Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Its Only $20. Plus 10k In 20 Days Campaign.

I'm a numbers gal. I mean in case you haven't noticed with all my statistics posts, figures on how many people it would take to fund not only our adoption but adoptions in general. Yes. I love math. Always have. Remember this 1 in 50 post here? Pretty incredible that we have 6 people who openly committed to that challenge and several others who just gave a one time donation. With what we have already received and what is "pledged" for two more months we only need 31 more people to give $30 for three months. Isn't that AMAZING!?!

I was looking at our latest fund raising goal. You've helped raise $1379 towards our dossier fee!! That is incredible.

Really. So so amazing. I know I've said it before but really I want to figure out a way to help families fund their adoptions in a way that involves MANY people. How awesome is that to have so many people involved in bringing your child home. Suddenly the financial burden doesn't seem so great and adoption can become a reality for so many more "average American families". 100 people, $20 a month for 12 months. So simple.


100 people. Everyone knows 100 people right? Probably 100 families would be a better way to put that. Everyone has $20 right? I mean at least those of us in America do. After all we are among the richest in the world!! A typical Ethiopian lives on less then $1 a day. $20 in the US is nothing. We spend more then that on the below average trip to Target, the average fast food meal for a family of four, a pedicure, two pounds of Starbucks coffee, dinner and a movie costs more then $20 these days. $20 a month can instead change the life of a child forever. Change the life of a family. Forever. YOU can have a part in changing the status of an orphan to son or daughter. What an amazing privilege. So here's what I'm going to do. I think I've posted about our fund raising efforts, all of my readers should know by now that we're fund raising for this entire adoption. Honored to do so.


We aren't the only ones.


There are others who are either close to getting a court date in Ethiopia, waiting on docs to travel to China, or are waiting for just the right baby that God has hand picked for them right here in the USA. I want to give you all a chance to read their stories, consider helping them out in some way or another. All of them have donate buttons on their blogs, some of them are selling T-shirts, jewelry, or other things. Lets get these precious babies home!!

*********************************

Meet the Richards Family. Stacy was my faithful encourager during Silas' adoption, Stacy and her husband Paul have five kids and they are in the process of their fifth adoption, precious Solomon from China. Here's is a little snippet Stacy wrote about their family, including their blog address. Read their story, check out Stacy's awesome hand made beaded necklaces, enter her raffle, buy a super cool T-shirt. Consider partnering with this sweet family as they work to bring their son home. Here's a bit about them in Stacy's own words.

We are amazed at the blessing of our 6 miracle kiddos. God has built our family through the beauty of bio, open-domestic adoption, & international adoption. Their ages are 12, 8, 6, 4, almost 4 AND Solomon who is almost 4...YES...we are going to have TRIPLETS :) Our family is extremely excited about our sweet Solomon who is waiting for us in Fujian, China. We are boldly stepping out in faith that the Lord is going to provide all of the finances needed to bring home our son...the son God has clearly called ours. He has already provided just about half of what we need and we are praying that He will provide the rest of the $16,000 needed before we travel THIS August/September. We would covet your prayers for our family and precious son. You can learn more about our family and our journeys at http://www.mycupoverfloweth.blogspot.com/

***************************************************

Scott and Jennifer Armbruster are adopting two precious kids from Ethiopia and praying about a third child. They have already had a very long journey working to bring these precious babes home. This sweet family has already adopted once and are working to raise the funds to bring the next THREE Armbruster kids home! Here's a little bit in Jennifer's own words.

We are the Armbruster family. We have been married 17 years. We have 2 biological children and a precious daughter adopted from Guatemala. We are in the process of adopting a toddler and a 7 year old from Ethiopia. We are also praying about a waiting child in another country in Africa. We are a family dedicated to caring for orphans of the world. We have fully surrendered our life plans to the Lord Jesus. We have seen the needs and the orphan crisis in the world and we cannot ignore it. You can read more here on their blog: http://www.knowingnotignoring.blogspot.com/

******************************************************************

I wanted to find a family currently adopting domestically that was also fund raising. I wrote my buddy Tracie and she sent me this blog: http://www.radiantjess.blogspot.com/ I immediately knew it was perfect. Jess loves Jesus. Loves orphans and has a really funny blog to boot! I don't know Jess but we did just become facebook friends because I told her she was funny and I wanted to be her friend. Isn't that how all good friendships start?! Jess and her husband Richy are fund raising to adopt a baby right here in the USA! Love that. When I wrote Jess about wanting to blog about their family she was happy to help. Here's a picture of their family and a little about them in Jess' own words.


We are the Clark family: Richy and Jessica and our 3 children, Richy II (10), Toby (4) and Brynn (3). Richy leads a ministry called Radiant Nation, and I am a stay-at-home mom. Adoption has been a dream in our hearts for years, and we are excited to be pursuing it! We're working through Hannah's Dream, a Missouri agency. Our hope is to adopt a minority newborn domestically, i.e. from the United States. We're in the home study process and are raising funds so we can be ready to move quickly when matched! Over the years we have played an active role in TheCall prayer movements, and praying for an adoption movement that helps end abortion. In addition to adding a child (or two) to our family to love, we also want to practice what we preach and be an answer to some one's prayer.

Read the blogs, read about each family and their adoption journey's consider giving $20 as they raise the funds for their precious babes. All of this is so simple. We just need to act.

**************************


If that wasn't enough how about another opportunity to bless TWENTY SIX families by giving just a few bucks.

Read this blog here: http://www.storinguptreasures.com/ and specifically this post over here: http://www.storinguptreasures.com/2000/05/10k-in-20-days-we-want-to-bless.html - we are one of the 26. So so blessed by this amazing family as they fight to raise funds for 26 families they really don't even know. Incredible.

I would encourage you to give. Give generously and bless others while making a difference in the lives of children. Thank you.

4 comments:

Lauren said...

I love this post! It's so true ... we need to rally around each other to help bring our children home! Even while we are fundraising for our own adoption I have enjoyed giving to other adopting families ... thanks for sharing this!!


(We're having a blog sale this week to raise funds for our referral in case you'd like to stop by!) :P

Unknown said...

Thanks for the shout-out! I was really moved by the other stories, thanks so much for the links to their blogs!

We Are Family said...

This is such a great post. The journey of adoption is not even possible to describe. We have been 'doing' adoption since 2006 (that is when we filled out our first bit of paperwork) We had NO IDEA the journey we were about to embark on. God has changed our entire family through these processes. We are forever grateful. And yes, even though we are raising funds for our own adoptions. We have given to others in the process. We are ALL responsible for the orphans of this world. BLESSINGS! Proverbs 24:11-12

Kimmie said...

Erica!

What a neat post. Stir the waters baby!

Kimmie
mama to 8
one homemade and 7 adopted!