National Adoption Month!!

I love National Adoption Month for two reasons. First, because it gives us a deliberate reason to celebrate the miracle, blessing, gift and journey of adoption. Second, because we celebrate my beautiful daughter Willow Hsin-Yi's birthday this month and she was adopted from Taiwan in 2008. As we celebrate Willow's birth, we also give thanks for her birth mother who was selfless and gave her daughter a chance to have a great life, in a loving family, in a country filled with opportunity.

Adoption is a gift in so many ways and it excites me to celebrate it along with so many other families in the month of November!

Things are heating up!

Summer is here, the children are out of school and things are heating up around the Chicagoland area and with Hope to Home. Since our official launch in March we have added 4 new families and have several more in the works. Tracey and I really enjoyed learning about each family's adoption journey thus far and can't wait to see each family joined with their precious angels. Here is an article I wrote for our first newsletter from April. If you have not already signed up to receive our newsletters please do so by visiting www.hopetohome.com and enter your email in the box that says "JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST". Enjoy!

No Expecations!

In 2006 when my husband Paul and I began the adoption process we created a financial plan before starting. At the time the housing market was great and we took out a home equity line of credit to cover the estimated cost of our adoption. As we moved through the process our program fee went up $3,000, the cost of passports went up, and airline tickets were through the roof. Paul and I began to get concerned that we would not have enough money to cover all of the fees. I knew it was time to get creative and find alternative ways to help pay for our adoption expenses.

I decided to join a YAHOO group all about fundraising for your adoption. I was amazed by all of the wonderful ideas and opportunities. However, my first thought was “Why would anyone help us raise money for our adoption? “ The reality was that many people wanted to help we just had to be willing to ask for it. Paul and I provided a product and an opportunity and we received monetary gifts. We were surprised when close family didn’t buy a raffle ticket for $10 or a t-shirt to help celebrate our daughter’s homecoming. I often took it personally. Then I realized that I had an expectation of what I felt people should do, based on what I would do and that was a big no! What I didn’t expect was the enormous amount of prayer, fundraising support, and love we received from people we didn’t know. It was a beautiful and humbling experience that Paul and I are grateful for. Fundraising brought together a community of people we knew and didn’t know for one sole purpose, our beautiful daughter Willow Hsin-Yi.

There are many fundraising opportunities out there to choose from. You may have to do 3 or 4 different types of fundraisers to raise money for the cost of your adoption. Enter into fundraising with NO EXPECTATIONS and you will be amazed at all of the love you will experience.

by: Andrea Hedstrom