This is our situation. My husband and I are in debt around $60,000. We got married when I was young and still in college. We were married one and a half years when I got pregnant, with our twins. I was extremely sick and in the hospital much of my pregnancy. I had to quit work and college. We accumulated lots of medical bills. Our boys came about 6 weeks early and were in the NICU for 10 days. But, they were healthy and it was wonderful to have them. I went back to school, but we couldn’t afford much. So we paid on our medical bills and bought groceries and other necessities with our credit cards. When the boys were 3 and I was done with school and working, I became pregnant again, but miscarried. Over the course of the next 6 years, I had 10 more pregnancies, 10 more miscarriages and 9 D&C’s. I also had many doctor’s appointments and many tests and medicines. This also cost a lot of money. My husband and I both teach and would work summer jobs and do what we could to earn more money. Then a friend told us her niece was pregnant and was looking for a family to adopt her baby. We got into contact with her and met with the social worker at the agency and did adopt her little girl. Our daughter Isabella was born in 2002 and we are all thrilled to have her. We are now financially stable and have taken out a loan to pay off the credit card debt without having the outrageous annual percentage rates. We pay over $900 a month and are on a strict monthly budget. Due to this we have not been able to save money for our children’s college education or buy a home, we rent, because that is what we can afford. Of course, there are many other things we would love to provide our children, but an education and a home are our top priorities. We should be done paying our debt in about 7 years, but the boys will be in college by then. Here is the twist though, that brings me to this point that I am asking for help. We just found out that our daughter’s birthmother is pregnant again. She is due in July and she wants us to adopt this baby, a boy. We said, “Of course!” We don’t have a lot of money and this will make things harder, but we have a lot of love and our situation is drastically better than hers. We love our children and feel that we can provide a stable and loving environment. But, I am worried about “staying afloat” financially. My husband and I both have our masters’ degrees, but we don’t have much opportunity to earn more money in our teaching jobs. It is enough, but due to our circumstances and the medical issues that we had to deal with earlier in our marriage, we are still paying for that and it is keeping us from being able to help our children and to secure a solid future for them.

I would be happy to  send more information, if you think that you or someone you know may be or would be willing to help us. I do not like to ask, but am not sure what else to do.

This is a simplistic view of our family and situation, but I hope it gives you enough insight to see a bit into our family.

Thank you so much for at least taking the time to read this letter and respond to me.