Home Addition to help us adopt kids

Who we are:
Hello! We are Dan and Ava West.  We have a small organic farm just east of Kansas City, MO.  We have a small farm store and sell directly to consumers. Free range chickens, eggs, turkeys, grass fed beef, fresh milk, and pasture raised pork.  

How we got started in foster care:
We started our foster/adoptive adventure in the spring of 2015.  We attended a seminar put on by Focus on the Family called “Wait no More”.  Through learning the heart breaking statistics, God spoke to us. We had to do our part in helping these kids who have lost their innocence and have been robbed of a normal childhood. Some of the statistics that are real are that 500 kids age out of the system each year in Missouri alone......they build the size of prisons based on the percentage of kids in foster care because they know that’s where they are statistically going to end up. Heartbreaking! While we couldn’t take 500 kids, we had to do our part, and alter the course of as many kids as God brought our way. Ava and I decided that any kids that came into our home either went back to their biological family or we would adopt. The bouncing from home to home would end with us no matter how difficult it got. With that has come many heartbreaks, restless nights, damaged property, threats, hospitalizations and flat out exhausting day after day.  No matter what mess surrounds these children, underneath all of it is just a kid that need unrelenting and unconditional love. We have grown to love each of these kids as our own.

Here’s a video that explains a little about we are so passionate about fostering and adopting. https://www.facebook.com/bigcowboy/videos/10213883804861756/

Our current family:
Our youngest is Avery who has been with us since he was 4 months old. He is now 3.5 and we were able to adopt him in Fall of 2018. We do what is called treatment foster care, which is the highest level of care without going to a group home. Basically its taking kids that everyone else has given up on. We brought one such kid in, back in 2017 who is 1 of 4 siblings. We also ended up taking his older brother a few months later. And then through sibling visits began to realize the 2 younger siblings needed to be with us as well so that they could all be together. The 2 younger ones joined us in November of 2017.  We live in an old 2 bedroom farm house. We were able to add two small bedrooms in our basement in order to bring all the kids into our home. We have outgrown that addition and are struggling to keep things going with how small our house is. 

How your help is needed:
Due to the trauma and abuse these kids have endured it is paramount that each child have their own room. It is an absolute need in order to keep everyone safe. We need to build an addition that would allow each child to have their own room. Also our hopes in an addition would be to give Ava and I our own room with private bathroom, upgrade our septic system for a larger family, expand our kitchen, put in another bathroom with mud room,  and an additional room for kids to play while being able to watch them closely. We know there are a lot of great causes out there and we would appreciate your support in helping us build this addition to be able to give these kids a bright future and the childhood they deserve!

Here’s what we are estimating our costs to be.
If there is extra money, the windows need to be replaced in the rest of the house, and there is very little insulation in the attic or exterior walls of the existing, so it will be used towards other improvements.

$50,000-60,000 for the foundation and addition 
$10,000-15,000 to upgrade septic
$5000 to move farm store, since we will no longer have our back porch, which is where it is currently. We are planning on using part of an existing barn for the new store location.