Adoption It Is

I have finally made a decision. I am throwing myself into adoption full force. It wasn't an easy decision to make, giving up on my dream to have a child of my own and give birth to it, but I finally did it. In all honesty, I didn't have much of a choice. The constant disappointment and failed attempts at getting pregnant couldn't go on forever, or I would have gone crazy. I think I have tortured myself enough. It's time to move on. However, I now have the huge task of somehow coming up with the roughly $20,000 it will take to adopt a baby. For some reason, that doesn't sound nearly as hard to me as getting pregnant myself. I have always been creative and determined. I WILL find a way.

I have given some thought to new ways to make some extra money and came up with a few ideas I will try. I don't know if any of them will generate enough profit to be worth it, but it's worth a shot. In the next few weeks, I will be ordering supplies to make bath bombs, tarts, candles, primitives and various other things. I am going to put together some gift baskets and take chances on them. I am going to make some baked goods to wrap and sell. Then there is the webpage. I have set up a page on the site gofundme.com so that anyone can go and donate to help us raise the money. If I have to make signs and sit on a corner somewhere begging for money, I will do it. This is something that I have to make happen. If I give up on having kids in my life, I might as well lay down and die. It's that important to me. If any of you have an idea on raising money, please let me know.

There are grants and adoption loans you can get to help you with paying for the adoption, but there is a catch. The grants have very strict guidelines on who qualifies and they only give so many per year. Plus, they are non-profit organizations that run off of donations. They are limited to what funds they have to give. A lot of the grants also require that you are already in the adoption process and have already paid most of the costs. The loans also have strict guidelines and you usually have to have extremely good credit to qualify. You also run the risk of not getting approved for the full amount you need. For the most part, you need to be able to provide most of the money for adoption yourself. Most people that adopt have wealthy friends and family that gift the money to them. I don't have that luxury, so I will need to find other options. I will apply for the grants, but I'm not going to depend on getting them.

Now, I have been researching different adoption agencies. Of course, there really aren't but a few that are licensed in West Virginia. This means I will probably have to use a facilitator instead of an agency. The facilitator will match me with a birth mother, but all the leg work and legal aspects are left up to me. I am totally clueless on anything like that, so finding a good adoption attorney that knows their stuff around here is going to be very important. I will also be responsible for finding an attorney to handle the birth mother's end of things in whatever state she lives in. It is going to be a stressful and hard process, but I think I will be able to manage it. The hardest part will be the money. I have found a couple of facilitators that look like they are what we need and have applications for them. However, I would like to have all of the cash to pay their fee and a little extra already saved up before I actually pick one and apply.

So, that is where I am at this point. My friends and family, I am asking for your help. If you can donate any amount at all, it would be greatly appreciated. Any fundraising ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated as well. Please spread the word, anyone can help. Go to my fundraising webpage and share to your Facebook and Twitter pages. As always, thank you for your support.

http://www.gofundme.com/CallieTorreyAdoptionFund