The Parker Fund

Hello all,

I don’t usually post very personal things here on The Z-Issue, but rather use it for 1) posting information that may be of interest to others (e.g. solving technical problems [especially with regard to the world of Linux Engineering]), 2) mentioning articles that I found helpful, amusing, or otherwise interesting, or 3) just babbling about who knows what. This article, though, is about something that is very special to me, and one that is intimately and inextricably tied to who I am as a person.

For those of you who have read the about me page, you know that I have devoted the majority of my academic life to studies of Child and Adolescent Development / Psychology and Education. Understanding and helping children work through their difficult times is one of my biggest passions in this life.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve given a lot of thought to having children of my own and have decided that I would rather adopt than have kids who are biologically mine. My rationale is multifaceted, but primarily, I just think that there are enough children already here that could use loving homes, and I would like to offer that to one of them instead of bringing another one into the world. So, for several years now, I’ve been trying to put any little bit of extra money that I have into savings for adopting a child. In the past year, I have started to pursue adoption more actively from a lot of angles (discussing it with attorneys, researching adoption agencies and policies, et cetera). I have also tried to squirrel away even more money by doing side jobs and such. Though I’ve been relatively successful at saving money for the adoption, I have a very long way to go based on the estimate that I have been given (approximately $85,000 USD). At the time of this writing, I have saved a mere ~17% of the funds that I will need in order to get started on the process.

Why bring up any of these things about my personal life and goals? Simply put, the idea of crowdfunding is enticing in this situation. I post my articles hoping that they will help people who find themselves in similar situations (as mentioned, particularly relating to Linux, but also to travels, and so on) as the ones in which I have found myself over the years. And, thankfully, according to the analytics for the site and comments on various posts, people are finding the articles helpful. In particular, a couple of my Linux articles have been viewed tens of thousands of times on certain days. I’ll cut to the chase: if any of my articles have been helpful to you, please consider donating ANY amount that you comfortably can to The Parker Fund–helping me reach my goal of being able to adopt. Absolutely every dollar helps, so any donation will be greatly appreciated!

Why “The Parker Fund?” As I’ve said, I have more actively started to pursue the adoption within the past year or so. I’ve pondered many different aspects of the process, and have decided that I would like to adopt a boy first. I have also chosen the name Parker, and so to keep the goal alive and real in my mind, I refer to him by name, though he may not have even been born yet. Again, to keep my motivation up through setback after setback, I have started to decorate a room for him:

Click to enlarge

These types of little things help keep me focused on my goal, even if they seem a little premature.

So, in effort to expedite the start of the adoption process, if you can spare any funds and would like to help me, you may contribute to The Parker Fund by using the PayPal “Donate” button in the top widget on the right-hand side of the page. As I said, every dollar helps and will be greatly appreciated! Even if you can’t or don’t want to contribute, thank you for reading the Z-Issue and taking time out of your day to read about a personal aspiration that is very near and dear to my heart.

Cheers,
Zach