Buchanan Family Adoption Fund

Thank you for checking out our page! My name is Ian Buchanan and my wife's name is Erin Buchanan (formerly McAvinney). We are so excited to share our adoption story with you all! 

Why Adoption? 

Adoption has always been a very important matter to the both of us. We began to talk about it just before we got engaged in 2013. Our decision flows out of a desire to live and love like Jesus who cared for the widow and the orphan. It also flows out of a desire to preserve and protect life and extension of our commitment to being pro life. We have a heart to adopt an infant of any ethnicity or gender. Many children go long periods of time before finding their forever home due to several factors including special needs, other medical needs, family medical history and/or maternal drug use/abuse during pregnancy. For this reason we are extremely open to all of the above as an adoptive family. 

Financing 

Adoption is an expensive but worthwhile commitment. Many are curious as to why adoption is so expensive. Many of the expenses go toward paying agency staff, providing for the needs of expecting birth parents, counseling for both birth and adoptive parents, and general operating costs which enable the agency to continue their work helping people who are in need. 

There are three major financial tiers and an estimate for legal fees: 

The Home Study- $2,250: The home study is an examination by the adoption agency of ourselves and of our home to ensure with due diligence that we are in fact capable of adopting and raising a child in a loving and safe home. This includes lots of paper work, doctor's appointments, clearances, background checks, pet vaccines, family financial reviews, and several interviews. An approved home study is a prerequisite for most grants which would provide us with money toward our adoption. This is a very important financial tier. 

Family Profile- $10,500: The family profile is a profile that we make about our family and share with expecting birth parents. When we are notified of an infant, and if we feel equipped to care for that infant, Bethany Christian Services will send the birth parents our profile. The birth parents will review many family profiles and determine the best home for their baby. 

Placement- $14,000: This is the happy moment! Our baby is placed into our family!!! :D Yayyyy! 

Legal Fees: The fees that we must pay to Bethany do not cover our legal fees. We were given an estimate of $2,500-$6,000. 

This seems like a hefty and impossible goal but theres hope. With your help we can reach our goal and bring our baby home! Every dollar counts and there is no gift too small (or too big!). 

URGENCY!

- Expiration dates on home study paper work, vaccines, clearances, background checks, etc... is a reality. Progressing through the adoption process in a timely manner ensures that we won't have to dish out extra money to renew certain items in the home study.

- Once the home study is completed we will be open to emergency placements. In situations like these they need to find a home for an infant ASAP. This happens especially in cases where infants are born with special/medical needs that may not have been known before birth. In the event that we were presented with an emergency placement, Bethany may decide to waive fees or provide discounts. It would also offer our home as a forever home to an infant in need of an immediate placement. 

- The domino effect. People are more apt to give toward our fund if they see other people giving in real time. Our progress becomes more tangible and people begin to see their donations do amazing things. Sharing our story and gofundme page on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,  with your church, family and friends is vital to this process and we humbly ask that you help us get the word across that we are growing our family :)

With urgency in mind we will be sharing updates and requests more frequently through gofundme. Please consider one time or monthly donations. It's always difficult to ask for help. It's even more difficult to ask for money. We already love our baby and we have never met him/her. We are more than willing to ask for help even if it makes us feel uncomfortable and we know so many of you love us and our baby too.