Has anyone every applied for and recieved Adoption Grants? HELP

I have taken the liberty of pm-ing you about our experience with Gift of Adoption Fund. Linny

I'm interested in the same info. We are in the process of updating our homestudy, and we could really use the financial help. We had very little luck our first time with adoption grants -- it may be because we already had 3 children, but adoption has been a dream of mine since I was very young. Emily

Here is my experience and I hope it might be able to help you. Two years ago we were completing our second adoption from India when we became aware of a 5 month old baby girl in the same orphanage who had just been turned down by the SIXTH international family. We felt very led to take her...but had ZERO dollars to work with. We got permission from the agency to proceed with the dossier etc. and we did so all the while praying for funding. I had also applied to the national grants that everyone else applies to with our first two adoptions and got no help. So for this adoption I decided to research local foundations. I went to the library and found a book called "Charitable Organizations of Pennsylvania". It was about four inches thick!! I educated myself as to the type of info provided throughout the book for each type of foundation help. There are VERY FEW foundations who are permitted to give grants to individuals. I went through the book page by page over a two week period. Out of THOUSANDS...I found 33 possibilities. Out of those only three were in my geographical area. So I wrote to each of them...sent a photo of Maya....a copy of her medical report...I told them about us as a large family on one income...I sent a copy of our latest tax return...and then listed only the fees which we knew we would struggle with. Out of those fees I only highlighted one per letter and of that amount only asked for half. I tried to be VERY modest in my asking. Within two weeks I received grants from all three. All of the grants were above what we had even asked for. One agency even sent us the money for one airline ticket to India to go and get her. They were very touched by her medical needs and felt a definate tug to help us out. We still stay in touch with each of them when they write and ask for an update on her progress. My husband and I flew to India last June to bring Maya home. We had started the process without a dime in the bank. So look locally first. The national grants are good but everyone applies for them. Look for foundations in which "grants to individuals" or a "child advocacy fund" is available. Look on [url]www.affordingadoption.com[/url] They have a pretty detailed listing of national grants and loan options. For our first two adoptions we had everyone we knew saving pop bottles and cans marked New York 5 cent deposit. Then we would literally take van loads to New York and cash them in. We paid for INS and dossier preperation both times doing this. We live in a very rural community and once the word got out we had many people saving them for us. Especially the plastic soda pop bottles that everyone normally just throws away. We were able to take them to New York for deposit. For every 20 we got a dollar. It all adds up. My friend went around to businesses and took orders for sub sandwhiches. Then we would get together once per month and put them all together for her to deliver to them the next day for lunch. She literally funded an entire Indian adoption in this way. Just a couple of ideas. God Bless and I wish you well. Karen in PA MOM to John (bio), Aaron (bio), Sejona (India), Anjali (India), and Maya (India)