Get that kid

Charles here. I just want to say how excited we are to be bringing "Joel" home, and how humbled we are by everyone's support. Diane Sawyer did a piece on another family adopting through Reece's Rainbow last night, so while the traffic on RR has made Joel's donation total intermittently unavailable, it's exciting to see the organization getting so much attention.

The financial part of this process can get a little confusing for me, so I'll try to clarify the situation as best as I know how.

The estimated cost of performing an adoption from Joel's home country through Reece's Rainbow is $24,000. Joel had about $3,000 in his account at the time we claimed him on Reece's Rainbow, and at that time RR set us up with our own account to collect money for his adoption. That fund has $3,400 in it now. So we have a total of $6,400 raised, meaning it will cost another $17,600 to adopt him.

People have asked us if we're planning to put our own money toward the adoption, and it's a fair question. We put some money into Joel's fund before claiming him (i.e., some of Joel's $3,000 is ours), and we've been paying for adoption-related expenses so far, like the home study (part of the estimated $24,000). We're not allowed to donate anything to our own fund; it's being used to cover expenses we'd have to pay for anyway, so allowing us to donate would be like giving us a license to launder our money tax-free.

But we definitely have skin in this game, and we have every intention of covering the difference between the cost of the adoption and the amount we end up raising. The reason we're doing fundraising is that right now, $24,000 is beyond our means to cover. So is $17,600. We could wait until we save enough money to go get Joel, but the sooner he gets better medical care, the sooner he starts learning English, the sooner he gets a loving family, the better off he will be--physically, emotionally and spiritually. We're not asking you to pay for our whole adoption, but we are asking you to help us get within striking range of affording this. Just get us close enough, and we will go make this happen.

I'm sure we can raise the money. We have faith in God's provision, and we have faith in our family and friends: a crack team of compassionate and generous people. I want you to know that you don't have to donate, and we can still be the best of friends.

On the other hand, time is of the essence. And you know my wife is going to be putting Joel videos and posts online for the next 30 years. It will probably be nice to watch them and think to yourself, "I was on the team. I helped that family go get that kid."

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We don't even know who you all are yet, but your generosity is hugely appreciated. Let's go get that kid.


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People have asked how to mail in checks in order to bypass the Paypal fees and the site being down.

Donations made by check can be made payable and mailed to:

Reece's Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885
Please clearly write that it's going to Joel for the Wesley Family!