I need some help. I feel so blessed to have reached over $7600 raised to help cover our adoption so far. Very, very blessed indeed. Thank you so much to those who have contributed and prayed for us. People's kindness and generousity never cease to amaze me. I have been SO touched by every kind word of support, every private message & letter sent and every donation that has come our way. Honest, we appreciate every single one. But, here's the kicker; we still need to raise a lot more!
I don't know how to ask and actually, I HATE asking. But I'm gonna. I feel I have to. We need close to $32,000 in order for us to bring our 2 boys home. So here goes.... CAN YOU HELP?
I have offered Ethiopian items; coffee, tea, scarves, pottery, baskets, etc, for "sale", for "auction" and in return for donations. I still have many Ethiopian items left. I know I like to get something sometimes when I donate. (I don't have to get something in return, but it is fun!) I will happily send you something if you are able to help us... just say the word!
I will take ideas even... Last year Kathi D and I raised a LOT of money to work on the well project with Water 1st, to help the Miskaye orphanage, to help build a hospital in Leku in the region of Sidama and to work with the kids of the Luke Society clinic. Every penny went to help someone in Ethiopia. I don't feel I can do huge fund raisers for me personally. I just don't. But I will take ideas... Ideas that fit the blog/facebook style. Got any? I don't want to do t-shirts, there are enough out there in the adoption blogosphere. I can't make stuff to sell, I am not talented enough to have an Etsy. What more can a girl do? I see so many others raising $ for adoptions and not to sound pathetic here but I have 2 precious older boys waiting for me. That is unusual. Most of the blogs who are adopting haven't even gotten to the matching/referral stage. We do things a bit differently here at Irishopian and our boys are eager to get home to us. In late September one of them will have been at the orphanage a full year. In early October the other one will hit his year anniversary. We don't want them to be there too long. They need to be with us. We love these boys so much!!! So please, can you help?
Thanks.
6 comments:
I had good luck using the 100 Good Wishes website combined with publicizing on my blog and facebook and for each $5.00 donation I entered people into a drawing for a prize basket. I had one basket that was Ethiopian/African related and another that was general parenting/fun with kids basket.
Kristin - I was also going to suggest a raffle type of approach. Things are tight for me financially and I felt like I couldn't justify spending money on the lovely Ethiopian items you were selling - though I was sorely tempted by some of them - but it might be easier to send you $5 to be entered in a raffle to possibly win one of those items!
Have you tried any of the places that give grants for adoption?
How about instead of raising money, you save some money? It sounds simple but its basically what we did when we wanted to start our business. We looked at all our expenses item by item and then figured out what we could cut. Its amazing what you can save when you take a hard look and figure out exactly where your money is going. For example, we cut out all eating out and then cut back on items like hair (held out for an extra week or so each time I wanted to get my hair done), clothing (stop buying clothes and try to reuse the ones you have or hit the thrift stores). Tons of ways -- shoot just cutting out cable tv could save $1200 a year. It won't get you to the $32,000 mark alone but I bet you could get to $10,000 within a year just cutting lots of extra stuff out. Its not easy (I remember really feelind deprived when we were saving for the couple of years for the business) but certainly worth it!
I feel like this is where a parish should help if possible... any possibilities there? Any larger or lovely items you could do without and sell? Hope something comes through from LF.
I'm linking to your blog from mine. I think the idea of a raffle is a great one.
I posted a link on my FB page! I hope it helps you!
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