it takes a village...

It takes a village to raise a child.

-African Proverb

This is an African Proverb that I'm sure you've heard before. But it's not just a saying here... they mean it. Your child is not just your child. Your child is also your neighbor's child and the sweet lady down the street's child. Life here is lived as a community and that includes raising children. Community living involves caring for each other's needs even when someone may not have anything to give. It means being ready to strap your neighbor's baby on your back in order to put them to sleep for an afternoon nap because she needs you to. It means what's mine is yours... in everything. Community living is a very easy concept for us in some areas, and a very difficult concept in others. When it comes to being caring and hospitable, got it. But when it comes to possessions, or punishing another child, not so easy. But, we've learned a lot about community.

With the adoption process in front of us, we are approached with the daunting task of paying a large amount of money in order to bring home our kiddo. We don't mean buying our child. We mean adoption fees. These things include lawyer fees, orphanage fees, court fees, US government fees, passport, visa, travel, and many, many other expenses. Being in Benin, we're able to cut back on many of the expenses related to traveling across the globe, but that doesn't mean all the other fees are waived. 

We are doing things on our own - saving, watching our spending, putting aside birthday & Christmas money, etc. - but the amount we will need is much larger than we can do on our own. So, we've come us with a few different fundraising ideas. We want you, our friends and family and network, to be part of our village.

First, we have a t-shirt for sale. Our goal is to sell 100 of these! See the photo below for information and become part of our "village."