Fundraising for Perpetuity

This is the deal...

We seem to continually find ourselves in fundraising mode. Either we are raising money to bring orphans here or we are beginning an adoption process or we are helping someone else fundraise to meet their hosting/adoption goals. And as much as I have kicked and screamed and fought it, I have finally come to accept it as a regular and blessed part of our lives.

Soooo...

I started thumbing through some of my kids' artwork and photographs that I have saved throughout the years. My girls and I imagined them as tee shirts, mugs, key chains, and more. The more we talked, the more my kids got excited about it all -- especially the part about getting to keep a portion of the profits. How cool is that?! They are paid designers before they can even get a driver's license!

I have no definite long term plans for these products. They're being sold on a first-come, first-buy basis. We first want to raise the money we need for our homestudy and upcoming adoption. Then, depending on how well everything goes, we'll use it to help other families adopt as well.

Check out a sample design HERE, make an order, and/or let us know what you think.

Waddya Think?

I designed this today after some financial frustrations kind of knocked the wind out of my sails.
Hate when that happens.

The caption reads: HELP! I'm a rich woman TRAPPED in a working woman's budget.

It was the Christians...

This!

This needs to be framed and hung on the walls of every church building in America.

"When I grew up in the orphanage it was Christians who came and built nicer buildings. Christians who bought us beds, clothing, and provided money monthly for food. It was a Christian who wrote a letter in a shoebox, who first told me I was loved. It was the Christians who met all my physical and material needs in that orphanage.

"But it was also Christians who neglected my biggest need. Children in orphanages don't need more money, nicer buildings, or better clothes. I am not an orphan because I lost my home or provisions. I am an orphan because I lost my parents. I needed a mom and a dad. I needed a family. Christians treated all my temporary symptoms of need but never cured my long term disease of being an orphan. I am still an orphan."

-A quote from a 30-year-old orphan who aged out of an orphanage where he had lived his whole life; spoken at the CAFO Summit 2013