One Last Fundraiser

Y'all, have I mentioned how amazing my husband is? 'Cause he is pretty much the bee's knees. He works so hard to support our family, and then comes home and is about the best father I have ever seen. He gives every last drop of himself to his family and his patients, and there is not one ounce of selfishness in him. I think he's pretty cute too!


What does this have to do with the title of this post, you ask? Well, my husband is so wonderful that when I came up with the bright idea for him to run the 13.1 mile Indy 500 Mini-Marathon and try to get family and friends to sponsor him per mile as a fundraiser, he didn't say, "If that's such a good idea, why don't you do it?" (Probably because he knew I would die prior to the finish-possibly prior to the one mile mark-and leave all of our children motherless). Nope, he said, "Sure! I would love to run it!" So he has been training his legs off, and next Saturday is the big day!

This is what we sent out to select family and friends:

Dear Family and Friends,

As most of you probably are aware, our family began a journey to adopt a child from Ethiopia last August. After months of gathering documents, proving ourselves capable parents, petitioning the government to allow us to bring a child home, and waiting to be matched, we received a referral for a gorgeous baby girl in February. We have decided to name her Gabrielle Elise, and she is turning 6 months old today! We are waiting for our court date in Ethiopia, at which time we will become her legal parents. We hope to hear in the next week or so when that will be, and anticipate traveling there in early to mid-June. After our court date, we will have to leave Gabby for 6-10 weeks while we wait for her paperwork to be approved by the US Embassy. Once it is, we will travel one more time and finally get to bring her home!

As you might imagine, the process of adopting internationally is not inexpensive. This is something we believe we were called to do, and so far, the money we have needed has been there. We estimate we have spent $17,000 so far, and expect our travel expenses for the two trips to be another $11,000. While we have a good chunk of that money saved, we do not have enough to complete both trips at this time. We are writing today to ask if you might consider helping us.

As a fundraiser, Chad will be running in the Indianapolis 500 Mini-Marathon on May 7th. This 13.1 mile race is the largest half-marathon in the country, with 35,000 participants. We are asking you to consider sponsoring him in this race. Would you be willing to give a donation of $1, $2, or $5 per mile run? Or perhaps a flat donation? Every penny raised will go towards the remainder of our adoption expenses, and if we raise more money than we still need for our travel, we will use it to buy supplies to be donated to the orphanages in Ethiopia. To contribute, you can donate through PayPal (see the Donate button to the right), or if you would prefer to mail a check, please message me at janasolomon@hotmail.com.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. Even if you aren’t able to contribute at this time, we would appreciate your prayers as we complete this journey. We can’t wait to introduce Gabby to all of you SOON!

Love,
Chad and Jana

Asking people to help support us in this endeavor has been the most humbling thing I've ever done. I HATED sending that e-mail. But we still believe that all of us are called to do something to help the orphans in this world, although we know not all are called to adopt. I am very glad to announce that this will be our last fundraiser and I can stop hitting people up for money! If you did not receive this letter but would like to sponsor Chad, please follow either of the ways mentioned above. Thank you!