A step forward...

I am so excited! (I say that alot, don't I? LOL!)  God has opened doors to a wonderful opportunity for our family to move forward on this road to adoption!
One of the things we have needed to do is start fundraising to help defray the cost of preparations, legal fees, and the collection of funds for a donation to the agency that is helping us through all of this! (They do not charge a  fee {although the costs incurred in helping families averages about $8000 per family!}. They do ask that those families who can make a donation would do so. We are more than willing to do the work necessary to come up with the funds to make a donation that will, at the very least, cover the costs they incur in helping our family through this journey!)We have been praying long and hard about how to go about fundraising. These are hard times for everyone!  We could go with the usual car washes, garage sales, etc. and we may yet do that! But, we had a sense that there was something else ahead for us to do. A different way to raise the funds and do the work without asking those folks who already have enough on their plates to give monetarily. We knew that God would provide a way...we just did not know how! 

Of course, He did just that through an opportunity that we found which will allow us to raise funds by recycling! We are going to start with a "Cell Phone Drive"!  We will simply be asking folks in our family and community to give us their old unwanted and unused cell phones, pda's and ink jet cartridges! That's it...then we package them up, send them in to recycle them and we get the recycle fees back to fund our adoption efforts! I have looked at several adoptive families(and business that were raising funds for adoption agencies) who have used this fundraiser and it is so simple, no cost to the families who donate...just straightforward donation of something you probably don't even want around...in fact, if you're like us, you just didn't know what to do with your old cell phones...and you weren't just going to throw them away!   

No one is limited to the cell phones that they may or may not have in their kitchen drawer! If any of you are interested in giving of your time to help our family with collecting phones, please let me know...it really just means asking your circle of friends and family if they have any old unused cell phones or pds's to contribute. If they do...simply ask them to bring those to you over the course of the next few weeks, then you can let me know and I'll be happy to come pick them up from whatever location you prefer! Each family that asks their extended circle of influence to donate,really adds a great number of cell phones to our collection!

We may also be setting up donation boxes at some central locations, local businesses, etc. 
We have also been offered the opportunity to participate in a fundraising project through AdoptionBug.com The site was created by an adoptive Mom who wanted to help other adoptive families find a way to fundraise for their adoption efforts without having to buy a bunch of stuff up front first! (which kind of defeats the purpose of raising funds!)  Our "Family Store" will be up and running this Thursday February 9th, or Friday the 10th. I'll be sure to post a link as soon as it is available! 
As always, thanks so much for stopping by and reading!