Progress/Help Us Reach our New Goal this February!! Here's how

Hey Friends! If you missed my update last week on social media, here is our updated Triangle Painting!

Progress!! And that's amazing!

We still have a very looooong way to go, but it's a great start!!

Our first goal is to raise enough money to start the home study process!!!!!
It's important to reach this so that we can have the ability to get started (Home study will take around 3 months) and after we finish our home study we will be able to apply for other financial things like grants or possibly a loan if we must.

 
2.5 Columns of Triangles!!
In order to reach this goal on our triangle's painting for those of you that are following along we will need a total of 90 triangles to reach our $3000 goal for the home study!!  That totals 2.5 full columns!  That's why there are arrows pointing on the above picture, and why I started filling those triangles in the top corner side by side instead of at random as I had been.

Aghhhhh that is what we've gotta reach, guys!!    Could we possibly get this done in February????

With your help and your prayers I believe we can do this!!! And pray that this happens as soon as possible!

In order to get there here's a few things we have planned and ways you can help.

1. Donate:   This is perhaps always the most effective way we can raise money and raise it the fastest.   For each $20 gift we will paint a triangle on a painting for our child's room.   So if you donate more we will fill in more triangles. We will also sign your name on the back of the painting.  If you can't afford that we will let the money collect, then fill in triangles.  Seriously ANY and all amounts help!! More than you know!!!  Every donation goes directly to our adoption fund and will solely be used for those purposes.

2. Buy a Painting: I have an Etsy Shoppe HouseDownSouth.  It's full of paintings that I am selling for the sole purpose of funding our adoption.   Minus the cost of materials and tax, the entirety of the money I make from these goes directly to fund our adoption!  That's 100% profit going directly to our adoption fund. Please consider buying one and tell your friends!!  The more I can get the word out the better my little shop will do, and more money we will raise!!   I should have some new types of things coming to the shop soon with several different prices so keep an eye out!

3.  Get your nails done!  If you live in the Olive Branch/Memphis area  a good friend of mine will be doing professional shellac manicures the Entire Week of Valentines day for a discounted cost to you $25!!  That's pretty unbeatable!   But the best thing is she is donating part of the proceeds to us for helping us raise money for our adoption!!     So you should definitely "Treat yo self" ;) and have your money go to a great cause!!  You can book a time slot at annabrewer.simplybook.me

4.  Get a wrap:  Ever wanted to try one of those wraps with great results you've been hearing about from everyone on social media?  Try one out for yourself!! Another friend of mine that is a distrbutor for ITWORKS Wraps  will be doing some wraps at a party Friday Feb 13th for $25 with her proceeds going to help with our adoption!  She needs to know ahead of time who will need a wrap, so message me for those details.

5.  Buy some excessively cute gifts or house goods!!  Have a friend who is getting married in the next year??  Need some house warming gifts?   Need some really cute birthday gifts for your friends who are hard to buy for?   OR do you just really want your house to have some cute things not many have access to??     A friend of ours from church who sells Mary and Martha Merchandise will be hosting a party to help us raise money for our adoption!!  The party is set for February 19th- message me for details.  If you are from out of town never fear though!! You can see everything on the online catalog and still place your order that way and have it shipped directly to you!!  I looked earlier and there is some reeeeeeally cute stuff in there!!!  25% of those proceeds go to us!  So if you need to buy gifts anyways this is a great way to help support us with something you would already be buying! :)

6. Buy a T-Shirt to support our adoption! (This is in the works now! Details soon to come!! I'll do an entire post for it)

7. Odds and Ends Jobs:  We are free to do any and all painting of rooms, yard things, home fixes- for donations... just ask and see if it's something we can do!! If you hear of neighbors or friends needing something please let us know!

8.  Valentines Day Babysitting!  We are taking a limited number of children that we will babysit Valentines day for a donation! If you or you have a friend that needs a babysitter for the big day... just ask us for details and availability.

9.  Spread the news!  Help us tell everyone!! Spread the news on social media of our adoption when we share blogs, help us spread news about fundraisers; the more we reach the better.  Tell everyone at your work, church, or in your Sunday school classes and small groups about our journey!  The more people that know the better.

10.  Pray for us!!!  This is HUGE!  We so covet your prayers during this time!  We are not only trying to raise a very intimidating amount of money, but we are also embarking on our first journey into parenthood so we definitely appreciate your remembering us and our journey through this :)

Other things to come:  Yard Sale- please feel free to donate anything you spring clean out of your house to our yard sale.  We'll take those donations at any point! We'll be having a huge sale as soon as the weather warms up this spring so please keep us in mind!  

And as always as a disclaimer- I apologize in advance for everything you are going to see on social media to promo these. Sorry if you get tired of seeing these things, honestly at this point with this huge amount of money to be able to bring home our baby I will do and try anything to help.  Like I said before, as well, please don't feel obligated to participate in everything we offer! We are simply trying to reach more people in every possible way.   However if you would like to participate in everything ha you are totally more than welcome to!  We appreciate any and all help to bring our child home!!!

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Kickoff of Our Adoption Fundraising: an in depth look at what's to come

So in my last post I wanted to share with you guys my thinking and open up my heart a bit.  I wanted you to know where I am at.   So if you missed that post, please take some time and have a look back. 

This post however, is something I am very, very, very excited about.   It’s the kickoff of our adoption fundraising!  Selling pizza hut cards and cookie dough in high school, I never ever thought I would be excited about a fundraiser-pretty much ever.  But this one is different.  This post is hope.   This post is light at the end of a long dark tunnel.  This post/fundraiser is more of an opportunity for you- not to help a couple adopt, but to help a child find a home.  Please take us out of this equation.  It is to help there be one less orphan.  Maybe you can’t adopt right now, but God calls us all to do something. Maybe you can’t help the 143 million orphans worldwide, but maybe you can help this one child- our future son or daughter.

 If you read the last post, you also read where we are at financially. I definitely wish fundraising wasn’t necessary and that we could pay for this up front. And my promise to you is that we will also make sacrifices and save as much as we can.  We will also be applying for grants as soon as we are able in the process.    

If we lived in a perfect world- all children would have homes and adoption wouldn’t be needed.  

If we lived in a little less than perfect world- adoptions would be free. 

If we lived in an even less than perfect world- adoptions would at least be affordable. 

 

But alas- this is our world…. Very far from perfect.   

The Numbers:

To start this post off I would like to tell you exactly where the money is going and give you full transparency there.  Adoptions are definitely expensive.  International even more so.   Few people are surprised it’s expensive, but a lot of people wonder why the expense. 

There are fees associated with application, country, home study, legal documents, notarization, translating, background checks, fingerprinting, visas, travel, and much more.   The money will go into our agency, to local and state governments, various institutions in Thailand etc.  Social workers also need to eat and orphanage nannies or foster parents need at least some compensation for those countless feedings in the middle of the night.  And unfortunately airlines just won’t fly you for free.
 

So in real numbers we will need around 28,000 possibly a little more for our entire adoption.
 

And that number seems impossible. And intimidating. So I like to break it up into a timeline. 

• Before Referral
• At time of referral
• Travel
• Post Placement

Before Referral:   This is our first goal-still a huge number but much smaller than overall.  We will need around $7,000, possibly a bit more because we will be paying for post placement visits in this as well.  Within this our application, our home study, US Processing Fee, fingerprinting, and USCIS application is included.   All of these are due within a few months of each other.  

 

At time of referral: We will have possibly a few years before this next huge chunk is due, so hopefully plenty of time to save and fundraise.  This chunk is 12,360 and includes our adoption program fee.  We might have a bit more involved before we can travel including an adoption home study update- so this number could go up a bit.

Travel:  Travel is estimated around $6-8,000.

Post Placement:   There are legal fees and a finalization process. 

So those are all the numbers friends.  And alas the task before us.  My main focus right now however is on that first big number. 

Haha... And this is when I begin humming the "Impossible Dream" lyrics... "To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe... this is my quest to follow that star, no matter how hopeless no matter how far..."

So, What’s the plan?

It’s been my dream for a while to open an etsy store to help us fundraise for this adoption.  I opened a store called House Down South and all proceeds will be going towards our adoption.  That’s %100 of earnings.  I’ll be selling original paintings in my style-which is somewhat impressionist.  The theme of all of these will be the encouragement of others.  Most will have sayings or verses, or will be based on some fond memories from my childhood that I want my future child to experience. My theme is “Wooden art from this Southern Girl’s heart.”   These will be done on wooden blocks instead of your typical canvas- I like to be original- in two sizes.  One to which is 6x6 you can sit on a table or shelf with a burlap topper.  One more like a plank that you can hang with wire. 

I’ll be selling the art throughout the duration of the adoption, so you can look for new designs frequently along the way!   I’ll be putting my first group up- which are Christmas themed on my store in the following days.  It will be announced on Instagram and Facebook.  I’ve shown a few for preview in the past week if you have caught those.   Only the 6x6 will be available for now, I chose to focus on these because of the short time before Christmas.   They will be priced at $30.   It’s a bit more than I was comfortable with/wanted to charge, but with selling fees and taxes each will bring around $20 towards our adoption at that price.  And these are for our adoption!

This will be my main fundraiser and one we will have going throughout this process.  So please, please, please, check it out.  Follow me.  And share share share with friends.

We will also have a donate button on our site. I know that some may not want to buy a painting, or may not can afford to.  We welcome any amount.   If God leads you, we would love to receive donations for this fund.   You can donate by card using this, or mail us a check- just email me for an address ha for security reasons I don’t want to post that info. 

Another part I am excited about!

I wanted a way for everyone to know how close we were to reaching our goals. 

Though a really sad picture- I apologize for the quality there... This is a large "blank" canvas filled with 1,400 triangles hand drawn on of varying sizes.  (yeah it’s hard to get them all on there!) Thankful to my wonderful husband for his patience and love of math to help to get this going. 

Each triangle is worth $20.   

1,400 triangles=$28,000 OR One Fully Funded Adoption

When someone donates $20 or buys a painting, or when we get money into our fund through grants or savings or anything in general…. I will paint a triangle.  

I’ll update this at least once a month if not sooner, so you can view our progress and cheer us on.

I’m in love with this idea… First off because I love paintings.   Second because I love getting reminded of our progress on a daily basis and seeing the love from everyone along this way.  Thirdly because this is such an amazing, awesome way to show our child in the future how much they were completely loved and how much the community rallied to help us bring them home.   Fun and dorky story- but as a kid I always was curious about secret passageways or hopeful in my imagination that I could flip over a painting and learn it was very special.   This will be that painting for my future child.

For anyone who donates any amount or who buys a painting your name will also be written on the back of this painting. Please specify when you donate or buy what name you would like written (example Delk Family instead of just Susan).  

We will also most likely sell T-shirts, have some yard sales, and other fun events in the future that I will announce at a separate time.   I say that to say- please don’t feel obligated to participate in every single one of our fundraiser projects.   We just want to have a variety of things so that everyone can help in some way if they so choose.  I know a lot of people get bogged down with this, and you’ll most likely be hearing about fundraisers a lot. We definitely appreciate your help, gifts, and love in any way you can contribute.

What can you Do?

Pray For our family, our fundraising efforts, and this entire process. Help financially if able and God leads.  Buy paintings.  Volunteer time in future events.  Share share share on social media.   Please, please sign up to follow my blog for updates. Please please follow me on Instagram: @delkshouseofgrace for lots of updates, new designs, and posts in my store and please tell all your friends to as well!  The more followers I have the more I can reach new people with my etsy shop. 

Thank each and every one of you in advance :)  Will and I are so blessed to have you in our lives. 

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