How much will it cost? How long will it take?

I know you all must love Meredith as much as I do. I have been fielding emails and messages about this sweet girl all week. The biggest concern for every family is how much will it cost to bring Meredith home? Closely, followed by, how long will it take? Let's talk about those things, today.

First up, the cost...I know you're hearing horror film music in the background and you're just peeking through your fingers, afraid to look at the screen. It's really not that bad (says the crazy lady who's $15,000 into a $22,000 fundraising goal). Let's do the math together and pray that I do it correctly, because math is not my best subject.

Agency fees: $7,450

Program fees: $9,500

Homestudy fee: ? Let's use $2000, it's a good average homestudy cost.

Travel and document fees: estimated cost...$5,000

My handy-dandy calculator puts us at just shy of $24,000. We're going to use $24,000 because it's a nice even number and math is not my best subject. It's like ripping the band-aid off...$24,000, now let's see if we can make it better. 

Meredith has a grant of $5,200 (my goal is to raise that number to an even $6,000 by the end of the month). There are grants available through her agency for up to $3,000 and other agency's that they will connect you with to help with other grants. Time to pull up my calculator, again.

Now, we're looking at about $15,500. Still a big number, but you should be feeling better. That's totally doable and she's worth every dollar! There are adoption loans that could be considered, but I recommend that be a last resort. You will have about a year to raise this money. That's a little over $1,000 a month. You can do it! 

Okay, take a deep breath, get your head clear, we're going to talk about a time-line. If you committed to Meredith, today, she should be home in 12 to 15 months. That sounds like a long time. However, if you decided, today, to make a baby the good ole fashioned way you could also be looking at a 12 to 15 month wait. Sure, it could go faster, but there's no guarantee that it would. There really are no guarantees in life. 

Meredith is waiting, now, and she's been waiting for a long time. She needs a Mommy and a Daddy. What are you waiting for? 

I'm working on Meredith's first fundraiser. I hope to have it up and running tomorrow. So, come back and let's see how much of that $15,500 we can knock out for Meredith's family. 

Pray, pray, pray...God is stirring hearts towards Meredith and I do believe we're about to witness a miracle. A miracle where the great, big God of the universe finds a family for a little orphan girl on the other side of the ocean. 

Hidden in Christ,

Mandy