December 27, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
As you know, Jason and I are adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia! We have been at this process for 6 months now and are finally on the waiting list to receive our daughter (don’t worry; we still have a long wait). As you may or may not know, adoption is very expensive. In just six months, we have paid about 1/3 of the $25, 000-$30,000 total cost and we can proudly say we have accomplished that through a very rigid budgeting and saving process. We plan to continue this and be able to complete this adoption completely debt free!
We have been approached by many of our amazing friends and families about the desire to help, so Jason and I have decided to do ONE fundraiser. In the spring, date to be determined, but probably May, we will be having a fundraising yard sale. We are asking that if you have items, (especially now as you are making room for new Christmas items) that you donate them to our yard sale! We will take on the job of holding the sale and all profits from your items and ours will go to our final adoption costs, including TWO required trips to Ethiopia! You may not know this, but in the last several years there has been a substantial tax refund and credit for adopting families, however, since we have started this process we have learned that both the refund and credit will not continue past 2012. So we will not be able to receive ANY of our costs back. This does not at all change our minds about adopting, but it does mean that much more to save, so the yard sale will help to ensure we can cover all of the costs still to come.
Some people have also asked about donating money and while we encourage you to donate items if you have them and are local, we will of course accept donations from those of you who wish to do that instead. We are debating putting a donate button into our blog which would allow you to make donations through Paypal (YOU do not need a Paypal account to do this, but it would allow you to use a credit card). If we do that, we will let you know when we hook it up. Otherwise, you know how to contact us and can let us know if you would like to send a donation.
We have been overwhelmed by the love, support, and excitement that we have received from you all and we thank you for that and your continued desire to help and support us! Also, we are hoping to gather friends and family together at the time of the yard sale to be there to celebrate with us, so we will be doing a barbeque party afterwards and ALL are welcome! It fills our hearts to know that this baby will not only have the boundless love of the two of us, but the amazing love and support of all of you as well! We would appreciate your continued prayers also for a quick and smooth process as we wait! Thank you! Follow our wait at our blog : mjheilman@blogspot.com
Michelle and Jason
*For those of you who have items to donate but are just itching to get them out of your home or garage now, we will accept and store items at any time if it will help. Obviously we don’t have an infinite amount of space, but we will take things early if they will otherwise end up being donated elsewhere.
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