Be Marissa's Village: Fund Her Adoption Dream

Be Marissa’s Village.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. I am asking you to be that village for my cousin, Marissa. She wants to start her own family by adopting a baby girl.

Marissa is one of those people that has gone through significant challenges and hardship in her life. She had a brain tumor in middle school that had a profound impact on her childhood and life. Instead of asking “why me” or complaining, she has used her own experience to help cultivate empathy and a sense of wanting to make a positive impact on others—especially children.

If you know Marissa, you know that kids are her life. She is a public-school teacher in South Carolina who has taught everything from special education to pre-K to third grade. She has been a teacher for nine years, and her favorite part of the day is teaching math. She loves to witness when the lightbulb goes on, and her students grasp a new concept. She spends all day with kids, but I guess she is a glutton for punishment and wants more!

Marissa has been fostering kids for two years. She got inspired to foster after reading the book “They Cage the Animals at Night” by Jennings Michael Burch. It is an incredibly moving and emotional story based on the author’s experience in foster care. After reading it in High School, Marissa knew she had found her calling: “I knew right then that I was going to foster and adopt to try and save children from going through anything close to what he went through. I had dreams of adopting children, raising them, and then adopting more.”

Through fostering, Marissa has created a life-long relationship with one particular child. She has found fostering to be rewarding, amazing, exhausting, and all the emotions that are wrapped up in raising a child. Marissa’s goal now is to adopt and raise an infant or toddler to form her own permanent family.

My cousin, Marissa, wants what so many of us have—a family. A private adoption costs about $30,000 to $40,000 depending on the medical needs of the birth mother. This is a breakdown of costs:

Home study cost: $1,500

Application and activation fee to start working with adoption agency: $4,000

Profile (that will be used to show birth moms): $850

Advertising/Networking Fee: $1,500

The main expense is to provide for the birth mom’s medical expenses, living expenses (if needed) and other costs. This varies greatly depending on the birth mom and her circumstances but averages around $20,000 but can be much more.

Marissa is applying for grants but they won’t cover all the fees and expenses. We are hoping to raise a portion of the cost and aiming for 20,000. Please be Marissa’s village and help her to raise the money she needs to start her family. Supporting Marissa in this way will be such a gift in financially boosting the beginning of this new family. Thank you for being here for the baby, birth mother, and adoptive mother.