First fund raiser

I am a little late getting this update out and I apologize. Here it is!

Well...our first fundraiser was very successful! I will have to give you a little background info to help explain how successful. We received a bill for the balance of our adoption fees which totaled a little over $14,000 (not including travel expenses). We also received a matching grant from Hand-in-Hand Adoption Ministries. They awarded us a $5,000 matching grant. Basically, if we raise $5,000 they match it with another $5,000 and send $10,000 to our adoption agency. That's a huge chunk out of the $14,000. I also need to add that we still had a little over $1,000 in donations prior to the fund raiser leaving a balance of $4,000 that we needed to raise in order to get the full matching grant. The night of the fundraiser, we raised $3,350. We felt so humbled and blessed by everyone's generosity. Then we got a call on Tuesday morning and a friend of Leslie's parents came by to have breakfast with them and to pay for one of the donations that he won in the auction. He felt led to write us a check for $650 which put us at the $4,000 mark and we now have all the funds necessary for the full $5,000 match. God is good!

The event went very well. We have some family and close friends who put in a lot of hard work and time to help us pull this thing off. We couldn't have done it without any of you. We also received donations of gift baskets and items for the auction that far exceeded what we had envisioned. Thank you so much to all of these people as well. Your donations helped generate a lot of money and fun. Finally, thank you to all those who showed up to our little event to eat with us, bid on baskets and donate to our cause. All of these people have a big part in helping us get Jack home. It was so nice to catch up with old friends and to meet a few new ones as well. We also need to give a big thank you to Saverton Community Church for allowing us to use your wonderful facility. It was really perfect.

Our good friend Brian was going to play his guitar and sing some praise and worship songs for us. The way the evening flowed, we did not get to that section of the event. Everyone was having such a good time visiting and catching up. Brian graciously and selflessly played in the background and allowed everyone to enjoy that time of fellowship. Thank you Brian and I apologize for not giving you the stage as we had planned. We did get to hear him play Leslie's request at church on Sunday morning though and it was incredible.

Again...big thank yous to everyone involved. We had a great time and took a big step towards funding the adoption and getting Jack home!