Many people have raised money before and have a full understanding of how to - what to - when to etc. with money. However, some people have not and some of this information is for YOU!
Secondly, for EVERYONE, we want to be as transparent through this process as possible - emotionally and financially. We want you to be able to trust us with your money. We want you to know that when you give, you are giving to bring a precious girl home.
For the emotions, I am not good at covering mine up, so, if you think I might be emotional, I probably am :) be careful what you ask... HA! But seriously, at the end of the day we are doing this for our family, and for Lena and because we know that God has called us to be her new family.
If, in the process we can show you, your family, and friends, that adoption is a good thing (and possibly even a "thing" that you could do) then that is a side bonus. So, we want to be as open as we can be (on a public website) with the process, the fun, the love, the joy.... and the frustration, the delays, the fears and the pain. We want you to take this journey with us! We want YOU to be involved. We love Lena, and we know, that if you going on this journey with us, you will be in love with her before she ever arrives home!!!
Back to the technical stuff.... Here are a few things we want you to know when you donate to our adoption fund:
- Money donated through our PayPal or youcaring.com account (please see the buttons/links on the right side of our blog) is subject to a PayPal fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction if paid by credit card. This means that if you donate $10 to our adoption fund, we only see $9.41 of it (or if you donate $100, we only see $96.80). We feel these fees are totally worth the ease, security and accessibility that PayPal offers, but we want you to know that a portion of your donation will go toward these fees. If you have a PayPal balance or a bank account set up on your PayPal account, these fees can be avoided.
- Your donation will not be tax deductible. We would LOVE to say that is can be, but the time and cost associated with becoming an eligible non-profit is simply not within our means. If you have other questions, contact your accountant - he or she will have more information!
- We have set up a separate bank account specifically for our adoption donations. We want to be sure there is no confusion between our monthly budget and the money you have given us specifically to fund our adoption. Our PayPal account is linked to this bank account and any other donations will also be deposited directly into this account.
- Should we find ourselves unable to proceed with our adoption at any point (an unforeseen hitch in the process that is out of our control, etc), we will donate any money remaining in our adoption fund to help another family's adoption. We want you to know that the money in our adoption fund will be put toward the cause of "making a way" for an orphan to have a family - no matter what.
- Adoption funds that are raised are not dispensed in one gigantic $25,000 check (thankfully) but are applied to costs along the way. (Filing fees in both the US and the Ukraine, home study, medical physicals, air tickets, lawyer fees in the Ukraine, Passport fees, housing for the 5-6 weeks we will need to go get her, Judges fees, court fees, possible English classes, etc.) Should you ever want to know details of the costs associated with adoption, please do not hesitate to ask. We promise to keep excellent track of every penny spent in this process so that we can be responsible for your generosity.
We are already doing everything we can to find the best people to help us for the most reasonable prices. We have started filling out paper work, contacting multiple people who have done this before or are currently in process, and trying to get as many appointments set up as possible.
In other fun news....
I got to chat with her today for the first time! I miss this girl TERRIBLY!
Thanks for all your support!
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