The Strange Philanthropist

One of the most frequently asked questions we get about our adoption is “how much is this going to cost?”  Most people ask out of curiosity, with obviously no harm meant.  Val and I have however been cautioned by other adoptive parents to not tell people the cost, just to avoid gossip about “how much they bought their baby for.”  I will tell you though, international adoptions are quite costly.  Parents are responsible to pay for the Pride course and home study (social workers can charge fifty dollars per hour for driving to your house!) legal retainer fees, immigration fees and all travel costs.  No money is ever given to the birthparents.  Val has worked hard to find savings at home and I have tried to work as much part time work as possible to prevent us from having to borrow to much.  It has been a financial burden but one well worth bearing.
Today a very generous friend has helped lighten our load though.  It all came about in a strange way.  We were in Myrtle beach, South Carolina with a huge group of family and friends.  A close friend of my parents approached us and told us he would like to donate some money towards our adoption costs, but he had some conditions.  He wanted to see my dad, who is a real man’s man, sit down and get a pedicure, for a full twenty minutes, nails coloured and all, with out knowing the conditions attached to it.  We racked our brains, trying to think of who would do it and how to get him to agree to it without telling him why.  Then it came to us, our sister in law Becky has never shied away from doing anything and Dad would probably just go along with it, just because it is just “Becky being Becky”.  She agreed and did a wonderful job.  She just went to work, without asking him.  Dad squirmed a little and looked very sheepish as a crowd started to gather around him, pointing and clicking pictures.  Our friend sat in the chair next to him, with a look of pure bliss on his face.  When Dad’s nails got painted purple and pink our friend snapped some more pictures, promising to throw them all on Facebook!  We are very grateful for our strange philanthropist friend and all our friends and family who are supporting our adoption.

Posted by Derek

A Shot in the Arm

Today, Val and I went to the travel clinic to get our shots.  Its hard to believe that at this time last year we had just started talking about adoption.  We had talked about it, Val being more serious about it than myself, but neither of us knew very much about it.  So many questions arise in that initial stage. Are we capable of raising more children? Can we afford the process right now? Domestic or international? What if our adopted child has special needs?  How difficult will it be raising a multi racial family?  It would take a couple more months of major prayer and a tonne of research before we would commit to doing this.  
The year has flown by, and the shots today reminded me of how fast this process up to date has been and how soon we might be traveling! (maybe November or December)  A year might sound long to some of you, but many international adoptions take three years, depending on the country.
The list of vaccinations and oral medication we had to take today was quite extensive.  Yellow fever, Typhoid, Tetanus, Malaria, Cholera, and Hepatitis A and B.  I already had the Hep shots years ago because of my occupation, so I had three needles whereas Val  had 4.  My shoulder is killing me right now, apparently from the yellow fever shot, so I imagine Val, having an extra needle and being quite petit, must be pretty sore!


Posted by Derek