Please welcome Rebekah Wright to the Show Hope blog. As we spend this month focusing on Adoption Aid, Rebekah joins us to talk about the financial costs of domestic adoption. Give to Show Hope’s Adoption Aid program to be a part of these life-changing transformations!
People often say, “domestic adoption is free.” We quickly learned that this was not the case as we were told by our adoption agency to expect to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to complete our domestic adoption. We knew God had called us to bring home our third child through adoption so we knew that He would provide; we just did not know how. We knew we could not do it alone and would need to seek financial aid.
We began the preliminary adoption paperwork even though we did not have a penny to put towards the expenses we knew would come. As each fee arose, God provided. I began sewing and selling children’s clothing and when our home study fee was requested, we had the exact amount to send a check to our agency. We were one step closer to bringing home our son and God had provided in ways we did not expect!
There are many avenues leading to an adoption from the US–our family chose a reputable agency to facilitate our adoption. There were many fees to be paid, including those to cover the cost of the social workers and agency who facilitated our adoption, a lawyer, as well as some government fees in order to make our adoption final which would legally make our son ours on paper.
One of the greatest opportunities we had in our adoption process was financially supporting our son’s birth mother. We were able to provide funds through our agency that would help with her living expenses and prenatal doctor visits. We felt this was a tangible way to show God’s love to someone in need—someone who was brave and selfless in her choice to give our son life and make an adoption plan for him. We could not have cared for her in this way except for the gracious giving of so many who knew that they wanted to be a part of this beautiful story that God was writing. In this story, there is a beautiful “ripple effect.” Not only did we receive the precious gift of welcoming a son into our family but his birth mother was also welcomed into God’s family as she came to know Jesus just before we met her. It was a sweet gift to be able to share God’s grace with her because others had shared with us.
We were awarded a generous grant from Show Hope that provided us the remainder of the funds that we needed to complete our adoption. We may never know all the people who faithfully gave to Show Hope in order that we could receive a grant, but we are eternally grateful. At the end of our 18 month journey to our son, we had spent almost $25,000 on our adoption—and we began with nothing. God had provided!
Even as we look back, we continue to stand in awe of God’s provision—we could not have done it alone. God used the sacrificial giving of so many people to help bring home our son. We want to say, “thank you.” Many people we know and many people we do not know helped to make our adoption possible and forever changed the story of our family.
Donate to Show Hope’s Adoption Aid fund today to make more miracles like this possible!
Rebekah is mom to Anna Walton, Isaac, Olivia, and Caleb. Isaac and Caleb both came home through the miracle of adoption with the help of Show Hope Adoption Aid grants. Rebekah and her husband, Nathaniel, live in Tennessee and have become dear friends of the Show Hope team.
