My Birthday Hope

We had a great turn out for our Thrivent BBQ fundraiser for Marina's adoption.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  Sunny, upper 70s, and low humidity.  It was a beautiful day!  We praise God that we have such supportive friends and family who helped us put this event on AND donated so generously.  We do not know the exact total yet, as we are not sure of how many donations may have been mailed in. We are also going to leave it open for more donations for a little while longer. But from what was donated at the BBQ, we received $8,180 (including the matched fund of $500)!!  We are in awe of God's provision in our lives in so many ways!  Some of the children even donated their own personal earnings.  This was very heartwarming.  And a family whom we had never met, read our blog and decided to come!  They are currently in the process of adopting from the same EE country and happen to live an hour south of us.  This was awesome!  Having the opportunity to make new friends who are on the same journey was an added blessing.

You may have noticed we took the chip in button off of our blog.  We have decided to take this down for a couple of reasons.  When there are multiple ways for donations to come in, we think it makes it more difficult to accurately show how much money is needed on an ongoing basis.  And it seems that people are preferring to donate through Marina's Reece's Rainbow (RR) grant fund, which is just fine with us.   And all donations are tax deductible this way.  So we will continue to have this be the primary way to accept donations. 

As of now, we have $9,960 towards Marina's adoption.   This means we have $10,040 to go.  Today is my 37th birthday.  And my birthday hope is for each of you to prayerfully consider donating just $37 towards our soon to be daughter's grant fund.  This is one dollar for each year old I am now.  I know that WE personally feel the heartache for so many children who don't have families.  And we are aware of the financial hurdle that so many committed families are trying to get over to bring their children home.  I'm sure there are times when we all have felt a strong pull or desire to donate larger amounts because we obviously feel like we are making a bigger difference.  Especially when so much money is needed for so many children and families.   But there are also times when many people can pull together and give a LITTLE and it lessens the burden on each of us while still making a HUGE impact.  

If 272 of you donate just $37 over the next 6-7 weeks (before we travel), we will have what we need.   We would be fully funded.   My prayer is that as each of you view this post, to please pray over whether you are to be part of making a collective AND significant difference in THIS little girl's life.