5 For Hope

#150 of 4,000 has given us 5

Last night, I checked our post office box and found a longtime friend had given us $5.  That means we've hit the equivalent of 150 people with a total of $750 collected so far.

The home study application is almost complete and once it is submitted, we will be setting our appointments for the home study itself.

We will keep you posted!  Again, thanks for visiting and for passing along our website to those you know who may have $5 to spare.

Sharing Our Story...

Once 5 for Hope website went live and we opened a 5 for Hope group on Facebook, friends and family alike started finding their way to us and deciding to give us 5.

In the next week, we will be broadening our base and letting even more people know how they can join us on our adoption journey.

First, I AM going to finish printing off our 2008 update letters to include in our Christmas (New Year's?) cards.  We have lots of friends and family who aren't regular readers of my blog, aren't on Facebook, and who rarely use a computer.  It will be their way of finding out what we are up to and perhaps deciding to come along for this wild ride!

Second, we will be reaching out to some local websites and media outlets to see if they are interested in carrying a blurb about our campaign which may even expand to discuss adoption issues in general, including financing such an objective.

Third, we will be contacting the educational institutions that have played such a huge role in our family's life to see if any service projects may want to donate to Hope's orphanage or help us organize a 5 for Hope event in the coming months.

My sister-in-law has made a written offer to 'sling spaghetti' if we do a spaghetti dinner so you have been forewarned to wear protective gear should you come through the food line.

We'd love to hear from you if you have any ideas, suggestions or insight into how to best direct our efforts.  Shoot us an e-mail or leave us a comment!  We appreciate any and all input.

Chugging Along...

We spent yesterday with my husband's mom and other various relatives so by the time we arrived home, I was too tired to update!

Holiday wishes continue to arrive at the house and in yesterday's mail, we opened a card to find the equivalent of 10 people to join our 4,000.  This makes perfect sense as the senders could easily take on the task of being 10 people in heartbeat.  Thank you!

For those keeping score, that's 149 of our 4,000 people...wonder who will be #150?

Christmas News...

Even with the Christmas festivities surely filling people's days, some have chosen the past couple days to become 1 of our 4,000.  We received some mail at our P.O. Box (always fun...who doesn't like to receive mail?!), a hand delivered $5, and an electronic high-five this morning.  It continues to be wonderfully inspiring.

For those number people in our readership, we have had the equivalent of 139 people 'give us 5' which puts our total fund at $695.  We have met our first benchmark, which will allow us to start our homestudy, and we are nearly $100 to the good on the second benchmark, paying the $550 balance of the study at its end.  All good news!  I'm scouring the internet for any and all adoption grant programs and my list is ever growing!  Once our homestudy is complete, I can send out applications to any and all of them to see if any organizations and such would like to give us multiple 5's.  That would be a terrific boost--not to mention it would make for some pretty exciting blog updates! 

We hope your Christmas was merry & bright and that 2009 holds lots of surprises (of the pleasant variety!), opportunities and welcome additions for your lives.  We'll update again soon! 

Christmas Eve Update

We continue to be blessed by your well wishes, your prayers, and your willingness to give us 5.

As of this morning, the equivalent of 131 people have given us 5 taking our total funds to $655.

This means, we have reached our first benchmark of $600 which is necessary to start our $1150 homestudy!  I knew that rationally if we couldn't start this by the second week in January, we just would not have time to accomplish the study in time to beat my husband's train-up schedule.  Thank you again for not only chipping in, but also telling your friends about us and for those friends who have sent along their multiples of 5 which are adding up!

Tonight as the girls, my husband and I do our traditional Christmas Eve things...decorating a gingerbread house, eating our weight in Chex Mix, attending service and wondering what's on Santa's sleigh for us, we will also be saying special prayers for M3 and for all of you who have let her set up her own little spot in your hearts...she's a special kid and I know she will make our family complete.

As we smile with this most recent success, we on to finding more of our 4,000 who will give us five to meet our next benchmark--the balance amount of the homestudy ($550).  We can do it!

Wow! You Guys Are Good!

I feel all Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams this morning.  I remember this voice in my head (not as deep and awe-inspiring as James Earl Jones, mind you) as I contemplated the exact steps necessary to retool this website, secure a post office box, map a domain, create a PayPal button, start a Facebook group.  Part of me kept saying, 'what if I build this and no one comes?' while an equally nagging part said, 'yeah...but what if they do?' 

I was going to have to throw myself into it and then put myself out there (one of my least favorite things to do!) to ask people for some assistance.  I much prefer to be the one offering and executing the assistance than asking for (or even needing!) it.  But, for those of you who knew of our journey prior to us announcing it to the free world and gave us five, I appreciate the inspiration to go global. (grin)

As of last check, we have had the equivalent of 102 people 'give us five' which means we've had a jump of the equivalent of 39 people in the past day alone!  Amazing.  I say 'equivalent' because some of our individual high-fivers chose to do so in multiples and that is okay by us!  We've also had lots of families sending fives for each of their members and that is really cool too!

We are less than $100 away from the first benchmark--the $600 necessary to apply for and start our homestudy (the $550 balance isn't due until the homestudy is completed).  On Sunday, this goal seemed further away than I could imagine and now, it's RIGHT THERE...thanks to you.  

Thank you.

M3's album will be chock full of names documenting those who helped make her dream of a home come true.  You should feel really terrific about the part you're playing in that.  I think there will be lots of people walking around with a little extra Christmas spirit in their hearts thinking about the goodwill they have sent our way.

We'll keep you posted so check back often!

Welcome, Facebook Friends!

So many of you have already stood tall as one (or many!) of our 4,000 that I want to remind you how thankful we are for you, your friendship, and your continued interest in our adoption journey.  This is quite a trip!

Visit often for updates!  

Biding Our Time

As our domains knit themselves together, I've been reassessing some of our goals and re-prioritizing them in relation to our fundraising.  Knowing we are going to launch a full-scale campaign and hoping we will garner some support from friends and family who may not know about our adoption plans and why raising the funds quickly is important, we have put our goals on different levels and time frames.

Our #1 goal at this time is securing the $1150 necessary to effectuate our homestudy.  The homestudy is the one step that FOR CERTAIN Hubs has to be home to complete, it is the one thing required by organizations giving grants and/or loans to prospective adoptive parents and it is a threshold issue to adopting anyway.  I've been in contact with our homestudy agency of choice, explained our particular situation and asked for her advice.  She thought my idea of moving the homestudy to the tippity top of the list was a good one and could open doors to more fundraising opportunities once successfully completed.

Given the participation so far in our fundraising drive, we need only to gather up $800 for the homestudy. That seems like a do-able, incremental goal.  

We're going for it.

We're glad you're along for the ride.

Another Snag...

Just when you think you are ready to dive in and start swimming, someone poops in the pool.

The refinancing of our home that we were counting on to 1) present us with a nice chunk of cash without taking out anymore of a loan; 2) free up money in our monthly budget by lowering our mortgage payment; and 3) allow us not to make a mortgage payment until February fell through at the end of the week.

Thanks to the lovely economy and the home mortgage crisis, our home's appraisal value has dropped $11,500 since the last time we had it appraised.  That takes our loan to value to a higher percentage and turned our hundreds of dollars of monthly savings into a measly $50.  Not cool.

So, it's back to the drawing board and fast.

I have a couple of ideas that I want to launch in the coming week.  One of them I can do completely on my own to start and then roll out for others to join if they like.  The second one will involve some assistance from family and friends in my hometown.  I'm thinking of a new multimedia campaign and a spaghetti dinner...two fundraising ideas from separate ends of the technology spectrum, but necessary nonetheless.  I want to do this as much as I can without having to go in to any more debt.  Yes, I know I will have money once it's finalized to pay everyone and everything back, but I like the idea of working for it and fast.

We have to get our homestudy done before my husband starts training.  I'd like to have this process completed not long after that so our paperwork arrives in Ethiopia before the courts shut down again...they do this each year...otherwise, M3 is in her homeland even longer and we're losing opportunities to help her have happy childhood memories even longer.  Not acceptable to me.

I will keep you posted.

Our $5 from $4000 campaign added two new members over the weekend.  Thank you to another blogging Army wife for joining in our campaign!  Only 3937 more folks to find!

Anxious to Start

I feel like I keep writing the same thing.  We are RIGHT on the brink.  Every day, we talk more and more about what our plans our for M3, her arrival here, helping her become acclimated and giving her the chance to be bonded with us and take advantage of all being a part of our family could offer her.

Tonight, my husband talked to his mom about the adoption and she asked a lot of questions.  It was funny to hear him talk about the conversation and almost sound exasperated by the number of questions his mom asked.  I reminded him that dropping in to someone's lap that not only are we having a third child, but she's already 4 years old and is in Ethiopia is quite a bit to handle...just remember how HE felt when I told him?!?

He talked about a present that Santa is bringing M2 and how it will take up some space.  He said we should just set up M2's room as if M3 were already here and we'd have plenty of room for the present.  I like his way of thinking.

I'm taking all the paperwork to work this week so I can work on it during my lunch hour.  I should be able to fill it all out by the end of the week, order a family photo and have everything ready to ship when our check from refinancing the house clears the bank.

I can barely contain the joy I feel.  It's like I have a secret that even the other party doesn't know!  M3 has no idea.  My husband and I talked last night of how quickly we hope this moves once the funds become available.  We want her to be home rather than at the orphanage.  I cannot wait to fill her album with beautiful photos from her home country and I do not care HOW tired I am, I plan to journal everything.  I think my mini-recorder and small cassettes will come in handy!

Hang in, M3.  We are coming very soon.  Very, very soon.