Before I go any further....

Im ranting and raging about adoption costs etc... however I want to reiterate. I know people (Tracie Loux being the #1) who are so earnest about helping, and have such a heart for helping babies get adopted that it is important to separate the people who are earnest, from the industry itself.

These faithful people are enduring this "industry" and working with a failing system to persevere in the work of placing children. Im sure there are people to criticize and critique, but the faithful ones are not the issue.

Lets make sure we keep this in perspective.

Why I believe the "Adption Industry" is the Human Trafficking Part 2

Lets critique some of the ideas communicarted about adoption....

1. Agencies "discount" their fees for adoptions based on ethnic backgrounds, or other issue affecting adoptibility.

Im going to be blunt here. As a small business consultant, I regularly deal with the issues of operating overhead costs, profit margins, sales pricing, market demand etc... and I dont buy this explanation.

It is fundementally impossible to do business at a rate that does not cover overhead.

Scenario A
If you sell widget A at $15,000 and widget B at $39000 and the costs are THE SAME for your overhead (lets say $13000), the your profit on widget A = $2000, and your profit on widget B is $26000, or a combined total of $28000.

If all you have is demand for widget A, you still make a profit, just not as much.

Scenario B
If you sell widget A at $15,000 and widget B at $39000 and the costs are THE SAME for your overhead (lets say $30000), the your profit on widget A = -$15000, and your profit on widget B is $9000, or a combined total of -$6000 and you are out of business.

If all you have is demand for widget A, you have no business to worry about.

It is simply fallacious to say that anyone "discounts" their fees. Lets say it like it is... they "discount" their SALE PRICE. And the average of their PROFIT MARGIN simply needs to be in the positive. Essentially there is a "tax" on buyers of widget B, or a "premium", or an "upcharge". The costs are the same, but they choose to discount their price on certain products because it is offset by the profit on other products.

That is called a LOSS LEADER. It is the 2 bags of tortilla strips for $5 around Cinco De Mayo so you buy 3 jars of salsa that have a high profit margin, and 2 12 packs of beer.

Lets reword this. Lets say Im a pimp. I have 3 prostitues, 1 gorgeous ex model, 1 average looking, and 1 disabled woman. The price is so high for the ex model, but the demand is still there. Good marketing and price setting on my part. The average looking woman doesnt have the same demand until the price comes down. I set the price to keep the demand as high as possible without losing money. My disabled hooker is so undesirable, that I have to "discount my fees" to make sure she gets a fair shot at income.

That sound like B.S. doesnt it? If I didnt make enough on any one of them, I would get rid of them.... Crass and crude, but in my mind pretty close to it.

If the process is the same for a caucasian as another race, but the "fee" is different, we should just simply say outright "The fee structure varies because of demand, and we discount our service prices and make it up on other adoptions to cover the costs".

Im not accusing anyone of lying. Im simply stating that this adotpion industry is a flat out market, and a pretty efficient one at that. And lets not say "we discount our fees", lets say it for what it is "We cannot get the price we want, so we charge differently based on our assesment of what the market will bear".

I do this ALL THE TIME with companies.

Why I believe the "Adption Industry" is the Human Trafficking Part 1

Tracie Loux, whom I love dearly, has written a great post on costs of adoption here. Tracie is an absolutely legitimate, caring person whom I heartily endorse to help with Adoptions. What I am about to say should not be taken as an attack against her, or the agency she works for etc... Read her blog post, and then follow my thoughts here.

Human Trafficking is the exploitation of humans for gain, typically financial. Most often, it is the use of weaker individuals, especially helpless, constrained, or disadvantaged.

Therefore, I believe that if I make a personal profit from the use of any human outside of their will and involvement, I am at least running the risk of participation in this, if not outright doing it.

It isnt enough to list the costs. The issue is WHY the costs exist, and what the profit is. I assume that most people involved in adoption do so because they care about it. But Im not convinced 100% of them are motivated by concern. Not only that, the burden of proof is on the agency to demonstrate they do not profit from this. "A workman is worth of his wages", this is true. However, there is a realistic limit on how much wages is righteous.

I am coming to the conviction that any adoption agency should make public their accounting, including specifically salary related to directors and executives. Any adoption agency that is not a non-profit corporation, business, should demonstrate they are effectively a "not for profit" business and expose any salary related disbursements. All Adoption agencies should be 3rd party audited if they make any claim to be non-profit, or not for profit.

How many agencies are willing to take this challenge. I bet next to none.....

Its time to give....

http://storinguptreasuresinheaven.blogspot.com/


Read this blog for the last few weeks. Then give me money. Seriously. OR send to to them directly via paypal. If you need a tax deduction (And I reccommend it) contact me.

If you are adopting, sow into someone elses adoption. If you plan on adopting, sow into this so you have a harvest. If you arent going to adopt, give into this because it is right to support neglected and abused children finding homes in loving families. If you dont believe in GOd, or beleive there is one, do this because the universe recognizes what you are doing. If you claim to be a follower of Christ give with joy because you are required to.... Tell your friends and your communities about this one. $5 helps. $50 helps.

Im not ashamed to ask for money for orphans.... ever. And I dont ask you to give into something I havent. They need $5000+ dollars because the human trafficking of children requires their own pimp fee. I will post later on that, but trust me, this is a racket that is totally out of line.

The real deal

Finally, real BBQ. Thanks to Nick, we went to L C's BBQ. It was by FAR the best BBQ I have had so far. Jacks Stack is good, theur Baby Backs are hard to beat. This place was sooo good it put it overthe top. Awesome Onion Rings, good fries, excellent Burnt ends, Excellent Ribs cooked all the way, Smoked Beef.

This is the place.


Our trip to Chicago was fun. Longer drive than anticipated, we ended up going right to the resturant. Tompolobampo was the best mexican food I have ever had. In reality, it is so far beyond normal mexican that it is like comparing 2 totally different concepts. Kind of like a nylon string guitar vs. an electric guitar.

We had a 5 course tasting menu. Danie got a different on than me, and I got the wine paring. The wine paring was so well done I was beyond surprised. Things were matched so well you could really experience the difference with and without the wine.

Danielle and I stumbled out of there and went to our hotel. Our hotel was a little odd. Chicago is quite a neat place, especially downtown. Our hotel was trying hard to be hip, and yet they played 80's music in the hallways, which was weird. I was up a good part of the evening. That much food, with that much com[plexity is more than I can handle. We plan to never go out liek that without digestive enzymes!

I hung with my beautiful wife. We went to the Field Museum of natural history, and saw a cool exhibit of native americas people. We wore out, went to get Deep Dish pizza, and ended up finding a Trader Joes downtown! The only TJ's with an elevator I have ever seen.

We picked up some gorceries, and drove around Lake Michigan, and downtown. Then we went back to the hotel and got hooked on "In Treatment" which is a TV show about therapy sessions. Wow.

We got up the next day, and had a mishap with our front desk. After a while things got worked out. However I missed an exchange where the valet man spouted off a smart ass remark to my wife. I found out as we were leaving, and Im glad I wasnt there. I would have been even more of a jerk, and we would have ahd a jerk contest.

We made it back int he rain, and are settling in.

Off to the WIndy City

Takin my babe to Chicago. Eating here and wandering around for a "babymoon" before Huckleberry pops out and changes our lives.

I already miss my girls!! LOL. But we need to get away.

Wow

Todd emailed me about this book he heard about. Someone we had both met, (a simple man who lives a simple message came to our area long ago when I contacted him, and he really affected my heart and life in a good way, during a dark time. He came, stayed over at Todd and Kims, and then went on his way) had another friends who wrote a book he highly recommends.

I thought I had ordered it months ago, but something got mixed up. I went to order some other books at amazon, and it remembered my previous attempt (I guess a good case for cookies?). I ordered it.

I finished it last night crying, almost weeping. Im glad I bought 3 copies, and they are all committed in my heart to specific people that are on my heart.

As I read this book, I didnt learn a whole lot of new stuff. I more had a remembering. As I read these words, I realized how much God has done in and for my life. So much more than is evident ont he outside yet. And how many things had gotten revealed, and then essentially shut up in me.

So much creativity. Holy spirit is so wild, and I forget it. How compassionate and gentle and self sacrificing Yeshua is. How totally trustworthy and stable and consistent and giving Abba is. How determined to heal, at any cost to themselves. No cost is outside of the discussion. No time restraints, no resistance too big. Pain is simply a stepping stone into deeper dialog, just as great joy. They are both share the same intended endpoint when life is surrendered to them.

And then as I went to bed, I asked God simply "Why did I forget all this? Why dont I live hardly any of this consciously?" It seems to wasteful for God to do the things done in my life, and for me to sit in object difference.

"Vanity"

Yep. I dont have any reason to brag. I have had tremendous encounters with God. All the big ones I have heard about. And I am finding that I am still in the immaturity part. I took the truth, and turned it as power and position and applied it to others instead of allowing it to empower me to love MORE and more DEEPLY.

My humanity saw something, and hijacked it. I have seen everyone I know personally do this. It is the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Truth is good, and when we coem to know more of it, we know what ISNT. And we get distracted and turn against Evil, rather than rejoicing in the Truth (a characteristic of Love). And some of us catch it quicker than others.

I have all too easily allowed myself to be defined by what I am NOT ABOUT! And I catch it. Holy Spirit helps me. And I surrender. I dont know how God does it.

One of the main reasons Im not living in a steady stream of this, is because it would cause me to stumble. Knowledge without intimacy and self control/focus on the real only causes me to descend into the non-real. God doesnt want me to do that. God doesnt cause people to unlove someone.

I desire to turn. I desire to re-turn. I want a life flooded with revelation. I want it to course through me and out of me into a violent force. I want people around me to be shook up by the wildness I have seen in the eyes of a man stretched out on my behalf, becoming my curse, and screaming out for me. I want the colors again. I want the smells and the creativity. I want the smallness (and even distortion of space and time) that comes when YHWH is locating around me. I want my kids to see past this thin veneer of self indulgent life. I want them to shake false convictions and make evil unstable and obvious. I want power to Love, especially down tot he practical.

So I recommend the book as a good catalyst. It has its weak points. It is human. But it is divine in origin, that much is clear. God is speaking here. Some people are positioned to hear it right now. If not this book, then do whatever edifies you enough to get real today.

http://www.theshackbook.com/

We Adopted too!!!

Randy Told me we could adopt right now. It is cheaper, faster, and we could pick anyone we wanted. :

stuff i think: Who Knew?

So I adopted Tracie Loux. She is our favorite early adopter, and she is helping so many other people adopt I figured she might need a little adoption of her own.

Here she is (or I guess Here Who Is).... our darling, creative, special new member of the Henry Family...