$9,000 faciliation fee
$1,800 homestudy fee
$900 immigration approval
$2,000+ in airline tickets
$400 her visa
$150 her medical appointment
her passport, expediting her passport, living expenses in country, food in country, paying our driver, etc etc etc
...it adds up fast.
But so do your gifts.
Even $5 here and there adds up just as quickly to help cover those costs and bring her home.
I wanted to show you how each and every donation adds up to make a BIG difference.
The yard sale:
We were invited to participate in a yard sale with my friend, Jordan, only a week after announcing our plans to adopt "Gracie". We didn't have much time to gather items and Nathan and I were out of town for the weekend already planned for the sale and still, $800 was made that day to be split between our families, equally. There are tons of items still left to sale. Our hope is that Jordan is able to use those donated items with her own adoption at her next sale.
The bottle drive:
Most of you are aware, possibly participated in, the bottle drive our friend, Mandy, headed for us. I lost count of how many bottles made their way around town and to your homes and offices. Around 100 maybe? Some people just went out and bought their own. Some people MADE their own. They were filled with "spare" change. And more change. And MORE change.
As of today, those bottles brought in about $1,200 in "change". And I know of at least six more bottles we will be picking up this week.
Tee shirt sales:
Thanks again to Mandy, Drew, and Think Ink for their generosity, we were able to make about $1,500 in sales from the Annie shirts Mandy designed for us. (I still have two adult smalls left, by the way).
Photo fundraiser:
At $50/session, I was able to bring in just over $1,000 from the photo fundraiser. Honestly? I could have done more. I waited until the fall and then you all filled up my calendar for a solid two months. By the time I finished, it was mid-December and my attention needed to be back on my family and everything that was to come. Plus, my eyes were going crossed from so much editing! I wish I had started earlier in the year, spread it out some, and worked some more people in. I know we could have raised a few hundred more dollars, but I'm still so so so grateful for all of those that trusted me with their photos! I've said it time and time again... I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER. I have a nice camera, I love the creative process, and I'm willing to give it a shot if it helps bring Anna Gray home- Thank you for allowing me to try!
Chick-Fil-A:
We packed the house and after all was said and done, we brought in $3,000 for Chick-Fil-A. We received 10% of that! Thank you for eating chicken :)
The Opryland Hotel raffle:
$525 worth of raffle tickets were purchased for this awesome prize!
Donations:
As of today, we have received $4,000 in cash donations and another $2,200 worth of airline tickets. I don't even know what to say. Some of these were very large donations, some as small as $10. ALL are appreciated more than you could ever understand.
Add all that to roughly $7,000 of our own money and we nearly have it paid for! We still need about $8,000, but we KNOW He will provide.
On a related note:
There are other families too that we know of right now that need a little extra help.
We were invited to partner with Nellie's family and Sydney and Lucien's family for "Beautiful Baby Contest". Both families are hoping to travel in the next couple of months to the same country we are :) We are all working toward the same goal of giving these sweets a forever family, why not work together to do it, right?!
100% of the proceeds from the Beautiful Baby Contest will benefit all three families equally. The rules and regulations to this contest are at THIS blog page so go check it out, enter your babies, and share share share!
Two winners (one boy and one girl) we receive $150 gift cards to Target and be featured in a baby calendar for 2012 :)
Thank you to Rebecca and Elizabeth for including our family!!
It's amazing when God shows up and shows off!
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