Fundraising Friday

I thought that it was about time to give you, my readers, an update as to our adoption finances :-).

We are "sitting" on the money we have saved to accept our referral.  I'm not a "spender".  However, I am READY to spend this money!!!!!

Our most recent adoption financial goal has been to save the estimated amount of money that we will need for our first trip to Ethiopia.  We have been working towards this goal for the past 9 months.  It's taking a while, but God has been good to help us save the money a little at a time.

Here is a quick reminder of how the estimated expenses break down for our first trip to Ethiopia.

Airfare (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $4,000 estimate
In-Country Travel Package (2 adults) ~ varies ~ $2,500 estimate (this will include our housing, transportation, food, etc. for the time we are in Ethiopia)
Visas (2 adults) ~ $40

Our thermometer (look to the sidebar) has been set to this total of $6,540.  We currently have just over $5,000 saved to put towards our first trip.  Praise the Lord!!!!!!!

We have not been actively fundraising over the past few months.  We still don't know when we will get our referral, so we haven't felt the "urgency" to push to raise the remaining amount we will need.  However, we do have a few on-going fundraising opportunities for our friends and family to help us in, if they feel so led.

Soda Cans/Bottles
We are continuing to collect soda cans/bottles and redeem them for the nickel deposit.  We love to have our family and friends tell us that they have a bag or two of cans for us to pick up :-).  A few of our church's college students (who we work with) have been collecting them in the dorms for us (which, btw, contain some of the disgusting things I have ever seen!!!!).  Our dentist office is saving them for us :-).  And more!!!!

If you live in central IA and would like to help with our adoption via giving us your empty soda cans/bottles, just leave a comment.  We would be happy to take them from  you!!!!!

Handmade Cards
We still have many beautiful handmade cards left.  You can click HERE to see photos of the birthday cards we have available.  We also have packets of a variety of special occasion cards.  (I need to take individual photos of the special occasion cards as well, but that just hasn't happened yet.)  We are selling the cards for $2.50 each OR five cards for $10.  If you are interested in purchasing some cards, please e-mail me at hearts1982 @ gmail.com (no spaces).