This is BIGGER Than 'Us'

I honestly don't even know where to begin.  This has been the most amazing, humbling, eye-opening, exhausting, miraculous month!  I can't wait to tell you about it.  

Three things stand out to me about this month of fundraising fury:


(1) God WILL see His plans through.  He is *faithful*.  In fact, He "...is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think..." -Ephesians 3:20.  And that He did.  (*You'll see!)


(2) People are generous beyond belief.  People are good.  People are selfless.  People see outside of themselves, their families, their lives.  People have good intentions.  People act on those intentions.  People pray for others.  People are encouraging.  People are thoughtful and kind.  People help their friends.  People make sacrifices so that they can give to others.  People care about orphans around the world & want to have a hand in helping to give them a home and a family.


(3) This is bigger than us.


To sit back (okay, so we didn't really do much 'sitting,' but still..) and watch this month unfold has been life-changing.  I find myself shaking my head often in disbelief of what has happened.  Of what is happening.  

Please be patient w/ me as I try to explain all the goodness of this month.  I tend to be a stream of consciousness type writer, so no guarantees that I won't be jumping all over the place here!

One of the reasons I want to do this blog is because you guys deserve it.  
You deserve to know what your generosity has done.  

So, here's our month of April, friends:

As you probably know, the cost to adopt the sibling pair from Honduras will cost over an estimated $35,000.  I've had several people who have adopted tell me to plan for more than that.  That there will be unforeseen costs.  After a month like this, I have no doubt that God will provide whatever we need.  Whatever that number ends up being.  

We made our decision to adopt 'public' at the very end of January.  So, in the months of February & March together, we raised $2,545!  Awesome, right?

We've already paid some fees & costs, leaving around $1,000 left over from the first of the year.  We needed much more. Fast.  Upcoming costs include $3,500 once our App #2 gets finished & approved.  (*Yes, we're STILL working on it! Ugh.)  Then another $900 to finish our Home Study.  Once the Home Study is submitted & complete, we'll owe another $3,500.  So, yes we're at almost $8,000 right there, not counting costs of copies, processing, stamps, shipping, Cuban Daddy's new passport, etc.  Then, after that, we have to complete something called a Dossier.  I'm not sure what this will cost us, but I'm planning on around $2,000.  We'll see as we get closer.  Only after our Dossier is submitted & approved, can it be mailed to Honduras to be approved.  And only then can we be put on that much-anticipated, desperately-desired WAITING LIST.  And...that's when the 2-4 year wait clock starts.  Gosh, that seems so long.  :(   So, all that being said, it is looking like we'll need around $10,000 minimum to get us to the waiting list.  $10,000?!  And we're hoping to be on the waiting list by this fall.  So, that means we need $10,000+ in a just a few months?  I don't know about you guys, but for us to do that alone would be impossible.  Overwhelming to think about.  Lord, how is this going to happen?  

And then the offer occurred.  In March, a couple approached us and offered to MATCH whatever we could raise in one calender month.  And...we got to pick the month.  Unbelievable, right???  Well, as you can see, we jumped on that one!  We put a lot of thought into it, and realized that April was the month it needed to happen.  And, so, our fundraising frenzy began. We planned out everything we thought we could do to raise as many of the needed funds as possible in the shortest amount of time.  


This is what we came up with:
* Continuing "Sippys 4 Siblings" (where you fill a sippy cup with your spare change)
* Designing & selling our "ADOPT Words With Him" T-shirts (See our "God Plays Words With Friends" post)
* Otter's Fundraising Night
* Yard Sale


As I'm posting this, I'm realizing that if I were a little more organized, I'd be able to tell you how much was raised at each event, but I don't know the Sippys or T-shirt totals.  That's gonna bother me.  I'm going to have to figure that one out...
I do have every donation of every kind documented with who, how much, method, and date.  We wanted to make sure we kept an accurate account, especially in this month!


Okay, so onto the good stuff.


Yard Sale Weekend- Some Highlights:  
Well, as you know, the sale was Friday & Saturday, held at my very generous Aunt & Uncle's house.  Cuban Daddy & I (and G & K) set up super early.  Not a problem considering the babies wake around 6:00 am, bouncing & ready to go each morning.  They had their breakfast in their wagon.  They loved it & we didn't have to worry about them wondering off while we were moving things out of the garage...good idea!  So, after CD headed to work, dropping the kiddos at another generous Aunt & Uncle's house (aren't we blessed?), my mom showed up and helped me the whole day! I gladly put her in charge...especially of pricing.  Things like this are NOT my cup of tea.  She thrives in situations like that, so it was perfect. She was the hugest help all weekend!!  
Anyways, so right away she and I realized that we couldn't find/didn't have the huge bag of plastic grocery bags we had been saving for the sale (to give to people to put their purchases in).  We frantically scrounged around and found about 5 bags.  Oh well, what to do at that point, right?  I was kind of worried though.  Friday's turn out blew us away.  We had NO idea what we were in for that day.  We were bombarded with tons of people with no break until lunchtime, where we had a small break, and then it was busy the rest of the day!  As people needed bags, we kept giving them out.  And we kept having more.  And we gave out bags for people's items all day long.  Huh?  As the day progressed, I noticed that it was strange we weren't running out of bags.  By the end of the day, we had about 10 plastic grocery bags left over.  Miracle #1.  That day we raised $800.  On the dot.  Miracle #2!  We lugged everything back into the garage to store for the night.  Saturday, the sale started at 8 am, and we were running pretty late getting it all set up.  CD headed over first, as the kids and I were a little slower to get out the door.  I load them up and we head out, knowing we're so late, look at the gas gauge to see that the line is seriously about 1/2 inch BELOW the E.
Oh my gosh.  I'm thinking, we're going to run out of gas, CD's going to have to come help us, and what's going to happen to the sale?  Only once did the car sputter.  We made it to the gas station!  Miracle #3.  This sale was meant to be successful.  That day, my mom helped me all day again (headache & all), and my little brother & new sis-in-law came over & were a huge help...and lots of fun!  My aunt & uncle (whose house we were at) helped a lot too!  My parents took turns helping at the sale and helping with G & K.  That day we raised $277.
As the day was winding down & I was reflecting on the weekend, the sale, and all that had occurred, it hit me.  There were "ADOPT" T-shirt clad people buzzing all around that yard, smiling, laughing, lifting, boxing, bagging, cleaning up, loading cars.  Tired? Yes.  Hot? For sure.  Generous?  Absolutely.  It hit me hard that they were here donating their time, their energy, their day when they could be doing whatever they wanted, to us.  But not really to us.  Because, in these moments, it also hit me that they were doing this all for the orphans they don't know.  They are busting their tales- with an amazingly positive attitude- to bring those babies home.  This is more than us. This is for them.  Cuban Daddy & I soaked it in and talked about how we wanted to make sure to get it all in pictures so that one day our babies would look back and see all that was done for them. Everyone who already loved them so much.  Everyone that was so excited to meet them.  This family, this community, that wanted them, loved them, and was willing to do what it takes to give them this life.  


Other Yard Sale notes:
- Several people came (shopping) that knew someone-usually related- who had or is adopting. Some of them had adopted themselves.  In fact, one brave14 year old girl who came shopping alone told us her own adoption story.  
- Some donated a $1, $5, etc. just for the adoption.
- Saturday, I went over 12 hours without going to the bathroom.   TMI?
- After the sale Saturday, we were asked to stop by my cousin's house.  You won't believe this.  This weekend, during the same time as our sale, my cousins & great aunt held their own Yard Sale...Benefiting OUR ADOPTION!  They gave us the $160 they earned (which of course doubles to $320!!!).  Not only that, but we loaded up the back of our SUV with stuff to store until our next Yard Sale!  We know the time, energy, and hard work that goes into putting a yard sale together.  And they did it not for them, but for our babies.  WOW.

The Yard Sale

2 Days

12 Hour Sale

7 Donors of 'Yard Sale' items

10 Volunteers to 'work' the sale

Countless Hours of Prep & Clean Up

$800 Raised Friday

$277 Raised Saturday

$1,077 Total Raised at the Yard Sale

x 2 (Matched)

= $2,154 Actually Raised at the Sale!

1 Step Closer

Now it's time for what I think you're all probably most interested in:

The Month of April

30 Days

50 Families/Individuals That Donated $

2 Generous People to Match All Donations

Countless Facebook Posts & Emails Bugging You to Death 

(so sorry about that!)

42 T-Shirts Sold

13 Sippy Cups Filled & Returned

$5,844 Raised this Month

x 2 (Matched)

= $11,688 Raised in April!!!

1 Step Closer

~~~Bringing our total raised for the year to: $14,233!~~~

I am still having to tell this to myself over and over again: 

This amount of money should get us all the way to the Waiting List!!!!!!!!!!
Not having to fund raise for a while is really going to free up time to focus on getting the paperwork done as quickly as possible.  I am SO looking forward to that!

* I don't really know what to say after that.  

I was sitting alone in the car outside the bank this morning.  I was adding up huge piles of cash & several checks to fill out the deposit slip- um, with the door locked, ha.  I kept laughing out loud & shaking my head.  I probably looked crazy.  I just couldn't help it.  

We were blessed this month way beyond what we could have ever imagined.  Blessed financially, yes.  But, also blessed in friendship.  In family.  Blessed with the knowledge that people care enough to do what their hearts (& in many cases, the Lord) tells them to do.  Blessed that our community has rallied together to bring us one step closer to our babies.  Blessed that we realize this is not about us.  This is much bigger than us.  This is for them.

With grateful hearts, 

~ 6 in Love ~

* I was eager to tell you about this, so I didn't have time for pictures.  I'll post them later!