Very Little "Fun" About "Fun"draising

So the past few posts have been a lot about fundraising.  Between the Spaghetti Dinner back in May, to Promotional Hope sponsoring us this summer, to our yard sale and most recently our Ladies Night Event.  It's been fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.  The truth is I find very little "fun" about "fun"draising.  Not that the events themselves weren't fun and being with our friends and family wasn't fun, but the reason was always, well, awkward.  I would much rather be posting things about our adoption that are directly related to our child or the process it is taking to bring them home.  And if I had to guess, you would rather be reading about our child more than reading about fundraising. 

So if you don't mind I would like to share my heart on fundraising, where my heart was and where it is today.  We knew at the very beginning of this adoption that the financial commitment was not one we would be able to meet. Before we even contracted Scott shared with a few men he respects and trusts that we were feeling lead to adopt but didn't have the finacial resources for it.  He sought wisdom and shared his thoughts on not wanting to go into debt to adopt but believing God was saying now is the time and not to wait.  They prayed for him, for us, and they gave their input and wisdom and when it was all said and done everyone agreed we should move forward and not wait. 

Our agency, as well as others, encouraged us to find ways to fundraise for our adoption.  I'll be brutually honest, my pride and everything in me wanted to find another way.  I even prayed that the Lord would just move on someones heart to drop the money in our lap so we would not have to ask people to help.  Asking people to give you money, yet alone money for a child you don't even have a picture of, is really really hard.  But I suppose that's the point.  We didn't sign up for this thinking it would be easy, the process is hard, the wait is hard, the financial burden, well it's hard.  When I start to feel down about it I remember it might be hard but it's not impossible, because with God all things are possible. 

With fundraising I struggled at every bend.  If you only got emails, or saw Facebook events, but I never talked with you about it, I'm sorry.  If you felt you weren't included because I didn't personally invite you, again I'm sorry.  I found it much easier to do everything via the internet and then pray that people would see it and respond.  After each event got posted, I would fret obssessivly over it.  I would hang my head low in church, at school, or bumping into people we know in public feeling bad that we were once again asking people to give.  I struggled to trust God with each fundraiser not knowing how it would go, or how much money it would raise.  Every insecurity I had rose to the surface. 

The very first post written on this blog is titled "A Journey of Faith With Limited Sight."  This is a step in faith and back then we couldn't "see" how this would go.  There are still many things we can't see, but when I look back on the last six months I see that the Lord has provided every cent we have needed so far.  We never had it ahead of time, but we always had it when we needed it.  There are still many payments to go and I am believing in faith, without seeing it in a bank account, that God will continue to provide every cent until our child is home.  Now I won't lie, it's much easier to type that than it is to truly believe it, but it's at least the dialogue I play in my head everyday. 

When we signed our contract back in March we pretty much needed $25,000 of the $30,000 it will take to complete this adoption.  We are at the halfway point, so there is still along way to go.  We just hosted what we are praying and hoping might be our last fundraiser.  Not because we have all the money we need, because we don't, but because you all have already given so much we can't fathom asking again. 

Someone asked me today if I had to do it all over again would I?  I hesitated, but the truth is as I really thought about it I believe I would.  I would do it for our child because I have no other way of bringing them home.  I would do it because through each fundraiser we saw God's mighty hand move and work and lead.  We felt His love for us and this orphaned child through His people, through you.  We felt His love through His provision and through His guidance.   We can testify to the truth that God will and does do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.  We pray that our child will someday hear these stories and know and understand how deeply they are loved, not just by us, but all of you, before any of us even knew them.  Even more importantly that they are loved by their Heavenly Father who has been their provider from the beginning.  We look forward to sharing with them how everyone worked together to help bring them home.

If you have been one of the brave souls to read this long-winded blog post and got to the bottom then we would also ask that you pray. We have applied for a grant and we need prayer that as this organization reviews our application we find favor. We are hoping this grant will help in answering our prayers to not have to do any future fundraisers

Thank you so much for taking this journey with us in fundraising.  Thanks for showing up at our events and supporting, encouraging, helping and giving.  Please know that you are giving so much more than your time and money, you are completing a family.
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