Debt Free Adoption Story | The Hairfield Family
Do not let fear of lack of finances be what keeps you from answering the cry of the Father’s heart to set the lonely in families!
How Our Adoption Was Fully Funded, Debt Free!
My name is Leslie Hairfield. My husband Adam and I have long had hearts for adoption, even before we met. It is built into the very foundation of our marriage as something we would give our lives to and we are still expectantly waiting on the Lord to match us with the child(ren) He wants to place in our family.
August 2020, we were finally domestic home study ready, meaning we can legally adopt a child in the US. Our next steps were getting connected with adoption agencies and coming up with the needed finances to cover our adoption costs. The average domestic adoption in the U.S. is between $40,000 and $45,000. We truly did not know how we would come up with the money but we believed that if we did our part, God would do His.
Our first step was to create a Gofundme online fundraiser, which was multi-purposed. You can share your story with thousands of people and receive donations (for a 2.9% fee). We logged all of our donations through Gofundme, including offline donations and donations received through other platforms. This helped in communicating with others our progress, as the page always accurately reflected the finances raised. We would share every week or two on our social media pages our progress and updates.
I read a book given to me by my friend Danielle (The Wall) called, You Can Adopt Without Debt. I got all of my creative ideas just from reading the book. Wherever you are in your adoption journey, I absolutely recommend reading this book for inspiration and encouragement.
One of those ideas was to make a tasty treat to sell. I created a recipe for protein balls and named them Fall Balls (when we sold in the Fall) and Jingle Balls (when we sold them in the Winter.) It was a way for others to sow into our adoption and to tangibly receive a blessing as well. I would share on our social media, face to face with friends and had our church’s women’s ministry send out an email too. I took orders and made deliveries with our kids every two weeks to anyone local to Kansas City. They were such a hit, we sold over $4000 worth! There were many customers who left generous gift in addition to the cost of the treats.
I took a Monday through Friday babysitting job for a neighbor’s daughter during this time. They were looking for a nanny and I was looking to fund our adoption. Adam also began to work extra hours and take side jobs to further help bring in the needed finances.
Another idea I got from reading the book was to have an adoption fundraiser. We organized an event a couple months out and got to work. We visited several businesses and local artisans and received donations for over 40 raffle items. This happened right in the middle of Covid too; so it was awesome to see small businesses in the Kansas City area not only give in their own time of need, but it actually helped to get their name out in the community and stimulate business. We hosted the event at our church’s university, inside of their coffee shop. There were treats, drinks, guest speakers sharing on adoption and we shared our story and hearts too. Bible studies that Adam and I are a part of were more than happy to help volunteer and bring the desserts. For every $25 donated, people received a raffle ticket. We streamed the event on Facebook and had online viewers and donors too! At the end of the event, we drew names and 40 different people were blessed with some amazing gifts! In one night, we raised nearly $8000!
We were working with a birth mom due in December and set a goal to have the $25,000 needed for adoption cost by Christmas. After the adoption fundraiser, we were still $10,000 away from our goal. Here’s another idea I got from the book; we purchased a cute little tree from Costco and 100 ornaments. If 100 people gave $100, putting an ornament with their name on our Adoption Giving Tree, our adoption would be fully funded (or so we thought, more on that later). It was a success! Within 2 months, our tree was filled with 100 ornaments and we hit our goal of $25,000 by Christmas! We shared our progress every few days on our social media pages and the vast majority of donations came this way.
We thought we were done. The finances were raised just in time… then a curveball came. The birth mom had decided to parent, which we were happy about. Keeping a family together is always Plan A, in my opinion. There was immense grace upon our hearts to be unoffended and count ourselves worthy of being used by the Lord to encourage and love on the birth mom, while we did.
So we continued to move forward with Christian Adoption Consultants. Through them, we are active with 4 different adoption agencies. We began to present to new situations. Soon we were in a situation with a birth mom of a three month old. Since he was already born, there was no time to raise finances and the total cost was $40,000. We had three days to come up with $15,000… but how?
In the middle of these three days, I had a dream. I was in a hospital birthing room with Danielle (The Wall) and suddenly went into labor and immediately had a baby. Danielle says to me, “Leslie, it’s the finances!” We were so encouraged that God was going to do it! As we awaited the news (if birth mom had chosen our family) we shared with our friends, family and social media pages that we had 72 hours to raise $15,000. A social media influencer we were connected to through a friend, was very stirred by our story and shared with her following. The final $15,000 of our adoption fundraiser was raised through mostly strangers in 72 hours! We were blown away, to say the least.
Why did the cost spike from $25,000 to $40,000? I am sure you are wondering this. The adoption agency of the first birth mom we were working with, is a one of a kind Christian adoption agency. They fundraise every year to help offset the cost of adoption to their clients. The vast majority of agencies have fees ranging from $40,000 to $45,000 or even more! Every other situation we have seen over this last year has been between $35,000-$45,000.
There is more than one way to fund your adoption. Each of our stories will sound and look different and that is okay! To God be the glory for each and every testimony of a funded adoption. We worked very hard and put in many hours to see our adoption fully funded. I believe when we want something bad enough, nothing will keep us from making it happen and with God on your side, nothing will be impossible. Do not let fear of lack of finances be what keeps you from answering the cry of the Father’s heart to set the lonely in families!
