Isn't Summer Belle a beautiful doll? You can find her here.

I recently had a sweet comment (question) on my blog about international adoption and how to pay for it. There are a lot of expenses involved...that is true. That is one of the reasons that we almost did not do it. My husband was very concerned over the expense of the adoption and the trip...he still is. We just did not want money to keep us from doing it, though. After all, there must be faith in our God to work out the details...but He does expect us to be wise stewards of what He has given us,too....we knew with four children and the expenses we are already committed to, it would be tough to do it...but we took a step of faith and we know that money spent towards adopting this child is worth every penny. It is not impossible to pay for it. For us, we found that only a certain amount is due at certain times throughout the process, so that makes it somewhat more manageable. We paid for the homestudy first...then part of our agency fee came a month or so after that. Then when all of our documents were sent to China, we paid our final agency fee. The next amount of money due will be when we get our referral and travel. So, we have had lots of time to save a little and figure out how to pay for the rest of it. I know that China has changed their requirements and they do have an income requirement for potential adoptive parents. You can read those requirements here. Also, with the federal tax credit, it cuts the cost of the adoption almost in half. Certain income levels qualify for this. You can read about that here.

There are also many agencies and organizations to help adopted parents with funding an adoption. These are some that I know of as well as some great resources. I'm sure there are many others that I have not mentioned. I hope this may be a help to anyone considering adoption...it is possible and God will provide!!!

Shaohannah's Hope is an organization that helps with providing grants to adoptive parents already in the process of adopting. Steven Curtis Chapman brought this into place after adopting their first (Shaohannah) of three adopted daughters from China.

This link has a lot of great resources. You can find ways to raise money and agencies that offer financial assistance for international adoptions. Lots of good stuff!

This site has some more resources, plus explains the tax credit available for some families...depending on their income level...you can get as much as a $10,000 tax credit!!!

This is a helpful little article.

Family Life has an informative section on their website called *Hope For Orphans* that mentions how churches should come along side families and help financially as a ministry to the orphan child.

John Piper's church has an orphan ministry called The Lydia Fund that helps Christian couples with international adoption cost. I believe anyone can apply.

I hope this helps!!!