We need your help! We recently got pass along cards printed and need help distibuting them. If you would like to help, please email me your address and I'll get a couple to you.
Update on our life:
The past two weeks have been an emotional roller coaster, and to be honest, I am exhausted! We began looking a getting an adoption loan. We found out that our health insurance will give us $4,000.00 after placement, and Travis will receive a employee adoption benefit for $2,000.00. Plus, the adoption tas credit for 2010 is $12,170.00. Incase you are bad at math, that is $18,170.00!!! This does not include the child tax credit, which is another $1,000.00. All of this would make an adoption loan do-able. We are still approved through LDS Family services, but we have been looking at other private agencies that would help us get a baby faster. Going through another agency would cost us a minimum of $23,500.00, which sounds like a lot, but once we get the $19,170.00 back, it really would not be that much out of pocket.
The problem that we soon realized is that getting a loan would be a lot harder than we thought. Because we bought our house before the market crashed, the value of our home has been affected, we are not able to get a home equity loan. We could get a personal loan, which means we wouldn't have to have any collateral, but the interest rate would be around 11%. The repayment time would be 36 months, but we would be able to have 80% payed off in a year or less. Anyway, that would make our payments around $800.00 per month. And unfortunately, we just don't have the extra $800.00 per month to cover the cost of a loan and the added cost of having a child.
I hope that this all makes sense and I'm not just rambling...
Moral of the story:
The only thing that is standing in the way of us being parents is money. That hit me pretty hard this past weekend. I am having a difficult time coming to terms with our situation. I thought that I was in a good place, but I guess I'm not. I have spent the past few days trying to figure out ways that we can earn the money to fund our adoption. I have decided that I would like to create a foundation. The foundation would raise money to aid couples that need help, but may not qualify for other assistance. I also want to create adoption merchandise (t-shirts, key chains, bracelets, necklaces, etc.).
I am planning on writing a book about our adoption experience. I would like to include others' stories. I am always going to the library looking for a book about the emotional side of adoption, but there is nothing there. I know that I feel better about some of the things I'm going through, if I know that someone else has felt the same way. I feel that there needs to be a book that talks about the emotional side of adoption. If you or anyone you know are affected by adoption and would like to contribute to this project please email me.
Thank you for your love and support...
