be in-country costs and a fee for an in-country liaison which hasn't been defined yet. I think $10,000 is a conservative estimate for costs related to travel.

So we are roughly $11,000 in with about $20,000 to go. Please remember, WE DON"T CARE ABOUT THE MONEY. We never have. Think about it - if your child was in Africa and you were separated by an ocean, would you care about the cost? Exactly. We don't either.

We have been wise with our money, we think. Rebekah is a master budgeter which really helps. We are a one salary family and we try to live below our means and save. We had been saving for a couple of projects around the house but set those aside for now. We refinanced our house which was not only long overdo but helped us out a lot. We just had a yard sale which had the combined benefits of a little extra cash and clearing out the basement a bit.

I would love to see you at the concert but if you do, please do not feel obligated to donate. If you do want to donate, our church (Word of Grace Fellowship) has made a way to do that online so that you can donate at anytime. You will have the opportunity to make donations at the concert, but if you want to make a donations from home, you can click here:

Rummel Adoption Fund Donations

Make sure you click on the correct button that is specifically for the adoption fund and is listed as "The Rummel Family."

Thank you so much. For reading the blog, for attending the concert, for considering donation, for being part of this adventure with us. I hope you know how much we appreciate it.

JRR

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