Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Success!

My weekend was so exhausting I have been too tired to even blog about it!

We had our big garage sale/bake sale/raffle adoption fundraiser over the weekend. It was a lot of work, but absolutely worth it.

Going into this fundraiser, there was an amount that I secretly hoped we would reach, but never really thought we would. Let's just say we exceeded that amount...on the first day!! The fundraiser was a huge success.

As amazing as the financial success was, the love and support we received blew me away.

Some people came that I have not seen since high school. They knew about it from facebook and made the effort to come and support us.

There were families that saw our ad in the newspaper so they knew it was an adoption fundraiser and took the time to come and share their own adoption stories. I met one woman who has eleven children, five of them adopted. A birth mother in an open adoption also came. I met so many amazing people.

There were even families from our own adoption agency who came. Someone who waited two years and two months with our agency gave me a pep talk that was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. Another woman who adopted from our agency three times came with her five year old daughter. She told her daughter that I have been waiting two years and she said, "Her baby must be very special." We all had tears in our eyes after hearing that.

Overall it was one of the best weekends of my life.

Yes, we received much needed money for our homestudy renewal, but it was so much more than that.

I have a list a mile long of thank you cards to write. People who baked things to sell, people who donated items to sell in the garage sale, people who donated money and bought raffle tickets, people who bought items to be raffled off, people who bought newspaper ads for us...the list goes on and on.

Then there are the core people who we literally could not have done this without. The people who did the physical work and put in the long hours. My family was awesome- my Mom, my Dad, my sister and brother in law (who drove all the way home from Boston to help.) Then there was @melachrino and @creepygroovy who worked so incredibly hard and spent a crazy number of hours there. I am forever grateful for their help. I absolutely do not know what I would have done without them.

A special thank you goes to @nicoleella10 who has been my friend for twenty years and played a major role in making our fundraiser as big as it was. She is the one who came up with the raffle idea and donated a zoo membership to raffle off. Her father baked cakes, her mother put information about our fundraiser in their church bulletin, which led to other donations. Nicole and her family made this bigger than just your average garage sale adoption fundraiser.

Adam and I are both so grateful for everything.

We have an amazing story to tell our baby someday.

19 comments:

  1. Yay! So glad for you! I have a feeling things are going to start going in the right direction for you now!

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  2. Amazing, you deserve it! It is wonderful to hear that you were so supported. In a time in the world when there are so many terrible things happening it is fabulous to hear that people can be so caring!

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  3. Good on ya! Now let's just hope you can do the same when you have to pay for college!

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  4. Glad to hear the Fundraiser was a success!

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  5. Wow, what a great weekend! I'm so glad you got the support you needed. What a great feeling.

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  6. I don't know if it's the hormones or what, but this post made me cry. I'm so happy you met and exceeding your fundraising goal and that so many people stepped up to the plate to help you. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that you got the support and love that you both need and deserve. Congratulations, Lisa!

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  7. aww I'm so happy to hear it was such a sucess!!! Congratulations, things like this always help to remind us how many people in your life care...

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  8. Wow - this is incredible. I'm so happy for you!!!

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  9. awesome...congratulations sweetie, it sounds like a perfect weekend :)

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  10. Just amazing! I'm so proud of you for doing this, and reaching your goal, and accepting all the love and support from everyone in your life. It's SO heart warming to hear you write about this. Keep that feeling with you, babe. You guys are going to make it through this!!

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  11. aww - I love the enthusiasm in this post and I am so happy it was beyond successful.

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  12. I am just so happy for you!! Congrats on the big fundraiser success!

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  13. I'm so glad the fundraiser was a huge success!

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  14. So glad the fundraiser was such a success! It's amazing how people come together like that! :)

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  15. It is so wonderful to read such a wonderful post. I can feel the love and support that you must have felt. It oozed right out of the computer screen. It is so reassuring to know that that you are getting some of the goodness that you need to refill your soul.

    I think too that you have given so much to the people who participated and donated. This is not just about you and your family, this is about all of the people who came out to share their own stories and express their own love of you and your family.

    May the positive energy of this weekend continue to surround you. lots of love!

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  16. I'm so glad the raffle went well!

    "We have an amazing story to tell our baby someday. " -- Yes, you do! I can't stop smiling and thinking of your story. :-)

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  17. Yay! I was just thinking about you as I've been out of town for quite some time now. Such great news on the fundraising!

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