A Day to Give

As many of you know, we are right in the middle of adopting a little girl from China. We don't even know her name yet. I'll admit, that's hard. It's even harder when I made it a point to have all of our paperwork in EARLY in the hopes that our dossier (the packet of our entire life!) would be in China before Thanksgiving and we'd be on the waiting list to be matched...only to have our paperwork LOST for nearly 2 weeks at the Chinese Consulate in NY after it was ready. Hhhhhhhh. VERY frustrating. But we got word yesterday that it has been located and is supposed to be picked up by the courier on Monday, returned to our agency on Tuesday and hopefully on it's way to China by Wednesday. Here's to hoping...and not holding my breath. But I digress...

One of the biggest parts of this adoption for us has been the fundraising. The thing is, we are perfectly capable of affording another child in our home on a daily basis. We don't, however, have $35,000+ just sitting around to get her here. I won't go into the issues others have regarding the cost of adoption. I will simply say, "we are NOT buying a baby". There truly are legitimate costs involved. Do they all have to be THAT expensive? Probably not, but I'd say 95% are probably spot on and the other 5% is probably a fee that someone set for their services that could've been less. In the end, it could be a million dollars to get her here and I'd still do everything I could to raise that money. We were led to China for a reason...for OUR daughter. And I'd move heaven and earth to get her here.

We've had 2 hugely successful garage sales with items donated by friends and family. We've sold things we no longer need. We've sold cookie dough. I've sold items I make. We've saved and scrimped and put money aside. We'll put away our tax return and any bonuses my husband gets at work. We've applied for every grant we thought we had a chance to receive. And we're getting close. SO close.

Our final fundraiser was this last weekend. And it was by far my favorite! We partnered with Lifesong for Orphans and Both Hands Foundation. Basically, we located a widow in our area and put together a team of 12 people and their families and spent all day Saturday doing repairs on her home. All of our supplies were donated, as well as the food for breakfast and lunch. All in all there were 29 people and we were able to scrape and repaint the entire exterior of her home, haul of what I originally thought was 6 trailer loads of trees and debris, but actually it turned out I was wrong. It was NINE trailer loads!! We also took care of some routine maintenance on her property, flipped her mattress for her and set up an appointment for a local automotive shop to check out her car!

In joining us, our team committed to sending out letters asking their friends and family to "sponsor" them for the day, much like raising funds for a 5k run for cancer or diabetes. And because all of the supplies were donated, 100% of the support goes to our adoption fund! It's such a beautiful way to raise funds for adoption!!

Below you'll find the video we created from pictures and video clips of the day, just to give you a visual idea of that day. It was LIFE CHANGING.  I wish I could adequately explain it, but there simply are no words that would do the job. Ms Marty gets to remain in her home, we raise funds to help bring our daughter home, and everyone involved has their worldview changed...all because they gave their life away for a day.

Both Hands Video

Check out the video...and feel free to share it via email or facebook as donations are still being accepted for this project!!