I have been meaning to thank Christa from Fearlessly Infertile for her post about our garage sale fundraiser. Thank you, Christa!
Both Christa and Katie from from IF to when have encouraged me to extend our raffle to online. Since the raffle drawing will not be until August 21st, I decided to go ahead and do it.
The prizes are:
$25 toysRus Gift Card
A membership to the Seneca Park Zoo
A gift basket from Bath & Body Works
(Everything in it is warm vanilla sugar scented.)
One night stay at Comfort Inn West on Ridge Road in Rochester, NY
(Breakfast the next morning is included.)
Mary Kay Gift Basket
$20 Gift Card for AMC theaters
The raffle tickets are $2 each, 3 for $5.
If you are interested, you can pay using the chip in on the side of my blog, then just let me know which raffle(s) you would like to put your ticket(s) in. You can let me know in this comment section, send me a direct message on twitter, or leave me a note in the comment section that you would like me to e-mail you.
Thank you!! :)
Showing posts with label adoption fundraiser. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption fundraiser. Show all posts
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Survived
Just a very quick post to let you all know I survived today. It sucked, but it's over. We are officially done with all our homestudy renewal paperwork. We just need to wait until next week to be sure all our paperwork is approved, then we make our appointment with the social worker so she can come meet with us at our house again.
Thank you so much for all your love and support.
I spent all night at my parents' house getting ready for our big fundraiser this weekend!! My sister got in from Boston around 7. I love it when my sister is home. She has already been a huge help with everything.
I can't wait to tell you all about our fundraiser when it's over!
In the meantime, go check out this post from my friend Katie. I love it. (And I love her.)
I hope you all have a great weekend!!
Thank you so much for all your love and support.
I spent all night at my parents' house getting ready for our big fundraiser this weekend!! My sister got in from Boston around 7. I love it when my sister is home. She has already been a huge help with everything.
I can't wait to tell you all about our fundraiser when it's over!
In the meantime, go check out this post from my friend Katie. I love it. (And I love her.)
I hope you all have a great weekend!!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Progress: Garage Sale Preparation, Homestudy Paperwork, & Adoption Profile
This past weekend was intense. Both physically and emotionally.
We picked up many donations for our garage sale fundraiser, which often involved moving furniture or carrying heavy boxes. Thankfully one friend offered to help us move things with her truck Friday night and another friend helped us move things with her truck Saturday afternoon. Adam and I have small cars so that was a huge help.
I spent a lot of time putting prices on baby clothes on Saturday. I kept trying to stay positive and not let it bother me, but it definitely contributed to a lot of feelings coming up.
In general the garage sale has brought up a lot of feelings. There has been a lot of adoption and babies talk. My mom has talked a lot about being a grandma. Preparing for the sale has been an immense amount of work and I think everyone wants to keep reminding themselves why they are working so hard. Kind of "keeping their eye on the prize."
Saturday night I had a complete breakdown and cried for an hour. I didn't even really know why I was crying. I think it was just a build up of a lot of emotions.
The amount of donations from people has been amazing. My parents' garage is completely full and so are many rooms of their house. There are donations everywhere. My poor Mom. She finally gets things cleaned, priced and organized and then another car load of stuff comes over. She is working from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to sleep. I feel so guilty. She is working harder than anyone should have to work in order to become a grandma.
The fact that so many people care and are willing to help is overwhelming. Friday night I was in the driveway at my parents' house looking at all the donations and I tweeted: "Dear Baby, So many people love you already." Just sending that message to twitter gave me tears in my eyes. The feeling is so intense. I have always been uncomfortable with people doing things for me and this past week it's been nonstop. I have had to force myself to just relax and accept everyone's help. I don't know how I will ever be able to thank everyone for their generousity.
On top of garage sale preparation I was also working on our adoption profile changes. That comes with it's own set of emotions. I want so badly for this version of our book to be the one that gets us chosen to be parents. I really think we did a good job. I woke up early this morning to finish putting the books together so Adam can mail them on his lunch break today. I also finished all our renewal paperwork to send along with the books. The only thing left now is my physical. *gulp*
We picked up many donations for our garage sale fundraiser, which often involved moving furniture or carrying heavy boxes. Thankfully one friend offered to help us move things with her truck Friday night and another friend helped us move things with her truck Saturday afternoon. Adam and I have small cars so that was a huge help.
I spent a lot of time putting prices on baby clothes on Saturday. I kept trying to stay positive and not let it bother me, but it definitely contributed to a lot of feelings coming up.
In general the garage sale has brought up a lot of feelings. There has been a lot of adoption and babies talk. My mom has talked a lot about being a grandma. Preparing for the sale has been an immense amount of work and I think everyone wants to keep reminding themselves why they are working so hard. Kind of "keeping their eye on the prize."
Saturday night I had a complete breakdown and cried for an hour. I didn't even really know why I was crying. I think it was just a build up of a lot of emotions.
The amount of donations from people has been amazing. My parents' garage is completely full and so are many rooms of their house. There are donations everywhere. My poor Mom. She finally gets things cleaned, priced and organized and then another car load of stuff comes over. She is working from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to sleep. I feel so guilty. She is working harder than anyone should have to work in order to become a grandma.
The fact that so many people care and are willing to help is overwhelming. Friday night I was in the driveway at my parents' house looking at all the donations and I tweeted: "Dear Baby, So many people love you already." Just sending that message to twitter gave me tears in my eyes. The feeling is so intense. I have always been uncomfortable with people doing things for me and this past week it's been nonstop. I have had to force myself to just relax and accept everyone's help. I don't know how I will ever be able to thank everyone for their generousity.
On top of garage sale preparation I was also working on our adoption profile changes. That comes with it's own set of emotions. I want so badly for this version of our book to be the one that gets us chosen to be parents. I really think we did a good job. I woke up early this morning to finish putting the books together so Adam can mail them on his lunch break today. I also finished all our renewal paperwork to send along with the books. The only thing left now is my physical. *gulp*
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
ICLW and Homestudy Renewal Update
Welcome to my blog! My internet was not working this morning so I am posting this a little late. Pretty much everything you need to know about me is on the right hand side on my blog.
My husband and I are in the process of renewing our homestudy for the second time. I was in denial for a long time but finally broke down and mailed the check in. The paperwork came in the mail this week. Even though I was expecting it to come, it felt like a punch in the stomach to actually get the big envelope.
We're going to do whatever we have to do to keep moving forward. We are making changes to our profile in hopes that it will make a difference and something will happen for us soon. We are also having a big garage sale/bake sale fundraiser the weekend of August 7th and 8th to help with all the adoption costs. The price of everything has gone up since we started the process so we need all the help we can get. When we took out a loan two years ago, we never factored in all the extra costs that come with having a long wait.
This journey has not been easy, and I am feeling down that we have to renew again, but I keep telling myself it could be anyday now that all our dreams come true. We just have to keep moving forward and never give up.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Happy ICLW!!
My husband and I are in the process of renewing our homestudy for the second time. I was in denial for a long time but finally broke down and mailed the check in. The paperwork came in the mail this week. Even though I was expecting it to come, it felt like a punch in the stomach to actually get the big envelope.
We're going to do whatever we have to do to keep moving forward. We are making changes to our profile in hopes that it will make a difference and something will happen for us soon. We are also having a big garage sale/bake sale fundraiser the weekend of August 7th and 8th to help with all the adoption costs. The price of everything has gone up since we started the process so we need all the help we can get. When we took out a loan two years ago, we never factored in all the extra costs that come with having a long wait.
This journey has not been easy, and I am feeling down that we have to renew again, but I keep telling myself it could be anyday now that all our dreams come true. We just have to keep moving forward and never give up.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
Happy ICLW!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Adoption Fundraiser Sign Making Party
I am so thankful for all the generous donations that have been made for our adoption fundraiser. It's been a huge reminder of how lucky we really are.
Last night @melachrino, @creepygroovy, @kfelluca, and my Mom came over our house to work on signs. We had a great time doing it and I am excited about all the awesome signs that were made. I did some photoshop scribbling over the address so I could share pictures of some of the signs that were made.
We have had some incredible donations of things to raffle off. More information on that to come!
No, Lilly is not for sale, although after her big escape the other night, Adam would like to consider it.
HUGE thank you to @melachrino, @creepygroovy, @kfelluca, and my Mom for all their hard work last night. A special thank you to @melachrino for her donation of all the sign making supplies!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Help!! Please :)
I am feeling very overwhelmed this week. On top of working eleven hours a day, we are trying to put together an adoption fundraiser, make changes to our profile, take out another adoption loan from our bank, and this weekend is my family reunion so I am going to be baking/decorating a lot of cupcakes.
We also have an appointment this week to look at a house. As if I didn't have enough stress, Adam thinks we should put an offer in on a new house. He's been obsessed with this house for months and the price just went down. I agreed to go look at it. I honestly have no intention of moving from this house for a long time.
Tillie from A Nuttier Life is helping us change our profile and is doing an amazing job. I am very excited about the changes. I don't know what I would do without her help.
I am now looking for some help from all of you. Please :)
We are looking for a quote to go on our cover under our names. I am thinking maybe something about family?
If you know of any good quotes (or maybe even a short poem) that would make sense for the cover of an adoption profile, please leave them in the comment section.
THANK YOU!!
We also have an appointment this week to look at a house. As if I didn't have enough stress, Adam thinks we should put an offer in on a new house. He's been obsessed with this house for months and the price just went down. I agreed to go look at it. I honestly have no intention of moving from this house for a long time.
Tillie from A Nuttier Life is helping us change our profile and is doing an amazing job. I am very excited about the changes. I don't know what I would do without her help.
I am now looking for some help from all of you. Please :)
We are looking for a quote to go on our cover under our names. I am thinking maybe something about family?
If you know of any good quotes (or maybe even a short poem) that would make sense for the cover of an adoption profile, please leave them in the comment section.
THANK YOU!!
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