Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Fundraising update and our newest fundraiser

Y'all! We are standing AMAZED by God's faithfulness. We are already 35% of the way to our biggest fundraising goal of the adoption! (We have only been working towards it for less than 2 weeks!) Glory to God in the highest!!


If you haven't realized this, we have been working towards our $40-50k goal since mid-June. That means The Lord has raised OVER FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS in THREE MONTHS. He has been so good to give us confirmation after confirmation that we are following His will and it is such an honor to watch His mighty ways unfold. 

OUR NEWEST FUNDRAISER:
We are selling puzzle pieces!


This is how it will work:
1. We had a 1000 piece puzzle purchased from a Korean artist. "Spring in Korea" 
2. We are “selling” each piece for $10. You can buy 1, 2, 3, or 10! There is no limit!
3. To purchase you can send money through my paypal link: paypal.me/alexrileysmith, mail a check (send me an email at Mrs.AlexRileySmith@gmail.com for address), or send it through the Square Cash App to $alexrileysmith
4. Once you purchase a piece, we will write your name on the back of one of the puzzle pieces! 
5. Once every single piece has been “sold”, we will put the puzzle together and hang it in a double-sided glass frame for our babies’ room so that they can always look back and be reminded of who had a “piece” of bringing them home!

I love a puzzle fundraiser for the fact that it represents how our baby will be brought home, one piece at a time. And it will always be a reminder of how many people played a part in bringing our sweet child home. We are so thankful for the support that has already been shown and I know God has more in store for us, because He withholds no. good. thing!

One more way for you to be able to show your love and support... please share this post with family and friends!!!

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Our Yardsale Fundraiser

This weekend was our HUGE adoption fundraiser yard sale that our sweet, amazing, hardworking small group held for us. We have been collecting from friends and family for about 2 months now and filled 2 garages completely full!! Over SIXTY families donated goods for us to sell. God totally blew us away by providing so much merchandise. Like totally blew us away. 

The last 2 months have consisted of collecting, organizing, more collecting, and more organizing...




We decided to have a "pre-sale" on friday evening and an all-day sale on Saturday. We started pulling everything out on Friday around 1pm and seriously had a constant stream of people until dark. My prayer was for God to show up in a massive way this weekend, the way that he has shown up with providing SO much for our sale. Well, He totally outdid Himself!! On Friday night alone we pulled in almost $1700!!! (Needless to say, I ugly cried when we found this out.) Well, after a couple hours of sleep, we got up to do it all over again. And we were slammed! People were so generous and kind! God provided times for us to tell of His wonderful love and pursuance. He used His sons and daughters to encourage us and push us along on our journey. God was totally glorified. And at the end of the weekend, He provided $4,466.55!!! (If you include the amount Todd and Andrew have sold on eBay from the donated goods, it puts us over $5,000!) We are simply speechless. God is a good good father.


And we seriously couldn't have been able to do a fraction of these without our amazing small group! What an immense privilege it is to do life with these families and how incredibly humbling it is to watch as they selflessly spend HOURS & HOURS working this amazing fundraiser for us! 


The love we received from those who donated SO much, who came out this weekend and purchased items, who have prayed for this event, helped take care of Madilynn, and helped us stay sane during this process... we are so thankful.


To our future baby: You will never understand HOW MANY people can't wait for you to come home and HOW MUCH these people already love you. You. Are. So. Wanted. 

Friday, September 2, 2016

Our 2nd Fundraising Goal, Or As We Refer To It: The Big One!

So our homestudy is underway!! We have to have 4 meetings and we are halfway through with those. We had our initial meeting and I have had my one-on-one meeting. So that leaves Todd's one-on-one and our home inspection. We also have a TON of paperwork to get through, psychological tests, fingerprinting, and a few more surprises, I'm sure. We are hoping to be done with our homestudy by December! (What a Christmas gift that will be!)

But now on to our next fundraising goal!!! This is our BIGGIN. 
$22,500 due when we accept our child's referral for the adoption program fee!
It usually takes about 4 months after your home study is submitted to get assigned to a child. We will receive a photo along with a description and medical overview of the child. We should have a couple of days to decide if we feel capable of caring for said child. The adoption program fee helps cover the cost to facilitate the adoption in South Korea and the needs for our little one prior to bringing them home (food clothing, shelter, etc.). 

This is a huge goal, but we have a HUGE God!

We already have $867 raised towards our next goal!! And we have a massive yard sale fundraiser (on September 10th) followed by a silent auction dinner (on October 21st) coming up that we are so excited about!!! Also, let me know if you would like a custom calligraphy sign (especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner!) 


Please continue to pray that we will have every. penny. we need once we receive the referral and that God uses His amazing works to glorify Himself and show others His great love! We cannot wait to meet our sweet baby and are so thankful for God's provision!