Adoption Myth #1: You have to be wealthy to adopt

As it is National Adoption Month, I thought I would post about some myths that people believe about adoption. I have adopted enough times to know that the above myth is untrue. However, a lot of people believe this, and it is often what prohibits families from truly considering adoption. I have recently had three different people ask me if I was wealthy or if I had won the lottery when we discussed our large adoptive family. I said I did feel like I won the lottery, but certainly not in a financial sense!

I do find it ironic that so many will react the way they do to the cost of an adoption. $20,000! What? Yet, they don't blink an eye about signing for a loan for a $40,000 SUV or a mortgage on a $250,000 house. Material possessions hold no eternal value, and they can be destroyed by fire, accident, flood. How does one put a price tag on a human life; a living, breathing, precious life? Is there any cost too high to ransom the life of your child?

I do understand that looking at those numbers is intimidating. We have never looked at the estimated cost of one our international adoptions and said "oh heck, we'll just withdraw that from our millions in the bank"! Often it does require sacrifice. We have cut back on expenses, taken loans, gotten grants, fundraised, used tax returns and bonuses, and we have been given gifts. The bottom line is that God always provides the necessary funds, and often in ways we don't expect. I truly believe that if God is asking you to step out in faith and do something (like adopting) that He will provide the means for you to do it. It has been my experience that He doesn't usually reveal how it will all come together in advance, and sometimes it feels like just in the nick of time. He is aware of the need though, before we even express it to Him, and He knows how it will all work out.