Why Are We Fundraising???

Why are we fundraising?  I have been asked this question and a few others multiple times lately.  I thought I would explain a little.

International adoption is expensive.  It is as simple as that.  No, we are not buying our daughter.  We are paying for legal services, doctor fees, notary fees, attorney fees, homestudy agency fees, social worker fees, ordering copies of personal documents from all over the country, paying for fingerprints, background checks and placement agency fees.  The list goes on and on and on. 

The money we raise through fundraising efforts goes towards paying for all of these things.  If we don't raise it, it doesn't mean we throw in the towel on this adoption.  There is a little girl halfway around the world who is counting on us to do whatever we have to in order to bring her home.  And even though we don't know who she is just yet, Someone knows who she is and He is also counting on us.  We don't plan on letting either of them down.

 If that means we have to put ourselves out there and ask people to help us, we will do that.  We wish we had the money lying around in our bank account to use for this adoption.  That just isn't the case.  We both work and we are saving as much as we can every month.  We are not going on big vacations, buying fancy cars or eating out all over town.  We are using our money to raise the four children we have, while at the same time attempting to save for our new little one.  And yes, we thought of how expensive it would be before we started the adoption process.  But lack of funds should never stop anyone from adopting a child in need. 

We are not choosing to fundraise because we want to buy new furniture and hope that others will pay for our adoption.  We are not fundraising because we want a new car and hope others will pay for our adoption.  We are not fundraising because we are too lazy to work hard at saving and hope others will pay for our adoption.  And last but not least, NO we are not fundraising because we thought it would be a fun way to pass the time until our daughter comes home.

There is no FUN in fundraising.  It is work.  Hard, uncomfortable, stressful, awkward, embarrassing work.  It is not something we are doing by choice.  We are fundraising out of need.  Just like when others fundraise to go to band camp or on a missions trip, they do it out of need.  We are in need of help.  This adoption was something we were called to do.  We have a heart for orphans and this is the path we chose.  We also have sponsor kids, give to worthy causes, volunteer for Ethiopian Orphan Relief, foster kittens for the animal shelter, donate to food banks, cook & serve dinner for the homeless and support other adoption families.  We are not going to stop doing these things and giving to these causes once our adoption is complete.  We are not trying to be selfish with our asking.

 We really do appreciate all the support we have received so far and are very grateful for it.  If you would like to help us either by donating money to our adoption, purchasing one of the items we are selling or attending one of the online parties that people set up for us, that would be great.  If you would like to pray for us, our daughter in Ethiopia and for all the other children who are waiting for families that would be awesome.  If you would like to share our fundraising efforts on facebook and help get the word out to others, that would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

We know this adoption is completely a God thing.  We would not have been led to this place, if we weren't supposed to be here.  We trust that God will provide.        

22 Days of Fundraising

We have all heard about the 25 Days of Christmas.  Now you're probably singing the song in your head, sorry.  Well, have you ever heard about the Hall Family- 22 Days of Fundraising???   That's right, 22 days of straight up adoption fundraising.  Starting November 1st and going through November 22nd, our family is going to be FUNDRAISING!?!  Chuck, myself and each of the four kids will be participating and putting their own ideas out there.  If nothing else it will be interesting and a good lesson in working together.
We need to raise money for our Ethiopian adoption.  Our dossier is going out any day now and we need to be ready when we are matched with our daughter.  We know that it could take months and months to be matched, but honestly we don't want to spend those months constantly fundraising.  We would like to try and get it done quickly, so that we can spend our time preparing our home for a new little girl and lending a hand to others who are in the same boat we are.
So starting November 1st we will be pulling out all the stops.  We will be putting ourselves out there for everyone to see.  We know it will be uncomfortable and awkward at times, but this isn't for us.  This is for our little girl and she's worth it, whoever she may be.  :)
So if you are reading this, please check back on November 1st and maybe you will be inspired to help us out.   

     

Garage Sale #1....

So we had our first garage sale over the weekend.  Here are the PROS and CONS.

CONS~  Lots of work, hours upon hours of sweaty work, heavy lifting, HOT sun beating down on us, last minute pricing of items, etc...

PROS~Lots of time outside in the fresh air.  Great time hanging out with friends & neighbors, sitting in lawn chairs waiting for customers, drinking lemonade and Diet Pepsi.  Met some nice people and had the chance to educate them on international adoption.  Met some really nice people and got a chance to talk about how GOD planned all of this and we couldn't have picked a different path if we had wanted to.  Had our hearts warmed by friends who had adopted and came to our sale just to support us by over-paying for everything.  :)  Spent some time with my 4 goddaughters helping them pick out just the right African bird for each of them and then got to hug my oldest friend when she over-payed for those too.  Watched as hundreds of items that had been donated to our sale were taken home by people who didn't even know it was a fundraiser, they just wanted a good deal.  All those good deals really added up in our cash box.

By the end of the 2 day sale we had made $1100!  And that amount keeps rising because of things I listed and sold online the day of the sale.  We are beyond excited by this.  We had our doubts when stuff was piling up in our livingroom and we wondered how we would ever sell it all and who would come to our sale.  Our neighborhood is notorious for not having a great garage sale turnout, but the shoppers came, much to our surprise.  And one of the best parts now is we no longer look like hoarders.  :)   Time to schedule that homestudy! 

Adoption is not for wimps.  Our first adoption was hard, exhausting, long, heartbreaking, and the most amazing experience EVER!  This time around is proving to be the same.  It has been hard, exhausting and frustrating,  And on the days when it seems like we've gotten nothing accomplished, it seems so hopeless and overwhelming.  (insert sad violin music here)
Add to that the joys of fundraising and it just seems like an endless tunnel with no light at the end.  I want our homestudy to be done and paid for, but it is taking forever.  There are so many papers to get, signatures to notarize and boxes to check off.  Weekends are definitely the worst.  Nothing gets done. 
Oh, to have a magic wand that does dossiers and homestudy packets. 

The birds are flying outta here and that makes me SO happy!   Keep the orders coming.

Woo Hoo!!!   We sold two birds yesterday.  I was so excited.  Every little bit helps out with our fees and I am so grateful that people want to help us out.  Especially people who have never even met us.  And I can't tell you HOW badly I needed the pick me up.  So thank you Aunt Nancy and Kristen for giving me a little boost of encouragement that I needed.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/103066744/little-african-birds

And just like that I have an Etsy shop.  I named it OurLittleCloset.   So far I only have the African birds listed for sale.  I hope to list more items in the future. 

Fundraiser #2...  African Birds

To raise money for our adoption, my mother in law Becky has generously donated a whole nest full of homemade African birds.  She is an amazing seamstress and has 40+ years of experience behind a sewing machine.  Becky spent countless hours cutting, sewing, stitching and adding little details to dozens of birds.  She purchased most of the fabric while on a mission trip to Africa and the fabric is absolutely beautiful.  Some of the birds were donated to the Lights of Hope 2012 auction and brought in quite a bit of money.  The rest she said we could use to raise funds to bring our own little bird home.

We will be selling the birds for $20 each.  If you live out of our area, we politely ask you to include $4 for shipping.  You can purchase the birds by using the Paypal donate button on our blog.  Please  email me or leave a comment letting me know how many you would like and where you would like them to be sent.  If you live in our area and would like to stop by and choose your own bird, that is fine too.  We will continue selling them until they are all gone.  Hopefully the pictures do these sweet African birds justice, it was not easy getting them all to look at the camera at the same time.  :)

                                         

Due to the uniqueness and variety of fabrics, please do not specify which one you would like.  They are all equally adorable and each one was sewn with love.  Thank you so much for supporting our adoption and following us on this journey to our little bird.

Fundraiser #1 has officially begun. Please click on Fundraiser to see what we have going on.  Thanks so much.  Things are starting to get exciting around here. 

Fundraiser #2 should be up and running later today.  Just have to figure out all those last minute details.  Let me show you where we're at.
Who:  Anyone and everyone who wants to support us.
What: That's still a secret.
When: Today or yesterday, whichever comes first.
Where: Pretty much anywhere that delivers mail.
Why: That's easy.  We want to bring our little bird home. ♥
How:  This is the million dollar question.  How do we do this? We better get to figuring it out.

How We Told the Kids....


Chuck and I kept the news of our second adoption a secret for months.  We would take walks in the evening by ourselves just so we would be able to talk about it without having to use "code words".  It was kind of cool having this amazing secret.  But after we signed the official contract with our agency and started looking for another agency to do our homestudy, it was just getting to hard to keep the secret.  And we couldn't take long enough walks to discuss everything we needed to talk about.  It was time to tell the kids.

We knew exactly how they would react.  We expected there to be a wide range of emotions.  Everything from over the moon happy to completely annoyed.  Happy to say, our kids did not let us down and they proved we know them very well.

We decided to tell them one night while we were sitting around the firepit roasting marshmallows.  Who isn't happy when eating a marshmallow?  We thought the sticky treat could only help in this situation.  So here is how it went...

Us: Guess what, you're going to have a little sister.

Canaan:  Blank stare.  Focused completely on his marshmallow.

Kennedy: "What?!?  A SISTER!!!! "  And then she proceeded to run laps around the yard while at the same time screaming "I"M GETTING A SISTER!!!!".

Grayson: "Why can't I ever get what I want?  Why can't we adopt an 11 year old girl?  You never ask me what I want!?!  I want a big sister, why can't I ever get what I want?"   I think that is when Chuck stuffed another marshmallow in her mouth.

Aidan: You must mean sponsor another sister, so she won't actually live here.  Oh, that makes a lot more sense, I thought you meant adopt another kid.  You said we were done with 4 kids.  Phew, I thought you meant she would live here and stuff.

Us: No Aidan, we are adopting another child and she will live here.

Aidan:  Gives us a look like he is about to pack up his stuff and move out, after he eats all the marshmallows.  I don't think we heard another word from him until bedtime.  Just lots of deep sighs and sounds of annoyment.

So that was about a month or so ago and I am happy to report things here are better all around.  Kennedy is still thrilled, but has stopped screaming.  Canaan kind of gets it, but asks if we can go to his sister's house for a sleepover every night.  Grayson still wants an older sister, but thinks a little one will be fine as long as she isn't like Kennedy.  :)  And Aidan is slowly warming up to the idea, especially after we told him that he would be able to go to Ethiopia to bring her home.

Sadly Chuck and I have stopped walking at night.  Now that the big secret is out it just doesn't seem as exciting. 

Why Adopt Again???



Many have asked us why we are adopting again.  Here it is. 

God: So, you have a special room just for junk?

Me: Yes, I do.  It's so awesome.  I have room for my plastic Easter egg collection, fabric scraps for future projects, decorative boxes to wrap presents in, bridesmaids dresses from numerous weddings, and .....oh....wait, You didn't really want me to answer that.

  hm.  awkward.

And that is pretty much how the conversation went.  A simple question was asked and a pathetic answer was given.  I could not believe that here we were, an adoptive family whose eyes had been opened to the needs of orphans, and I had a special room for junk.  I felt selfish and foolish.  Mostly selfish.  I knew something was going to change, but did it require me giving up my junk room?  I am pretty attached to that room.  SO we started praying to God.  We asked Him to open the door we should go through and slam shut all other doors.

While this conversation was going on, three other major things were happening in Ethiopia and in our lives.

#1-Ethiopia adoption programs started closing all over the place.  First we heard of agencies that friends had used, then some agencies that friends of friends had used and then the agency we had used, closed. closed. closed.  Every where we looked Ethiopia was shutting down and it was heartbreaking.  We took that as a sign that adoption was not in our future, even though we always thought it was. 

#2-We started looking into foster care.  We requested information and looked into classes to become certified foster parents.  This seemed like something we could do and there is such a need for foster families.  But everytime we signed up to go to a class, it was cancelled due to bad weather.

#3-We started attending a new church.  A completely awesome church. 

Our new church is very mission based, both in our own community and globally.  They are especially active in Haiti and send multiple mission teams there every year.  We started hearing about Haiti everytime we entered the church doors.  We started thinking "maybe God was telling us Haiti is where we should be looking" but we felt so attached to Ethiopia that it felt like we were betraying our sons' country by even thinking of another country.  But we contacted agencies anyway and started warming up to the idea of adopting from Haiti. 

We found 3 reputable agencies that we liked and started inquiring about their programs in Haiti.  One of them had like 14 countries they worked with and every page was updated with current requirements,etc.  While skimming through the pages I noticed that their Ethiopia program said "Open".  I assumed it hadn't been updated and sent off our request for Haiti info, while at the same time asking them if they knew their Ethiopia page was outdated.  Almost instantly I got this response, "Our Ethiopia program IS open."  That was not the sound of a slamming door to me.

I called Chuck and we both started crying.  That is when God finished what He had been trying to tell me earlier.  We were going to be adopting from Ethiopia again.  I just hadn't let Him finish what He was going to say.