Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Making the "big" announcement today

We have told a few people of our decision to adopt, but have not made it public knowledge yet. I don't know what we were waiting for. I guess we just wanted to wait until we got back from our vacation to New Zealand (which was fantastic) and were able to focus on the adoption.  So, now we are back! We told Ryan's parents in the last few days and now are ready to go public. Here is the letter we are sending out to our friends and family:

Dear Family and Friends,
It is with very full and happy hearts that we would like to share with you our plans to adopt a daughter from Haiti. 

Ryan and I have wanted to adopt since the time we met. We always talked about having 2 biological children and adopting a third. I first felt called to adopt in high school, when I spent time volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico.  Ryan and I spent time as foster parents and loved it. We decided to do fost- adopt so we could adopt locally. However, we were told that because I work for the Department of Social Services, we could no longer be foster parents or proceed with fost- adopt because it is conflict of interest for me. It was at that time we decided on international adoption.

Why Haiti? Last year, when watching the horrible devastation from the earthquake in Haiti, we felt led to adopt from that country. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.  Many children there are in urgent need of permanent, loving families.

We knew we would not be able to afford an international adoption so we put the idea on hold. However, recently I had a dream that I was holding my Haitian daughter in my arms. I awoke with a renewed desire to adopt from Haiti.

So, here we are.  Adoption from Haiti will cost us approximately $27,000. As someone once put it, “You go to a car lot, spend $27,000 and buy a car. You drive it for 4-5 years then go buy another one. With adoption, you spend $27,000 and have a child that you will be blessed with for the rest of your life.”  Here is the breakdown of where the money goes:
Agency Fee-                    $5650
Homestudy Fee-               $2000-3000
Post Placement Fee-          $1000
Adoption Education-         $100 
Dossier Translation and    $1150
Legal Expenses
USCIS Fees                    $880
International Fee             $14,000
DNA Testing Fee             $500
Visa Fee                          $400

In addition to the above fees, we will have to pay for travel to Haiti to pick up our child and bring her home.
We plan to save as much as we can and pay for the expenses ourselves. We also plan to apply for loans and grants to help cover some of the expense of the adoption.  However, they are not guaranteed and they will not cover all of the expenses. We also plan to hold fund raisers throughout the adoption process. The good news is we will be receiving an adoption tax credit after the adoption is complete. We can use this money to repay some of the expenses occurred during the adoption.  
If you feel led to help us fulfill our dream of adopting a little girl from Haiti, we will humbly accept donations via paypal (ryswarth@yahoo.com) or you can send us a check.
We are blessed to have each of you in our lives and know what a sacrifice this may be for each of you.

Please follow our journey on our adoption blog at www.aplaceinourhearts.blogspot.com

We appreciate your support and encouragement as we prepare our hearts and our family to welcome another daughter into our lives!


Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn't grow under my heart - but in it.
Fleur Conkling Heylinger


Love, Ryan, Kate, Riley and Bella


I am hoping we get a great response to our big announcement!

3 comments:

  1. so happy for you, I just got back from Haiti. There is orphanages everywhere. I went with friends who used to live there and have 3 kids from there. It was amazing. We hope in June that our BC gov't will open again for us to adopt. We did our courses a few years ago but at that time we were told we could not cause we already had 4 birth children. I have since learned alot of things. I was trying to upload my video of my trip on my blog but it's not working. We also like this show, thanks i will be taping it. The food we ate in Haiti was fabulous. Great sea food and lots of rice and beans. Thanks for sharing

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