Finances

Day 28 of LOA wait!  That means we could be as much as halfway through our wait for the BIG approval from China!  I am anxiously waiting for this for several reasons - one, because it means we are that much closer to our son; two, because it means we can more accurately predict our travel dates and start to make plans; and three, because we are going to try and get an update on our son and I can't WAIT for new pictures and information!!

I wanted to share an update on our finances for funding this adoption.  If you look at the right side of our blog, you see our fundraising thermometer.  The money "raised" includes both the amount of our own savings we have put into our fund (more than half of the money has come directly from us) and the amount that has been raised through fundraisers and donations.  You'll see that we are almost at $30,000, meaning we are only a little more than $5000 away from our goal!  This is amazing!  The family sponsorship program box that is above our thermometer shows the amount of money that is currently in our Reece's Rainbow account.  That $2000 is already counted in the thermometer, so it is not an "extra" $2000.

We still have some plans for raising the rest of the money needed.  We have one more main fundraiser coming up on October 11th - a local restaurant that saw our story in the paper and called us to say they wanted to do a benefit, and they are even doing all the planning!  Wow!  The generosity and big hearts of people continue to overwhelm us.  We are also planning one more garage sale the weekend of September 26th (our town is having citywide garage sales that weekend - this sale will be at our home) to try to sell the leftover things from our big garage sale in August.  We have LOTS of infant/toddler clothes, books, toys, and kids' games, as well as a few miscellaneous items, if you live locally and want to stop by.  Koins 4 Kellin is slowing down but our daughter is still receiving containers full of coins back occasionally.  This fundraiser takes the award (so far) for the most money raised in a single fundraiser - over $2100!  I never would have anticipated that this simple idea carried out by a nine-year-old would turn out to be the most successful - but it has!  I am so proud of my daughter.  We are hopefully doing a Pizza Ranch night in October (where we supply workers to help clear tables, and then we get a portion of sales/tips for the evening).  And I am still exploring ways to use the origami birds, bracelets, and intricate pictures made and generously given to us by a friend from church.

Overall, our fundraising is in good shape, and we feel confident that by continuing to work hard, we will be able to come up with the remaining money needed.  As always, donations are truly, sincerely appreciated!  We are coming as fast as we can, Kellin!