Our Yard Sale Success!!

You guys...God provided for us in a huge way...we raised $2900 this past weekend on our yard sale and bake sale!! Amazing!!! We are so, so grateful!! We could not have done any of it without our amazing volunteers who worked their butts off, friends who donated items, and friends who loaned us tables and canopies!!! It was SO MUCH work, but wonderful to know it was all worth it! We felt very loved and encouraged that so many could help us bring our baby home.

Speaking of our friends who donated items...we FILLED a 26 foot U-Haul with donations from over 15 families!! Thank goodness we had just enough tables!! We sold about 2/3 of the donations, even though it started storming around 2pm on Saturday. The canopies seriously came in handy! They gave us time to get the donations inside so they weren't ruined. Friday was our biggest day, but we still made about $800 on Saturday! We made another $100 on Sunday selling leftover baked goods items at church...wonderful idea and so sweet of our friends to coordinate! We were too exhausted to go anywhere Sunday except to return the U-Haul, haha! Speaking of which...a kind soul paid for half of our truck rental!! We really felt God's presence and love throughout the whole weekend! We are truly blessed :)

We decided not to do another sale since we don't have space to store leftover donations until Spring, so we decided to donate the leftovers. We decided to split them between Salvation Army (household items and furniture), Pregnancy Resources - a local nonprofit that provides resources to people who decide to parent but can't afford it (kids clothes, toys, and baby items), and Closet 2 Closet - a local non-profit who provides clothes for teenage foster kids (adult clothes and bags). We will keep receipts for our tax return of course. :) We also held back several high value items to sell online for the adoption fund, so we will likely have even more sales coming! Will keep ya'll posted on the grand total!

What's next: 1) finish itemizing receipts and running donations to charities 2) sell leftover donations online 3) get our house decluttered and cleaned up 4) start our home study (which we can afford now, YAY!!!)  5) start our next fundraiser to raise the rest of our $5000 goal so we can hire our Christian Adoption Consultant, apply for grants, and start applying for birth mom situations!

We talked to a lady at our sale who works at the Davenport Knights of Columbus, and she gave us a great idea: host a trivia night fundraiser! She thinks we could get a discount on the space, so we're going to look into that next! That would be so much fun and hopefully less work for our friends and family. :) Check out all these donations we had!! It was wonderful how kind and generous most people were. It was exhausting, but at the end of the weekend, our hearts were overflowing.

  

 

Yard Sale Week!!

Get excited!! It's yard sale week!! I have been busy picking up donations, sorting donations into Boxes by category, deciding on my plan for pricing items, ordering balloons, buying supplies and making signs. I feel like I should post a blog after all this busyness dies down to share what all I've learned. It's all coming together nicely! I really could not have done this without the help of some really amazing friends and God's grace. We are so so blessed!! Hope to see some of you Thursday night to help set up or at the sale Friday and Saturday!

Our front porch turned out to be a good space for sorting donations while it's raining!

Look at all those donations!

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs 😁👍

And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. Lots of sign making to do tonight and tomorrow! 

New Location and Times for the Garage/Yard Sale!!

We have a new location and times for our Garage/Yard Sale!! Dates are the same. We moved it to our church parking lot to give us more space for all the donations!! Also planning to start Friday a little later so we have time to set it all up. I am SO excited about this 😀💗

Garage Sale is coming along!!

Happy Sunday! Just thought I'd give everyone an update on our garage sale progress. My friend Karin, my sister Jen, and my niece Tricia took advantage of the gorgeous weather yesterday and came over to help organize donations by boxing up like items for a couple of hours and we got a lot done! Yayyy!!! But still have a lot to do! We have donations from 10 families and have a whole month to collect more!! This is gonna be a sale you DON'T want to miss!!

Items collected so far:

• Men, women, and children's clothes and coats
• Kitchen appliances
• Bags, purses, and wallets
• Halloween costumes
• Christmas decorations 
• Baby items
• Household items: organizers, foot/back massages, wine glasses, serving dishes
• Health & beauty: lotions, curling irons, mirrors
• Home decor: pictures, lamps, baskets, candles
• Lots of books for kids and grownups
• Pet cages/carriers
• Craft supplies: ribbons, jars, fabric
• Furniture: book shelves, chairs
• Kids toys, puzzles, and games 

Baked goods planned: 

• Caramel Pecan chocolate chips cookies and Chocolate cake
• Caramels and pies
• Pumpkin muffins, Apple streusel muffins, blueberry muffins, banana bread muffins
• Cocoa Puffs cookies, peanut butter cookies, call Mama peanut blossom cookies, pumpkin dark chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies

Update on Fundraising

Progress!! We are making progress, folks! There's a saying "you wanna hear God laugh, tell him all about your plans." So true. However, I (Andrea) prefer to think of it this way: that God has better plans than I could ever come up with and he smiles as things fall into place perfectly, knowing it's working out for everyone's good, and not just my own. God is good, ya'll.

Our fundraising plans have changed a little bit. Rather than having 2 separate sales for handmade items and a garage sale, we decided to combine them into one big sale! We're feeling much more peace about this, so it must be God's plan. :) Here's an update on that:

1. So far, we have received garage sale donations from 7 families, including ours! Several others have contacted us with stuff to donate at some point as well. Yay!! We need as many donations for the sale as possible to reach our first goal of $5,000! We're already sorting and pricing stuff as we receive it, but could use some help with this. Also, if you are crafty and have handmade items you would like to donate for the sale, please let me (Andrea) know!
2. We already have several friends and family who have volunteered to help us with the sale! We are truly humbled and grateful, you guys. It feels amazing to know that people care about and are supporting our mission: giving a baby a loving home and family. This kid is going to be SO LOVED by SO MANY!!!
3. We have decided on a location, date, and times for our garage sale! See the below graphic for details. Save the date!! We would love to have as many of our friends and family help out with this as possible. Contact me (Andrea) if you can help with donations, shopping at the sale, etc. Please feel free to share this graphic on your social media pages!! :)

Update on Scott's Famous Ribs: we found out that we would need a license to sell his ribs, which requires more of a financial investment than we feel like is responsible right now. What we would like to do is host a dinner somewhere, probably at our home, serve his ribs and other sides, have silent auctions and raffles, and sell tickets to attend. Several of you have asked about buying his ribs, so stay tuned for more details. We need to figure out a location, date, recruit helpers, etc. We are SO EXCITED about this idea, and have done a ton of research, so this is coming soon, hopefully in October or November before the holiday season!

Baby steps...

We have our first garage sale donations! Yay!!! So grateful!! I'm gonna be honest here... I'm also overwhelmed (Andrea here). There are SOOO many decisions and details to manage, and life gets busy! 

I have been trying to plan our handmade items sale and garage sale, but I'm stuck in the Port of indecision. I still need to schedule and plan these events, but I'm still mulling over details and getting organized (I'm sooo Type A). 

So when my sweet friend Kathryn, who is moving very soon, said she has a truck load of donations for our garage sale, I was a bit hesitant. Where would I put it? Should I plan the garage sale before the handmade items sale? Should I wait to accept donations? 

Then I came to my senses and realized I have a garage for storing donations! I can park in the driveway for a while. Totally worth it!! 😀 I need to take what I can get! It was so sweet of her to think of me and want to help us. Maybe it'll get me out of my indecisive funk. So, I picked up my first load tonight, and then had a moment of panic... Where in my garage is this going to go? Should I put it somewhere else? It has to be tonight, or the items will get wet sitting in his truck (no pressure). 

I decided I needed to chill out, so I sat on my porch swing, took a few breaths, and prayed, and I heard God tell me "it's all OK. Just take the next baby step...just do something. I don't want you to worry, you can always move the stuff later if you need to. You'll figure it all out later." Then, I got up, moved my car, and unloaded the truck in the garage. I did it!! I took the next baby step. A step in the right direction! And I'm ready for more donations!! 

I'm sharing this so you all can learn from my experience... when you feel overwhelmed or anxious about something, you can always pray and be comforted. Just take the next baby step and you'll get there. 😊

Adoption Fundraising

Hey everyone!! In our previous posts, we talked about why we're so excited about adopting and gave you some details on our adoption plans and costs. We also shared our goal of raising $5,000 by January 1, 2020 to pay for the home study and the Christian adoption consultant. This post is about how we plan to partner with friends and family to raise funds and include ya'll in our journey to bring our baby home!!

We did an analysis of our expenses from the last 6 months and will continue monitoring our budget to cut back as much of our non-essential expenses as possible. We will also use our God-given talents to make extra money and will apply for several grants, but we need some help (and prayers!) for the rest. We would be ever so grateful for your support!!! We will keep you posted on our progress. 😊

We've done a ton of research on adoption fundraising. There are hundreds of great ideas out there!! We've read several blogs from couples who adopted and have been able to raise thousands of dollars with these ideas! It is amazing that so many people are so supportive of couples hoping to adopt!! We wish more people knew about all the resources available and considered adoption as a possibility!

Here are our plans for fundraising (100% of proceeds go directly to our adoption fund):

1. Sell Andrea's Handmade items. Andrea has made several beaded necklaces, bracelets, earrings, decorative picture frames, decorative wood signs, essential oil diffuser bracelets, and essential oil diffuser rearview mirror hangers. She is planning to sell these items on Etsy and Facebook, and is planning a handmade items sale along with other friends who make delicious baked goods and unique hand-made crafts to raise funds for our adoption. Coming soon! Stay tuned for more details!
• Note: the funds received WILL count towards the adoption tax credits!
2. Take orders for Scott's Famous Ribs. Scott's smoked ribs are famous among our friends and family! Scott is currently planning his approach to making and selling his Smoked Ribs and other BBQ meats and will be taking orders to raise funds for our adoption soon. Stay tuned for more details!
• Note: the funds received WILL count towards the adoption tax credits!
3. Donated Items Garage Sale. We will gladly accept (and pick up!) donations of garage sale items from friends and family to sell at a large garage sale, either at our house, a friend's house, or at our church. We will also go through our home and donate as much as possible to the sale. We will need volunteers to help us with preparations and at the sale, so if you can't contribute monetarily, you can donate your time! We're still working out the details, so stay tuned!
• Note: any proceeds on donated items will NOT count towards the adoption tax credits, but WILL help us pay for adoption costs!
4. T-shirt Fundraiser.  https://www.bonfire.com/ will work with us to create a custom design for t-shirts related to adoption, like "Love Makes a Family" for example. We will then send out the link to friends and family so they can place their order online, and Bonfire will ship the t-shirts directly to the customers. The difference between cost and price paid will be paid to us and go directly to our adoption fund. This is an affordable way for folks to contribute and get a cool t-shirt! As a bonus, it could be a conversation starter to spread awareness about adoption! We will start this fundraiser after our home study is completed. Stay tuned for status updates!
• Note: any proceeds we receive will NOT count towards the adoption tax credits, but WILL help us pay for adoption costs!
5. AdoptTogether.org. This non-profit organization is like GoFundMe, but WAY better because it's only for adoptions and they verify that the donations to our adoption fund are used (by us) for valid adoption expenses. This is an IRS approved 501c3 organization, so donations are tax deductible on donors' tax returns if they itemize deductions. Also, if a donor's employer does charitable donation matching, they could double their donation to our adoption fund! AdoptTogether also has matching grants that they give to some people! Donating to this fund is a good way for friends and family that live out of town to contribute, or people who maybe aren't interested in purchasing handmade items, t-shirts, or BBQ or don't have time to volunteer at the garage sale. Every little bit helps bring our little one home and we are sincerely grateful for anything people can donate!!! We will start this fundraiser after our home study is completed. Stay tuned for status updates!
• Check out their page for more details:  https://adopttogether.org/about/ and https://adopttogether.org/faq/
• Note: any proceeds we receive will NOT count towards the adoption tax credits, but WILL help us pay for adoption costs!

Another important way you can support us is to cover our family and our future birth mom (and family) in prayer. We want to make sure that God is glorified through our journey and that He is guiding our steps and providing a way to bring our baby home. We also hope that others would be inspired to adopt children! The birth mother (and possibly father) of our future child is facing a difficult situation, so we need to pray that they would be surrounded with peace in knowing that God will take care of them and this precious baby, and give them healing all throughout the adoption process. Also, please cover all birth families and adoptive families in prayer, as they step forward in faith believing that the Lord is good and that babies' lives are precious.