Wow – it’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks! We have made such progress in our fundraising
and paid off two of our major home study fees this week – that’s $2,800 that
we have raised and/or saved since the beginning of July! Thank you, thank you to all of those who have
helped out.
While my flea market escapades weren’t the most successful thing I’ve
done, Scott and I did have a lot of fun setting up and hanging out there! We’re probably going to try a craft fair next
time instead of the flea market. Check
out my awesome table display featuring signs made by my wonderful friend,
Lindsay!
What’s left before the home
study? - We have one major fee left in this first step of the adoption, but
we expect to have enough to pay that off within the next couple of weeks. We have finished all of our paperwork, but
still need to send a few documents in to our agency. Lastly, we’re still waiting on one more
background check and Scott’s physical (September 8th) before we can
be officially ready for the home study.
So exciting!
They say that the adoption process is a roller coaster, and I
completely agree with that. We haven’t
even gotten that far into it, but I’ve already experienced every emotion that’s
out there. With all of the unknowns, it’s
scary at times. Will we really raise
enough money to pay all of our fees?
Will we have to wait for years to make it through the whole adoption
process? Will there really be a child
out there for us? Will we make it through
this without something going terribly wrong?
I know these are likely irrational thoughts, but we’ve been let down
before when we had our future all planned out, so it’s hard not to think these
things sometimes. BUT, I cannot believe
the amount of support that we continue to get from family, friends, even
strangers. Every time I feel scared,
there’s someone there who calms my fears by offering us their support.
Case in point: We’ve been
gathering donations for a yard sale for a while now, but got stuck when a big
donation fell through a few weeks ago. Yesterday,
a girl in our apartment complex put up a sign in the mail room stating that she’s
having a moving sale and all unsold items would go to Goodwill. I texted her and said that, if she is done
with the sale, we are looking for donations for a yard sale fundraiser for our
adoption and would be willing to take the items. I got no response yesterday, but just figured
that she had already taken all of the items to Goodwill. I thought, “Well, we probably won’t hear from
her.” Today, she texted me back and said
that we could come get EVERYTHING that was left over. Wow!
Donations galore…I was so ecstatic!
Second case in point: I’ve
been talking to this girl for a while who agreed to offer consulting for us to
have an online auction fundraiser. She
was going to do everything – secure all of the donations, advertise, run the
auction for us, be the liaison between donors and bidders. However, I haven’t heard from her in 3
weeks. I was getting disappointed
because I have no idea how to do this on my own. I already had a few people who said they were
willing to donate, but I didn’t know what to tell them. I started researching other auctions, reached
out to some other adoptive families who have done auctions, and decided that
maybe I can do this on my own. In just a
few days, I’ve already secured several donations for the auction – people have
been so generous!
These are just a few examples of the love and support that we have
received – not to mention the fundraisers that people have offered to do for
us, the friends/family who are wearing their “From Colombia with Love” shirts
with pride, and all of the earring orders I’ve gotten recently! All that to say – you guys rock! We couldn’t do this without you…seriously. Our child is going to be surrounded with so
much love, and we couldn’t be happier about that.
Upcoming Fundraisers
September - yard sale & Jamberry fundraiser party
October - online auction
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