I came across an older article earlier today that discussed the benefits of crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe and YouCaring. CNN did a good job covering a family raising funds for an international adoption and infertility treatments, and likewise the trend for other prospective adoptive families to do the same. http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/09/pf/crowdfunding-adoption/
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| Our family before being our daughter’s placement |
As with most of the digital stories these days, the comment section was open and opinion was mixed as to the use of the tool.One commentator spoke of her own adoption and thought it was in poor taste for persons to use the tool at all. To her, it seemed the children were being “bought and paid for” and left a bad taste in her mouth. Others agreed with her, but several did not. When searching the Internet for current opinions on the use of crowdfunding, I found several links where posters had similar thought processes. It gave me pause to my own use of crowdfunding and the motivations behind it.
First, I respect the opinion of all of the posters. Certainly, some have closer experiences than others. But I felt a bit miffed. My husband and I are currently using the YouCaring website to assist in funding our adoption. Someone posted that if we cannot afford adoption, we should not do it. Hmmm…I understand their thought process, but how many people do you know who happen to have 14K for adoption agency fees just sitting in their pockets. [And] how many children are sitting in the system right now because the fear is adoption is not affordable.
Our adoption agency was very excited to see a young, married, African-American couple as they had several requests for this type of adoptive family. There is a deficit of them and based on the discussions we have had with our friends and family, money is the primary reason. So, if my family asks people who feel led to donate so that a child can join our family, I see no issue with that.
However, I recognize that we’re new to this and I could be viewing things incorrectly. So, what do you think?
