Asking for Help

This is a hard post. Anyone who knows Chad and I knows that we don't like to ask for help. We also don't feel comfortable talking about money. But some things are so important, they force you out of your comfort zone. Bringing our baby girl home is one of them.

We are estimating that this adoption is going to cost between $23,000 and $25,000. Lest you think we are independently wealthy, I am going to just state upfront that we do not have this money. We have some of it, and we are spending every penny, but it still will not be enough. As I mentioned earlier, we are still working on our faith. We chose to take a leap, step out in faith, and trust that the rest will come. I have read a million adoption blogs, and what I have found is that almost all of those families also did not have the money when they started, yet all of them were able to bring their babies home. So we choose to believe, as well.

A part of me feels that asking for help from friends and family is unfair. This is not your problem. But a bigger part of me feels that the plight of the orphans is everyone's problem ("Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." Psalm 82:3), and that we are blessed with supportive and loving friends and family who may want to help us.

We are working on a few different fundraisers for later, but we wanted to start by asking for some easy things (no cash involved!)...

1) We are planning to have a huge garage sale on October 9th. We are asking for donations to be sold. We'll take anything...clothes, household items, kids stuff, furniture. We will happily come to pick things up. If you have anything to donate, please let me know on here, on facebook, or by phone or e-mail. As the date gets closer, we will also be asking if anyone would like to bake items for a bake sale, or can help the day of with set-up or selling.

2) I am selling all of the boys clothes, up to size 2T. I have every size and season. There is a ton! I am also selling all of my maternity clothes. If you know of someone who has a little boy or is pregnant, please send them my way! I am planning to sell as much of this as possible at the Children's Sale in a few weeks, but I don't have enough hangers. I would love more hangers-any kind or size!

3) We are planning to make and sell a cookbook as one of our main fundraisers. But we need recipes! If you have a recipe that always gets rave reviews, please send it to me! We are hoping to have this ready to sell by mid-November, just in time to make wonderful Christmas gifts for everyone on your lists :)

4) At some point down the road, we hope to be able to raffle a big-ticket item off, like an iPad or Kindle. Obviously the cost of the item will diminish our profits. Have you heard of Swagbucks? You use the Swagbucks search engine instead of Google or Yahoo, and earn "bucks" as you search. Then you trade your bucks in for prizes like Amazon gift cards. Since January, I've earned $180 in Amazon giftcards. You also earn bucks for people who sign up under you. If everyone reading this signed up under me, I could earn enough giftcards to reduce, or possibly even eliminate, our cost to purchase the raffle item. Plus, you would be earning giftcards as well! You could actually earn money as you help us! To sign up, just go to http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/jana616. If you have questions on how Swagbucks works, or need help signing up, please let me know.

5) Do you have a daughter? Niece? Granddaughter? My super crafty mom has agreed to help us fundraise by making adorable dolls to sell. They are 10 inch soft dolls with handstamped faces, and come complete with two outfits, a cloth diaper, hat, and hooded blanket. Pictures and prices will be coming soon, but be thinking of all the people you know who may just have to have one of these dolls! We are going to try selling some other craft items as well, so be on the lookout. If you know a great venue to set up a booth to sell handmade items, please let me know!

6) Please share the link for this blog with anyone you think might be interested in our story. As we've shared our news with everyone, many people have told us they know someone who adopted, or have thought about it themselves. As I began researching adoption, other blogs have been a huge inspiration and source of information. One of the main reasons for this blog is to try offer that as well. So share away!

Again, thank you for considering how you can assist us in this journey. We will have details in the coming months on other fundraisers as well, but thought we'd start small. And above all, we would love your thoughts and prayers!