Evan's Easter Fundraiser

A very cool thing has happened this month!

I saw another adoptive mom share about how her 10 year old son wanted to go with his family to China when they went to pick-up their new child/sibling.  He felt it was important to be there for that moment and be with his family for that trip. His parents had told him how they weren't sure they could take him with because of the added expenses.  So he decided he'd do some odd jobs and sell some things to raise money to be able to go.  He did just that.  Then, not only did he do that, but he decided he wanted to help other kids who wanted to go with their families to meet and bring home their new sibling.  He's been doing odd jobs and selling more things to raise money to help other kids. In doing so, he has come up with a $500 grant that he will be giving out on Easter Sunday to one lucky child.  Each child who applies had to write his/her own essay answering a few questions about themselves, their new sibling to be, why they want to go with their parents, and what they have been doing to help raise funds to be able to go.  Evan has wanted to go with us so badly and he is old enough to be able to write down his thoughts...so he applied!   He decided he would make some Easter related goods, with the help of his mom, to sell to raise some funds to be able to go to China.  With that said, Evan is selling some homemade playdough carrots for Easter basket gifts for local friends.  

There are two options available.  

*The first is a rather large chunk of orange play dough in the shape of a carrot.  It comes in a plastic bag with a fake leaf and some curly green ribbon.  It looks similar to this photo below, but slightly different. This option will cost $5.

**The second option is a much smaller chunk of orange play dough in a small carrot-shaped container with a lid.  This option will cost $3.

Evan is also selling Word Family Eggs for 25 cents each.  You can buy as many or as few as you'd like and you can also choose the word family/families of your choice.  EX:  -at -am -an -ap -op -ip -it -en -et -ut -un   These will make great educational Easter basket goodies for a child ages 4K-first grade.  You could even fill them with candy or stickers if you wanted!

The last item Evan is working on are Easter eggs to help kids practice blending and segmenting 3-letter CVC words.  Inside the egg will be a picture of an object and three pieces of paper, each with one letter on them. Your child will take them out and build the word.  This is also great for kids in 4K-first grade, depending on the level of the child.  

These will cost 50 cents each and you can choose the words you'd like or we can choose for you. 

You can buy as few or as many as you'd like.  

Orders need to be in by Friday at the latest in order to make sure you receive them before Easter!

Lots of Updates

Wow- time has flown since I posted last and we've been beyond busy, that's for sure!   In February, we had a Jamberry nail wraps fundraiser which raised $250 to go towards our matching grant with Brittany's Hope Foundation.  A big thank you to our consultant, Kate Dvorak, and to everyone who purchased some Jamberry wraps!!   Also in February we had a huge online auction on Facebook.  It was a big undertaking but turned out to be a HUGE success!   We raised approximately $3,000 for our matching grant- we were in awe!  All the items have been delivered or shipped and received.  A huge thank you to the MANY people who donated services, products, handmade items, or items they had lying around their house and to the MANY people who bid on the 117 items we had in our auction.  I would also like to thank my friend Mandy for not only donating and bidding, but for her incredible support leading up to the auction, during the auction, and after the auction, as well as for her helping me to moderate the page.   We had no idea what to expect with the auction, but our results blew us away.  Also in February and in March, we have been selling handmade paper bracelets made in Haiti.  We had about 150 bracelets to sell and we have sold them all...minus two that need to be delivered to a local friend!   It was such a rewarding experience to write a $750 check to the Apparent Project- half of what we made on the bracelets went back to the men and women who make them to help them earn a living and provide for their families.  The other $750 is going toward our matching grant and you want to know the best part....our matching grant is now completed- we met our goal!  God is so good and faithful!  Thank you so much to some friends who wanted to make a direct donation to Brittany's Hope on behalf of our family- we are blessed by your support and your heart for the fatherless.  The amount we raised and had matched for our Brittany's Hope grant can cover our daughter's orphanage donation, which ranges between $5,500-$6,000.  That money goes to helping support the orphanage and the children in their care.  It also leaves us with a little extra to pay for some other fees.  It cost close to $1,000 to have all of our adoption dossier documents state certified and authenticated at the Chinese consulate.  We also had a very large chunk of money due to our agency before our dossier was able to be submitted to China.

And on that note...as of 3-18-15, we were officially Dossier to China (DTC).  Our dossier was mailed out via Fed Ex on Monday, 3-16-15. Our agency received it on 3-17 but not soon enough to get it turned out that day.  On 3-18 it left via DHL and on Monday, 3-23, it was signed for by someone in China.  We are now waiting to hear of our Log-in Date (LID).  Once we have that, the count begins for our wait for our Letter of Approval (LOA).  That is the big unknown. It can take as short as 25 days and as long as 180 days.  Average seems to always be somewhere around 50-70 or so days.  Once you have your LOA, you can better predict when you will travel.  Travel is almost always 2-3 months from that point, with 2.5 being fairly accurate.  We are really hoping for August travel so we can be home before school starts back up.  That would mean we'd need our LOA in May or very early June at the latest.  We will see what happens.

One BIG step closer to our sweet girl!