Friends Adopting!

I am so excited to announce that one of my good friends, Monica and her husband Tommy have decided to adopt a daughter from Ethiopia!!! This is something both have always wanted to do.

After having their son, Micah, two years I remember her talking about wanting to be able to adopt a child into their family and now they have started their journey to bring home a baby girl. They have done a lot of praying about this decision and know this is the next step into growing their family. They have requested a little girl under the age of 2 years old, as the youngest they can adopt is 6-9 months after everything is finalized.

She has talked about starting a blog about this amazing journey ahead of them, and I am encouraging her to do so, as I find it therapeutic with our TTC journey. There is so much information, research and emotion that goes into this process, I can't even imagine the overload they are going through. Every country has different qualifications and rules on a number of things. They will be required to travel to Ethiopia twice, each time for 5-8 days. The price of the agencies vary from $15,000 to $28,000. The government offers a $13,000 tax credit the year the adoption is finalized, which makes things a little bit more affordable. Although you still have to come up with the full amount before hand. You are not required to just write a check for $28,000, the agency gives you a fee schedule so different things are due at different times.

The agency fees + 2 round trip tickets to Ethiopia (x2) + accommodations in Ethiopia 5-8 days (x2)+ whatever other fees pop up = A crap load of cash!! Therefore, they will be conducting varies fundraising events to help raise $$$ toward bringing this baby girl home. Currently they have t-shirts to order (they are so cute!) along with rubber bracelets in support of Adoption to sell. They also have a coffee website click here for all of us who LOVE coffee, the organizer teamed up with the coffee farmers in Africa to help sell their product but also benefit those wishing to adopt. For every bag of coffee ordered the Johnson's will receive $5.

I will have updates on their adoption process and fundraising events if anyone out here would like to help make this amazing families dreams come true of bringing home their daughter. And as soon as Monica starts a blog (I'll get her to some how :)) I'll share her link!