Although it is less expensive to adopt from Ukraine than most foreign countries, it's still a lot of money. To adopt one child from Ukraine, it would cost approximately $10-12,000. These costs are never paid to any one particularly person or agency, and includes everything from the gifts and expediting fees to the airplane tickets and homestudy. To adopt an additional child from Ukraine, it is only about $2,000 more.We had planned on adopting two children from Ukraine, so we had estimated our costs to be about $14,000. We held a number of very successful fundraisers, and with God's help, were able to meet that goal. In the end, we only adopted one child, Conner, and returned with $1,504. This resulted in our adoption costing just over 12,000 total.
During our fundraising, a handful of people asked us how we can expect to raise these children if we could not even afford to get them. Adopting and raising a child are two very different things. God has blessed us with good jobs, good education, and a wonderful family and church. We are financially capable of raising these children. However, coming up with a spare $12,000 is a hardship. The people that helped us with our fundraisers helped us save these children from living a life in an orphanage where they could never enjoy the benefits of having a family that loves them.
The following list is an account of our fundraising efforts. This is simply a list of the fundraisers that we had. There are many more fundraisers that you could hold to raise your adoption funds. We have compiled a list of ideas and suggestions for fundraisers on the Funding Your Adoption page. To view an account of our adoption costs, please visit the Our Adoption Costs page.
Adoption Fundraising
Candy Bar Sales 129 Independent Donations 945 04/08 Bake Sale at K-Mart 183 05/02 Home Interiors Candle Sale 263 05/13 Bake Sale at Ames 121 05/14 Bake Sale at Church 162 05/21 Donation from Gospel Light Mission 3,629 05/25 Airline tickets paid by Gospel Light 1,880 06/03 Rummage Sale at Church 974 06/16 Spaghetti Dinner at Fazoli's 114 06/17 Rummage Sale at Community Sale 39 06/15 E-Bay Liberty Blue Sale 342 06/17 Patti Host Raffle 45 07/06 Interest on CD's 28 Total Amount Raised: $8,854 Savings 2290 Salary from 2nd job at IUK 411 $2000 Loan from a 1.9% credit card 2000 Gift from parents 100 Total Amount From Us: $4,801 Total Amount Raised: $+ 8,854 Total Amount From Us: $+ 4,801 Total Amount Raised/Saved: $+13,655 Costs incurred before trip $- 4,274 Costs incurred during trip $- 7,877 Final Standing: $+ 1,504
Listed below are the event dates and times:
- Adoption Donations
Throughout our adoption fundraising efforts, several individuals generously donated funds to our adoption. Instead of buying candles or candy bars, these people gave to us freely, without wanting any of the items we were peddling in return. For their privacy, we will not list their names, but wanted to make a special note to say thank you to each of you. God Bless You.
Profit: $945.00
- Candy Bar Sale -
April 5 - June 18, 2000
This fundraiser lasted for several months. Anna's parents purchased the first box of candy bars from Sam's Club for us. The candy bars were in an assortment of three types: regular, almond, and crunch, and were made specifically for fundraising. In fact, the box even had a money slot in the front. The box cost $14 and contained 36 candy bars that sell for $1 each. Each box therefore generates a $22 profit.
Profit: $129.00
- Bake Sale at K-Mart -
April 8, 2000
From 11 am to 6 pm on Saturday, April 8th, we held our first bake sale. We began baking two days before the sale. Family and friends baked most of the items, resulting in a combined six boxes worth of baked goods. We created a nice-looking sign titled "Adoption Bake Sale" to hang on the front of the table. We also created flyers telling what the fundraiser was for, our upcoming fundraiser events, and our website address for more information about our adoption and Ukraine adoptions in general. We had very little leftover from this bake sale. The sale brought in $292. We went a little overboard and purchased a bunch of baking supplies, loaf pans, paper plates, and ziploc bags for the goods. These supplies cost us about $109, but we were able to use the excess supplies for the other two bake sales.
Profit: $183.00
- Home Interiors Candle Sale -
April 10th - May 2nd, 2000
From April 10th to May 2nd, our family and friends helped us sell Home Interiors candles to their friends and co-workers. There were two kinds of candles available, with about 19 different scents altogether. Home Interiors will give us 20% of the funds raised by this candle sale for our adoption. With the help of our friends and family, we sold $1,314 worth of candles.
Profit: $262.80
- Bake Sale at Ames Department Store -
May 13, 2000
From 12 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, May 13th, we held our second bake sale. We began baking two days before the sale. Our mothers and aunts helped us bake the items for this sale. Altogether, we wound up with just about six boxes of baked goods again. We updated our adoption flyer with our upcoming fundraiser events. This sale did not do nearly as well as the first. For whatever reason, the traffic was much lighter, resulting in our still having about four boxes of baked goods leftover after this sale.
Profit: $121.00
- Bake Sale at Our Church -
May 13, 2000
After the bake sale at Ames Department Store, we still had a lot of baked goods leftover. Rather than letting all of it go to waste, our church let us have a bake sale outside in the church parking lot before and after services on Sunday. We were able to get rid of the remaining four boxes of baked goods.
Profit: $162.26
- An Offering at Our Church -
May 21, 2000
Praise God!!! Our church took up an offering on Sunday morning, May 21st. God met our need right then and there in a big way. Thank God for Gospel Light Mission and his servants that attend there. In one offering, the church brought in over $3,600 for our adoption. Our pastor said that the children that we're adopting are going to be part of our church family, and that they would be happy to help out. What's more, he also announced to us that the church was going to purchase our airline tickets. Again, praise God! With less than two months before our planned departure date, we had only raised half the money. We needed to purchase our airline tickets soon, but did not have the extra cash....and then God stepped in.
Profit: $3,629.18 + Airline Tickets ($1,880)
- Rummage Sale at our Church -
June 2-3, 2000
After speaking with our pastor and his wife, we chose June 2nd and 3rd to hold a huge rummage sale in our church gymnasium. We emailed several radio stations in our area and posted a free advertisement on a local radio station's website telling of our need for donations for the rummage sale. Friends, family, and people we've never met began calling and emailing us with items that they were willing to donate for our sale. As time has permitted, we have cleaned, organized, and priced all of the items.
The Rummage Sale went from 7 am to 6 pm both days. We had a lot more business on Friday than Saturday. The 11 hours each day just sitting there was killer. So was the preparation for this fundraiser. We have a nice size house and garage, and for the past three months, our home has been a disaster area. To organize the items, we would bring them into the house. It was a lot of work. Boxes would come in, get dumped on the floor, then each item would be looked at. If the item was in sellable (no pieces missing or no nasty stains on it) we would price it, fold it, and put it in a box. It was a lot of work. We brought in quite a bit of money, but it was a lot of work. We still have a lot of stuff - enough for a rather large rummage sale. It cost $34.50 to run the ad in the paper.
Profit: $973.50
- E-Bay Liberty Blue Sale -
June 15, 2000
A friend of the family donated to us a set of beautiful Liberty Blue dinnerware for our rummage sales. Each piece had scenes from the American Revolution, and were made in 1976 as part of a bicentennial commemorative series. They were so pretty that we decided to get online and see if we could find out if they were worth anything -- they were. On E-Bay, entire sets were going for close to $1,000! We informed the donator, but she said we could keep them.
She had given us 8 cups and saucers, 4 coffee mugs, 6 fruit and berry bowls, 7 bread and butter dishes, 4 luncheon plates, 4 salad plates, 4 coasters, 2 rimmed soup bowls, a creamer, a round vegetable bowl, an oval vegetable bowl, and a covered vegetable bowl with a lid. We wound up selling all of the pieces on E-Bay. The auction brought in $407.25. Unfortunately, one shipment was badly damaged and we refunded the $28 cost. It cost $37.50 to auction these items on E-Bay.
Profit: $341.75
- Spaghetti Dinner at Fazoli's Restaurant -
June 16, 2000
Fazoli's Restaurant offers a wonderful fundraising opportunity for good causes. On Friday and Saturday evenings, Fazoli's allows groups to do a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. They allow you to place an opaque container next to the cash register(s) for accepting cash donations. One individual must stand at the doorway, greet customers, explain what the fundraiser is for, and hand them your fundraiser flyer if desired. Another individual must pass out breadsticks to the customers.
In return, Fazoli's will donate $1 for every deluxe spaghetti dinner purchased in the dining room during this time. The manager told us that an average fundraiser night will generate about $40 to $50. However, the more advertising the group does, the more people will come and generate more money. The most a fundraiser has raised at this location was $1,200 over a two night fundraiser.
Our spaghetti dinner had mixed results. First, we brought in $107.23 from cash donations. It is your responsibility to not allow the containers to become too full. However, the spaghetti dinner sales did not go so well. The types of spaghetti dinners that qualified was not made clear to us, so even though Fazoli's made a killing off of the number of people that came and ate spaghetti dinners, we only received $6 for the fundraiser. It was very busy that night too. But at least the cash donations made the event worthwhile still.
Profit: $113.23
- Rummage Sale at a Local Community Rummage Sale -
June 17, 2000
In the local newspaper, we found an advertisement offering booths for $20 at a local community rummage sale. We reserved a booth and planned on taking the leftovers from the rummage sale at our church. Unfortunately, it was a bust. It was cold and rainy that day, and the place was rather dead. We were at the booth on June 17th from 9 am to 4 pm. The sale brought in $63.14, but it cost $20 to reserve a booth and we rented three tables for $15. At this time, we were also selling raffle tickets for the Patti Host Noah's Ark picture. Instead of purchasing raffle tickets or rummage sale items, we had a few people donate some money to our adoption. This brought in $10.40 of additional funds.
Profit: $38.54
- Patti Host Raffle -
June 17, 2000
Patti Host is a local well-known artist who creates beautiful pictures of nature and local historical monuments. This pictures are called lithographs, and made up of hundreds of smalls dots. Patti Host happily donated a beautiful Noah's Ark lithograph for us to raffle off as a fundraiser. The raffle should have brought in a lot more funds, but we primarily sold the raffle tickets at the Community Rummage Sale, which turned out to be a bust. Despite that, the raffle still brought in a healthy $45.
The winner of the raffle was extremely happy. She is a fan of Patti Host's art, and fell in love with the picture when she saw it at the Community Rummage Sale. She told us that she had an entire room decorated in Noah's Ark.
Profit: $45
- Interest on CD's -
July 6, 2000
Everytime that we accumulated more than $1,000 in our Adoption Funds, we went to our bank and put the money into a Certifcate of Deposit (CD). Our bank offered CD's for as short of time as one week. The rates were pretty good too. We figured this was the best way to keep the money safe and secure, and at the same time, get a better interest rate than we could in a regular bank account. During our adoption fundraising, we setup three CD's - one for 2 months, one for 1.5 months, and one for 2 weeks.
Profit: $28.07
