Asking the Hard Questions

This morning, I met with a friend for breakfast to finally catch up on life and, of course, she asked how our whole adoption process is going. I told her everything is moving along, slow and steady, and we're always battling the desire for quick results when we know full well how complicated and long this journey can be. But I also told her, in all honesty, that we're struggling when it comes to fundraising. She had just watched our video and thought about the situation for a second and said, “Ya know, Bri, as hard as it is, I think you just have to flat out ask people to donate.” And I think she's right. We alluded to it at the very end of our video and included a link to our site, but I don't think that’s enough. It’s very hard…probably one of the hardest things…to ask for money. But we do have to ask, because the bottom line is that we CANNOT do this without your help. Let me break it down a little more for you:

Our entire adoption process will cost an estimated $29,000. As we meet milestones throughout the process, we have fees that need to be paid to move on to our next steps. The great thing is most of the expenses are broken up into smaller(ish) amounts as we go. But the bad thing is we've just about accounted for the $4,769 that we've raised so far. It has gone towards our application fee, home study fee, and soon our international application (dossier) fee to get our paperwork in front of a court in Haiti. And that, my friends, is when our two year countdown begins. We've been at this for nearly 5 months and haven’t even started our countdown, hence the long journey!

              There is also a process when it comes to “redeeming” our funds. See, we have to request a grant from Adopt Together (our host site) and tell them what the funds are for. They have an official letter from our adoption agency confirming that we are, in fact, adopting and we have started the process with them. I’m sure someone out there has wondered how that process works. And I’m also certain that many question why we’re fundraising in the first place. It’s like I said before: we can’t do this without fundraising. None of these funds cover anything outside of bringing our child(ren) home from Haiti. We’re asking that you directly assist us in changing the lives of these kiddos. And I think that you’ll find, if you follow our journey and hopefully someday meet our (entire) family, they may just change your life, too.                

                There are many ways that you can help, including giving an amount of your choosing. Just follow this link: https://www.adopttogether.org/helpdrewandbriadopt or click on the donation button at the top right of this page. And no amount is too small, believe me. Let me just give you a little math problem here: We recently posted our first video about our adoption journey, and last I checked we had just over 400 views (in about 2 days). If every person who viewed our video had given $10…you can do the math.

                Another way you can help is by donating your time to help us fundraise. Maybe you want to pass out our nifty little business cards with our donation website and contact information at your church, work, gym or to your family and friends so other people can come alongside us and donate (I’d be happy to mail you some!!) Maybe you have your (let’s just say) 30^th birthday party coming up and you choose to forego all gifts and instead, ask all in attendance to donate $30 to our adoption website. Maybe you or someone you know has a venue or business that would be willing to host an adoption fundraising event for us. Or maybe, like my friend this morning, you’d be willing to host an event at your very own home and ask for an open donation and/or charge per person. We really are open to any and every idea you might have. Even if that means you want to pledge to help us raise $1,000 by June by advocating for us within your circles…whatever it may be, we would be so incredibly grateful and that much closer to meeting our financial goal of $29,000, but more importantly, having our family together.

Please send us an email if you have an idea or want more info: drewandbrisadoption@gmail.com.

                Would you consider sharing this blog post, sharing our video, our page, our story, and consider donating if you haven’t done so already? We truly NEED your help and money is not easy to ask for, but we’re pleading here, nonetheless. Thank you so very much and many, many blessings to you all! Happy Easter...He is Risen!