In 2021, infant adoption is very different than it was in 1970. No longer are babies being deposited in baskets on welcome mats. No doorbells are being rung with children left unattended on the doorstep. There aren’t babies being born without a home to go to.

Why has there been a decrease in babies being voluntarily given up in America? The reason so many babies never make it to a loving family isn’t because there aren’t families who would take them. In America, all newborn infants that are voluntarily given for adoption are placed in an adoptive family. In fact waitlists are often years long.

The real reason is because so many parents in crisis aren’t deciding to give birth to their children. Some research shows that many pregnant women are debating between abortion and parenting their child. Adoption is difficult to get onto the table in their minds, because adoption is daunting and even traumatic, emotionally, physically and financially. While the average cost of abortion is $500, the cost of adopting a child that would have been aborted can be 100 times that. And so, many of these babies don’t make it to adoptive families because they simply don’t make it out of the womb.

Tori and I understand that what goes into making the choice to choose abortion is complex. We have beloved friends in our life who were unsupported at the time and made the choice to abort. And yet we firmly believe the 60 million babies aborted in the United States is the greatest tragedy of our generation.

How can Christians who believe that all human life should be nurtured, cherished and rescued make a difference? How can we help young women choose options like adoption instead of abortion?

The answer is to make it as easy as possible for a young woman to finish her pregnancy. We can support mothers in crisis. This means providing counselling to the birth mother. It means helping her with medical bills incurred for prenatal care and delivery. It means helping with a few months rent if that’s a financial hardship. It means paying for court costs and infant care while the adoption is finalized. It means providing access to social workers who can help her each step of the way. Her choice to birth this child is heroic, and it is necessary to provide care and support as she walks it out.

One of the beautiful things about infant adoption is the amazing heart of the birth mother.

It takes strength, tenacity and deep care to choose an adoption path for your child. Our heart is to honor our future birth mother, and the support our agency Adoption Associates, Inc. (AAI) will give her is very important to us.

This gets very expensive, especially when you add the cost of an attorney, social workers and even a possible private investigator to find a missing father. In fact, the cost of adoption can be upwards of $60,000 in some states to protect a child and the mother medically and legally from conception to adoption.

Through Adoption Associates in Michigan, the costs of domestic infant adoption ranged from $22,160 - $35,395 last year. The average cost was $28,194. We don’t know exactly how much this process will cost by the time a new baby comes to live with us, but we’re asking if you’ll help us to adopt the new baby Webb.

Because we believe life begins at conception, we believe that the cost we pay to adopt an infant is literally the cost of saving a life.

After looking over the in-depth paperwork they’ve already given us here is a simplified breakdown of what we’re expecting. We believe it is responsible to aim to raise $35,000, given how much can fluctuate in the cost.

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