For the Latest Fundraising Update....

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Today, is a wonderful day - we are feeling so encouraged! Our Benefit Dinner and Silent Auction was last night and we are thrilled to say it was a success!

We were concerned because we really did not have a great response to our invitations. We sent out over 125 and only received responses from 32 saying they would attend. Sadly, we did not meet the minimum of 50 that we needed and will have to pay extra for those tickets not purchased. However, the Crowne Plaza adjusted that number to 43 - which made it a little less painful. And some of those who could not attend, donated money which helped offset the unpaid for tickets.

We were amazed at the number of auction items that were donated such as gift certificates to restaurants, a hotel stay, tickets to a dinner theater, jewelry, several nice gift baskets, a week stay in a cabin in Tennessee, artwork, and more. The fact is, we had more donated items than we had people attending.

We were not sure how the evening would go. On the way there, Don drove and I prayed out loud most of the trip. We prayed that proceeds from our silent auction would cover the tickets not paid for as well as provide substantial funds for the adoption.

Well, I have to say the evening was great. We had a nice dinner, the food was exquisite. Everyone seemed to have fun with the silent auction - several bidding wars were going on during dinner! Everything in the auction sold except 2 items! Amazing! We have some photos and we will share those later this week.

This morning we calculated the cost of the event and what we made on the auction; we made over $1200.00 after all expenses! I am thrilled! My goal was to hit $5,000 by the end of May! Yippee - we made it and then some!

Thank you everyone who has prayed for us and/or donated to help us - you have helped get closer to bringing our Angel home. We are so grateful!

Praising the Lord,
Elizabeth

Wrapping Things Up!

We have been quite involved with our fundraising and updating our homestudy. I have to admit, fundraising can be a lot of work and not always as productive as we hope. But then I have to remind myself that it is more than just raising money. Every fundraiser we've done has resulted in meeting wonderful people and learning great lessons. Don and I have also learned to really work together. There is no way either of us could do all this alone.

Here are some photos of our house preparing for my scrapbooking open house, boxing up the flowerbulbs from our flowerbulb fundraiser, and organizing items for our silent auction Saturday, May 16. Actually, it was total chaos for a day or so! And it will be chaotic again with all the silent auction items - but we are not complaining!

The scrapbooking open house was very nice. Not as many people came as I hoped but we were still able to add some money to our adoption fund. Both fundraisers went quite well, you can see the thermometer is almost to $4,000! We were hoping to make it to $5,000 by the end of the month. We are praying without ceasing!

Now, all we have to worry about is our benefit dinner and silent auction. We've had some great donations but not many have sent in their RSVP; we are praying it will be a great success.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to work toward bringing our Angel home.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:12

Faithfully,

Elizabeth

Disappointment or Encouragement?

We heard last week, that we were not approved for an adoption grant. We were very disappointed until this week when we heard that we were not approved for two more grants! Disappointment just doesn't explain how we felt. In fact, I am still not sure how to explain the feeling - much more than disappointment - hopeless, powerless - asking ourselves over and over why? Wondering, how are we going to get our Angel home?

My first thought was to climb back into bed and just forget about the day/week/month. But then I realized something. All three agencies stated they had so many grant applications that they could not fund all of them. Wow! Do you realize what that means? It means that many many families are adopting right now! How encouraging is that!

How could I be so selfish to only think about us and our situation? It is not about me or us! It is all about obeying God and glorifying God in all we do including adoption.

Our situation will right itself when it is time - God's time. I have to constantly remind myself that God already knows when we will bring our Angel home, we must be faithful, and we have to have faith!

One thing is for sure, our little Angel will NEVER question the fact that she was wanted!
Thanks for following our journey,
Elizabeth