Final Expenses for Layla's Adoption

Layla is already TWO MONTHS OLD!!!!! Time is moving quickly and she is growing and changing so much!!!! We are completely in love with her!!!!

Layla's adoption will be finalized when she is six months old, so we have four months left to raise/save the money we need for final expenses. I guess it's time for us to get busy!!!! (We have already been trying to save what money we can from our budget.)

Agency Fee ($5,200) ~ We have one more fee of $5,200 to pay to our adoption agency, Lutheran Family Services of Iowa, when the adoption is finalized at 6 months.

Attorney Fees ($1,100) ~ We will have an attorney fee of $1,100 for the legal work that is involved to finalize Layla's adoption.

Pay Back Interest-Free Loan ($5,000) ~ Because we only had eight days notice before Layla's birth (and the needed $10,200 agency fees needed to accept her placement with us), a family member loaned us $5,000. We would like to repay them as soon as we can.

That brings the total we need in four months to $6,300 and then the additional $5,000 as soon as we are able.

The company Nathan works for has an adoption-reimbursement program and we are anticipating receiving $5,000 from the company as soon as Layla's adoption is finalized. We would like to have saved the $6,300 we need and be able to use the company's reimbursement to pay back the loan. That would leave us "debt" free at the end of this adoption!!!!!

Nathan has begun the process of applying for an adoption grant and we will be continuing to look into a few other grant options.

If you would like to help us in some way, here are the fundraisers that we have up and going (we were just getting started with fundraising when we were contacted about Layla).

Soda Cans ~ If you are local, we will take your soda cans/bottles off your hands and redeem them for a nickel apiece.

Puzzle ~ If you would like to sponsor a puzzle piece for $10, we will write your name on the back of the piece and then add it to Layla's puzzle. (I have to be honest. We have had many pieces already sponsored, but I have not kept good track of the numbers and have not even begun to put them on the puzzle pieces OR put the puzzle together. But it is on my "to do" list :-).)

Donate ~ If you feel led to simply donate towards Layla's adoption, there is a "Donate" button on the right sidebar of this blog. Simply click on the button and donate that way.

I am hoping to get one or two more fundraisers up and going in the next few weeks. I know that four months is going to FLY by and we will be needing the money to finalize Layla's adoption and make her officially a part of our family!!!!!!

Handmade Birthday Cards

You may remember way back last September (almost a year ago now) we started a fundraiser selling handmade cards.  In the last year, we have sold a few packets of cards, but not very many.  So we are revamping this fundraiser and are going to try again.

Here are the Birthday Cards we have for sale.  We are asking for $2.50 per card, OR you may purchase 5 cards for $10 ($2 per card).  Just leave a comment or e-mail me (hearts1982@gmail.com) with the number(s) of the card(s) you would like.  If you are local to the Des Moines area, we can arrange drop-off / pick-up of the cards/payment.  If you would like to have the cards mailed to you, we are asking for an extra $1 to help with shipping costs and you may pay via a mailed check OR using our PayPal button located on the right sidebar.  If you choose to pay via PayPal, please be sure to include a note that it is for our handmade card fundraiser (and e-mail me the numbers of the cards you would like to purchase).

In addition to numbering each birthday card, I have also included how many of each card we have available.  #15 is available in green, yellow, pink & orange.  #16 is available in blue, yellow, orange, green & pink.  #21 is available in pink, blue & yellow.

Sold Out!!                                    #2 (1x)

#3 (3x)                                       #4 (1x)

#5 (1x)                                      #6 (4x)

#7 (1x)                                    #8 (1x)

Sold Out!!                                #10 (2x)

Sold Out!!                              Sold Out!!

Sold Out!!                         Sold Out!!

#15 (7x)                                  #16 (11x)

#17 (5x)                                         #18 (1x)

#19 (8x)                                            #20 (2x)

#21 (11x)

Fundraising Focus

We're going to try something new!!!  Each Friday, I am going to focus on just ONE of our current fundraisers.  That way you don't have to read a short summary of everything we are doing every Friday and I can go into a little more depth on one specific fundraiser.  If you want more information, you can always leave a comment and ask :-).

Let's start with.....

Home-made Cards

We started this fundraiser back on September 24th.  Nathan's sister, Heidi, enlisted the help of several very creative and talented ladies to make a wide variety of home-made cards.  They made cards for birthdays, get well, wedding, sympathy, and general friendship cards {just to name a few}.  Heidi collected all these cards and we put them into 4-card packets.  We made All-Occasion packets as well as Birthday packets.

We are asking for a $10 donation for each card packet (breaks down to $2.50 per card), and if you are interested in buying some very cute home-made cards AND helping with our adoption expenses, simply send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} and let me know how many and which kind of card packets you would like to purchase.  OR you can pay via our PayPal "donate" button and simply leave a note with the same information there.  We are willing and able to ship these cards anywhere within the continental US.

CHRISTMAS IDEA: Maybe you still need a Christmas present for a co-worker, babysitter, beautician, teacher, etc.  This would be a great idea for a creative gift without costing you a fortune.  Just a thought :-).

Fund-Raising Friday

Christmas Ornaments ~ Please click here to see pictures of these adorable cross-stitched Christmas ornaments.  My mom is making these personalized ornaments for us to sell.  We are asking for $10 each and many of them can be personalized with names or dates.  Just send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} with your order and we will get them to you ASAP.  They would make great little Christmas presents for family and friends!!!

Tupperware ~ THIS HAS BEEN EXTENDED until Tuesday, November 23rd!!!!!!!!  If you were intending to order and time simply got away from you, the deadline has been extended!!!!  Simply click here to be taken to our Tupperware fund-raising page.  We will receive 50% profit from every sale!!!

Faith and Grace Quilts ~ My friend from college, Karen, is organizing this fund-raiser so please head on over to her blog, 27 Penguin Place, and read all about it.  She is having people sponsor a quilt block for $10 each and will be making each one of our children an adorable quilt!!!

Just Love Coffee ~ They have some new coffee flavors they just put on their site.  Including "Fa La La La La {Holiday Blend}" coffee.  This is another GREAT Christmas present idea for the coffee lover on your list.  Either click here or the button on our sidebar to be taken to our personalized coffee page.

Home-made Cards ~ Please e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing any of our packets of unique home-made cards.  We are asking for $10 per pkg of 4 cards.

Soda Cans ~ Keep them coming!!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ Would you be interested in sponsoring a puzzle piece for $10?

Donate Button ~ If you are interested in helping with our adoption expenses either via one of the listed fund-raisers OR simply making a donation, you may use the PayPal Donate button located on our right sidebar.  Or send us an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} for our mailing address.

CHRISTMAS SHOP HOP ~ One of the adoption blogs I have been following is doing this really cool thing for Christmas.  If you are interested in purchasing Christmas gifts that will not only make your friends and family members smile, but also help bring a child home to their new family, please go check out this link.  She has begun what she is calling a Christmas Shop Hop where adoptive families can post links to what they are selling as adoption fund-raisers.  I am posting my blog there, so please go check it out NOW :-).

Quilts & Christmas Ornaments

We have two new fund-raisers!!!

Faith and Grace Quilts ~ I have a good friend from my college days {we worked with the babies at a local daycare ~ good memories!!} who wants to help us bring our babies home!!!  She has planned out an adorable fund-raiser and tells all about it on her blog ~ "27 Penguin Place."  Please take a minute to go read the info.  Karen is going to orchestrate the entire thing {Thank You, Karen!!}, collect the money, send out thank you cards with pictures, and make our babies some warm and loving quilts.  I can't wait to wrap my babies in their special quilts and tell them all about the wonderful people who worked so hard to help us bring them home!!!  {My eyes are filling with tears as I type this!!!}

Christmas Ornaments ~ It's almost time to put up your Christmas trees and start decorating them.  Growing up, decorating the Christmas tree was a family tradition and I have wonderful memories of spending time with my family.  I can't wait until we have our children with us to decorate our family tree {maybe next Christmas????}.

My mom loves to cross-stitch and she does some amazing work.  She called me recently and asked if she could make some cross-stitched Christmas ornaments for us to sell as a fund-raiser.  Here are some examples of the types of ornaments she can make {many of them can be personalized to what you would like}.

#1                                  #2

#3                                     #4

                     #5                                   #6 {specify color}

#7                                #8

#9                                 #10

                   #11                              #12 {specify names}

#13                                  #14

                               #15                           #16 {no longer available}

If you are interested in purchasing one of these ornaments, please e-mail me {hearts1982@gmail.com} with the number {listed below the pictures} of the ornament(s) you would like.  My mom can add a name, date, "Baby's first Christmas," "First Christmas Together," etc. to most of the ornaments.  We are asking for a minimum donation of $10 per ornament.

Happy Tree Decorating!!!

Fund-Raising Friday

Tupperware ~ We have one more week {from tomorrow} for our Tupperware fun-raiser!!!  Would you please take a minute to look at the site here?  We get 50% of all sales!!! so even if you just purchase one item, it will add up quickly.  And, don't forget to think about the many Christmas presents you need to start buying.  Maybe someone on your list would like a nice new Tupperware _______ {you fill in the blank}!!!

Just Love Coffee ~ We are still looking for our first November customer.  This is another GREAT Christmas present idea for the people on your list who love coffee.  Please go here and check it out.  We get proceeds from any items sold from our page!!!

Home-made Cards ~ Would you like to help with our adoption AND get some adorable home-made Bday or All-Occasion cards????  Well, do I have something for you :-).  Each pkg has 4 unique cards for $10 each!!  E-mail me and let me know what you might be interested in {hearts1982@gmail.com}.

Soda Cans ~ We love soda cans!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ We would love to add some more pieces to our puzzle {hint, hint}!!!!

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ I want to thank Erin for all her hard work doing photo shoots and editing as a fund-raiser for us!!!  Seven people/families took her up on this offer, and I want to thank all of them to for their donations toward our adoption.  Erin will no longer be available for photo shoots, so this fund-raiser is officially closed.  Thanks everyone!!!!

Fund-Raising Friday

Just Love Coffee ~ One of my co-workers purchased some coffee from our site, and this is what he had to say about it.  "As a coffee Connoisseur, I'll give my WORD that this coffee is the MOST AWESOME jolt you'll have had in years!!!  Try it...You'll like it!!!!!!"  If you are interested in ordering, please click the photo/link on the right side of our blog.  We get $5 for every bag of coffee you order.

Home-made Cards ~ If you are interested {$10 per pkg of 4 cards} please send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or use our "donate" button {just make a note that it is for cards and which pkgs you are ordering}.

Soda Cans ~ Keep 'em coming!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ I was hoping to have an updated picture for you this week, but I guess it's going to have to wait for one more week.  If you are interested in helping us put our African puzzle together, please sponsor a puzzle piece for $10.  Thanks :-).

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ If you haven't had the chance yet, please go check out Erin's blog "Together for Good" and take a look at some of her beautiful photos.  Erin is still willing to set up a photo shoot with you {think Christmas cards!!!} in exchange for a donation of any size to our adoption fund.

Thermometer ~ We've reached and passed the half-way mark toward our dossier!!!!!!!!  Praise the Lord!!!

Garage Sale Blessings

Pam ~ Our sale was finished over a week ago, so it's about time that I share some of the many blessings God sent our way throughout the week leading up to our sale, the sale itself, and the days following.  This may be long.  But stick with me.  Please???

*People donated more things than we ever imagined.  We thought we would just have a "little fundraising garage sale."  By Wednesday of that week, we had our entire garage stuffed full and people were still contacting us to pick things up.

*We posted about our sale on our Christian radio station's website.  They {Life 107.1} announced our sale several times throughout the week.  Totally didn't expect that!!!

*I {Pam} was really stressed about preparing good signs to direct people to our sale.  On Wednesday, my associate teacher volunteered to stencil the signs for me, and the junior high class volunteered to paint the signs for us!!!  They ended up bigger and brighter than anything I would have done.

*We "accidentally" got the EXACT number of smaller pre-made garage sale signs and when Nathan "guessed" at the number of wooden stakes we would need {he added 1 extra} we had EXACTLY the number we needed.  {This saved us from having to run to WalMart at 9 o'clock on Thursday evening.  A BIG deal!!!}

*We went to post on Craigslist {at 8 p.m. on Thursday night} and someone had already posted our garage sale info at 9 that morning!!!  People had been seeing our sale all day!!!

*The ISU game was away {meant more people in town to come to our sale}

*The weather was perfect.

*LOTS of people stopped by our sale.  Many of them gave a little extra money and told us to "keep the change."

*A fellow adoptive mom stopped by and helped us by putting out many of the donations that we didn't have room for on Friday morning.  She gave of her own time to find places for the rest of the items.

*After our sale was over and done with, we had someone come by and give us another $20 as they took a few more items from our still stuffed garage.

*We were contacted by someone, after the sale was done, who ended up buying the pool table that had been donated and was taking up so much room in our garage.  {This was a HUGE blessing.  We didn't know WHAT we were going to do with that pool table!!!} 

*We thought that $300-$400 would be an amazing sale.  God showed us that He is even more amazing and incredible and He gave us $1051 from our garage sale!!!!!!

Fund-Raising Friday....on Saturday

Garage Sale ~ Yep.  We're going to do it.  And we're going to do it NEXT WEEKEND!!!  What have we gotten ourselves into???  We are asking for people to donate items for our garage sale and are going to start collecting them throughout this next week.  We're hoping to completely fill up our garage and then be able to sell EVERYTHING!!!  This has been and continues to be a little overwhelming, but we're hoping to raise a few hundred dollars for our adoption fund!!!  If you have done a garage sale in the past and have any nuggets of wisdom to pass along to us, we would LOVE to hear from you.  And, even better, if you live in central IA and know us personally, and would be willing/able to come help sort, label, set up, etc. this next Thursday and Friday, that would be FABULOUS!!!!  We are going to have our sale on Friday from 8-6 and on Saturday from 8-12 noon.  Would you be praying with us for good weather and for lots of things to sell??

Bake Sale ~ We are also going to be having a bake sale along with our garage sale {I think??}.  Hopefully I can get lots of volunteers to help bake cookies, pies, cakes, and breads!!!  Would any of you who are in central IA like to help????  Just let me know :-).

Home-made Cards ~ Would you like to help our adoption fund AND come away with some adorable home-made cards?  They are only $10 a packet {$2.50 a card} and contain 4 unique and creative cards.  You can choose between an All-Occasion packet or a Birthday packet.  Or go ahead and get one or more of each.  We all use many cards throughout the year, so why not stock up now?!?!  If you are interested, send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or pay via our "Donate" button located on the sidebar.  Just make a note that it is for cards and specify how many of each packet you would like.  We are willing/able to ship them anywhere in the US, so don't let distance stop you :-).

Soda Cans ~ Keep them coming!!!

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ Let's keep putting this puzzle together!!!  You can send me an e-mail {hearts1982@gmail.com} or pay via the "Donate" button.  Just make a note that it is for a puzzle piece.

"Together for Good" Photo Shoot ~ Erin is still scheduling photo shoots to help with our adoption funds.  She has had a couple of her shoots already {check them out at Together for Good} and has a few more scheduled.  If you live in central Iowa and would like to get some GREAT photos AND help with our adoption costs, please contact Erin here.  HINT, HINT ~ Think Christmas cards!!!

Would you be willing to help us out by passing along our fund-raising information to your family and friends?  The more people know about our fund-raisers, the more successful they will be.  And the more successful they are, the sooner we will have the money saved to submit our dossier {current goal}, to accept our referral, and travel costs for court and to bring them home.  Thank you for all your prayers!!!!

Fund-Raising Friday + A WINNER!!!!

Home-made Cards ~ We have sold 16 packets of our cards over this past week!!!  Praise the Lord!!!  It has been so encouraging to us to see so many people interested in this fund-raiser.  We still have 64 packets left, so there are plenty more for YOU!!!  Each packet contains 4 different and uniquely made cards, and we are asking for a $10 minimum donation per packet.  Just let us know how many All-Occasion or Birthday packets you want.  We are willing to mail these cards anywhere in the US.  You may pay via our "Donate" button, or e-mail me {hearts1982@gmail.com} to arrange payment via cash or check.

Soda Cans ~ This fund-raiser took an interesting turn this week :-).  A friend contacted us and asked if he could pay us 10 cents per soda can, up to 200 cans!!!  He needs soda cans for a project he is working on, and he figured he could get his cans quickly AND help our adoption fund at the same time :-).  We currently had almost 200 soda cans in the car, so we ran them over to him and let him take them off our hands.  What a GREAT idea!!!  Does anyone else need soda cans from us???

Sponsor a Puzzle Piece ~ We now have 98 puzzle pieces sponsored!!!  That's almost 1/5th of our puzzle!!!  This picture was taken last Sunday, and does not include the most recent 6 pieces sponsored.  But you can see that the edge is finished and we have begun filling in the middle!!!  Thank you to everyone who has had a part in putting this puzzle together!!!  If you are interested in sponsoring a puzzle piece for $10, you may pay via our "Donate" button {just make a note that it is for our puzzle} or e-mail me {hearts1982@gmail.com}.

Together for Good Photo Shoot ~ Erin has her first TWO photo shoots scheduled for tomorrow!!!  We're so excited to see this fund-raiser up and running.  If you are interested in a photo shoot with Erin, along with a CD of all the pictures she takes and edits, in exchange for a monetary gift of ANY SIZE to our adoption fund, please contact Erin at Together for Good.

Thermometer ~ Our thermometer rose higher this week!!!  We are now at 23% of our total dossier goal!!!  Praise the Lord for His great and wonderful provision!!!

GIVEAWAY ~ Thank you to everyone who participate in our giveaway this past week.

 

And the winner is........

**Kristi**

Congratulations!!!  We will be giving these 10 beautiful home-made Christmas gift tags to you.  Thanks for all your prayer and support of our adoption!!!

Card Fund-Raiser

Just a quick reminder to everyone about our homemade cards fund-raiser.  We are willing and able to mail cards anywhere in the US, so you don't have to be local to participate.  You can use our "Donate" button located in the sidebar, or mail us a check {$10 per packet ~ which includes 4 unique cards}.  Thirteen packets of cards have been sold, so we have 67 left!!!  Let's sell them all quickly!!!

And don't forget our GIVEAWAY!!!  It ends this Thursday night at 9 p.m. {that's TOMORROW!!!}  We are giving away 10 beautiful Christmas gift tags.  All you have to do to enter is ~ 1) Become a follower of our blog, 2) Post our blog on your Facebook page {the more people who visit our blog, the more people will hear about our cards}, or 3) include a link to our blog on your blog.  You get one entry for each day and place you post.  Just leave a comment here letting us know what you have done.  Only one person has entered, so your chances are REALLY GOOD!!!

Donate Button

We have added the "Donate" button to our sidebar, just above our current fund-raising goal thermometer!!!  Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback.   

Please note that our preference is for people to donate via a check.  However, the "Donate" button will be much more convenient for many people.  Please take advantage of this new button if it would be a help to you.

Your Input

We are considering the possibility of adding a PayPal "donate" button to our blog.  This would enable our friends, family members, and blog readers to participate in our fund-raising efforts without having to contact us via e-mail to arrange payment.  If a person wanted to sponsor a puzzle piece, they would be able to simply click on the "donate" button, pay via PayPal and leave a note letting us know the payment was for a puzzle piece.  The same would be true for a new fund-raiser we will be posting about on Friday.

Advantages

     1) Less hassle in sending a check by mail

     2) Immediate payment

     3) Easier method for those friends we don't see in person often

Disadvantages

     1) PayPal charges a percentage of the money that comes in

     2) Some people are hesitant to pay on-line

Do you have any thoughts?  More advantages or disadvantages for us to list.  PLEASE leave us a comment letting us know your thoughts.  We want everyone's opinion!!!!