One dollar at a time :)

There is no denying the financial burden that adoption imposes upon a hopeful family. There are fees associated with just about every stage in the process:
USCIS (Immigration) approval; Agency Fees; China Fees; Background Checks and Fingerprinting; the mandatory orphanage "donation"; and travel costs.
These fees are necessary to ensure that the adoption is conducted in a way that meets the national guidelines for both countries involved, allows agencies to maintain their licensure, accreditation, and quality staffers, and provide automatic citizenship for children once the adoption is approved.
Most families that adopt internationally will participate in some type of fundraising. Not only do fundraisers assist offsetting adoption financial obligations, but they are an enormous source of strength and support from your family, friends and community (I speak from personal experience here!!).

To give you an idea of the creative lengths PAP's (Potential Adoptive Parents) go to raise funds, here are just a few of the fundraisers I am in the process of working on:

1) My Adopttogether.org page. All proceeds from this "crowdfunding" site go directly to assist with adoption-related costs. This page is comprised of all adoptive families and is similar to a "go fund me" page.

2) My Paint and Sip for a Cause fundraiser. There are many "Paint and Wine" places popping up all over the country and many are happy to hold fundraisers. We are hoping to fill the space with 48 painters, along with some raffle prizes and libations it promises to be a Saturday afternoon not-to-be-missed!!!

3) The brain child of my crafty friend Erica and her mom, we are selling holiday-themed chocolate lollipops. In a short 4 hours one afternoon we were able to crank out over 450 of these yummy Valentine's treats. We hope to repeat this fundraiser for every holiday leading up to my travel day. What a afternoon full of laughs and piles of chocolate- it doesn't get much better than that!

Erica unmolding the pops

Our stash about half-way through the afternoon

My mom (front left) finishing up the red chocolate, Jan (rear, Erica's mom) using her ribbon curling skills, and Stephanie finishing up a mold of bite-sized candies. 

                 

Me, trying not to burn my fingers

Our finished stash- 416 pops, ready for sale!

4) General donations made directly to Cradle of Hope Adoption Center. These have been made even more effective given the fact that many of my friends work for companies that match charitable donations- doubling the amount and helping even more AND getting a tax benefit, as Cradle of Hope is a non-profit organization. Be sure to specify that your donation is For Benefit Of: Zhang Guan Ning.


I have more FUNdraisers to planned over the coming months and please leave any additional ideas in the comment section!!