Fundraiser Totals

First, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in our Garage Sale and Photo Shoot fundraiser. There is no way we could have pulled either of them off without your help, so THANK YOU! It has been a huge blessing to see so many people come together and we are so grateful for everything and everyone.

There have been a lot of people wondering how much we raised between the two fundraisers. Money is still trickling in for the garage sale because we're selling some items online, but here are the totals thus far...

Garage Sale: $5,651.64 (and counting)
Photo Shoot Fundraiser: $5,407.00
GRAND TOTAL OF $11,058.64!!!

With needing to raise about $30,000 for the adoption, we are amazed that the fundraisers brought in over 1/3 of what we need! Between the fundraisers, supporters and what we have put in personally, we are at about $23,000.

We are hoping grant money will help with some of the $7,000 we still have left to raise. Otherwise we might need to do another fundraiser. So if you have any good fundraiser ideas, please let us know.


YOU CAN NOW GIVE TOWARDS OUR ADOPTION AND GET A TAX WRITE-OFF!

We now have a profile with Adopt Together which is a non-profit that helps raise money to help couples adopt. We realize that many of you have already given and we are extremely grateful for that. For those that wish to give more or those who prefer to receive the tax benefit when giving, now's the time. Give at: https://www.adopttogether.org/veiladoption

Adoption Photos

This past Thursday, we had the privilege of working with Danica Donnelly (http://danicadonnelly.com) on our adoption photo shoot. She did an AMAZING job and we are excited to share some of the images with you!

One of the reasons we did this photo shoot is to celebrate this process we have been working on for the last 6 months. Many couples do maternity photos during a pregnancy to celebrate that process; this is our version of "maternity" photos you could say. With most of the paperwork done, we're excitedly moving forward into preparing to become parents.

Another reason for this photo shoot is to help fill our profile book with updated photos. The profile book is what gets sent to birth mothers to look through as they decide which family to place their child with. We've been told that many birth mothers make their decisions solely off of photos and we couldn't be more pleased with the skills of Danica Donnelly. Thank you SO much! Enjoy the photos everyone!

Garage sale was VERY epic!

The left-over items are packed and ready to be delivered to Salvation Army and the tents are coming down. It's no longer a FEMA site at Ryan's parent's house. The garage sale was a crazy success; lots of money was raised and there are numerous stories which will be shared over the coming days & weeks that left us feeling very blessed and loved by family & friends as well as complete strangers.

During the 3-day garage sale, $5,587.89 was raised. In addition to that, there are still several items of higher value that were kept aside to be sold later via Craigslist so that total will increase even higher.

We can't even begin to express our gratitude. The overwhelming support shown by people donating items to be sold and those giving tables/tarps/manpower to run the sale has been humbling and inspiring. The words "thank you" don't seem like enough, but seriously THANK YOU!

Here are a few pics of the madness known as Tent City