We Earned our Matching Funds!

And by the way, we have TOTALLY earned the $2000 matching gift from our generous donor for April!  Yeah to all our amazing donors and thank you to our matching gift donor for motivating us!

Rummage Sale a HUGE Success!

Thank you to all those who donated items for our rummage sale, and all those who volunteered on the day of our sale!  Thanks to the generosity of you all we raised a total of about $2,300, which includes the money we made on our March "mini" rummage sale in my front yard!  I don't know about you, but raising a couple K off of stuff you didn't want or need sounds like a pretty great deal to me!  So thank you , thank you, thank you!  A special shout out to Traci Feaster (and Matt who watched the kids so Traci could help), my parents, Ralph and Maureen Feaster, who kept us fed, Colleen Lancaster, Bobby and Laura Moore, Jaime Marlowe, Barbi Jones, Steve Kacmarcik (who sold the impossible), Charles Lucas, Natalie Harden, Genny Drouin, Jamie and Tim Eisenbeisz (who watched my kids overnight and hauled them to all their Saturday activities), and if I forgot anyone I'm so sorry!

We put a few signs up saying we were raising money to bring Ai Lan home from China, and you know what, it was really cool to see how some of our shoppers donated money beyond what we were asking for the items they bought.  One woman bought $1.50 worth of stuff and handed me a $20 and told me to keep the change!  Many shoppers just rounded up to the closest dollar or $5.  It was really sweet.  I had the chance to share about the redemptive nature of adoption to a few people and was especially blessed to hear other's adoption stories.  God is good.  

Matching Funds in April! Woohoo!

If you were considering donating to bring Ai Lan home, April is a great time!  We have a very generous donor that is willing to match dollar for dollar everything we raise in April up to $2000!

We are so grateful to our generous friend (you know who you are!), and we are honestly blown away by the continued support of our friends and family.  We couldn't do this without you!  We are just over a third of the way to our fundraising goal, and we have two fundraisers coming up in April (Rummage Sale) and May (Love to the Rescue: Prom Night for Ai Lan).  God can do this!  We have faith!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." 

James 1:17

Prom Night Fundraiser!

If you love getting dressed up, music, dancing, karaoke, food, and fun,

 then our next fundraiser is for you!  

The Deuel family proudly presents...

LOVE TO THE RESCUE

A Prom Night for Ai Lan

May 18, 2013

6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

St. Andrew's Lutheran Church

Tickets are only $20/person

Evening includes appetizers, drinks, silent auction and raffle, 

and all the normal prom fun (including pictures)!

So if you didn't attend your senior prom...here's your chance!

And if you hated your senior prom...here's your do-over!

And if you loved your senior prom...this one will be even better!

Tickets can be purchased by contacting Miriam at 209-915-3119.

Looking For Silent Auction and Raffle Prizes

If you have an item, service, or vacation destination that you would like to offer up as a raffle prize or silent auction for one of our big adoption fundraisers, please let me know! For instance, say you have a family cabin, would you be willing to offer a certificate for a weekend away? Or do you own a business that you could offer a free service through? Or can you get an item autographed by someone famous? Or can you put together a basket such as a movie night or wine basket? Get creative! We will be having a large fundraising event in May (more info to follow) and it will include a silent auction and raffle, so if you are interested in helping us bring Ai Lan home, let me know!

The Beauty of Hope

One unexpected joy from being an adoptive mom is hearing other adoptive moms refer to their child's "special needs" not as if they are a tragedy, but rather the reason that they get to love that child in the first place, an opportunity to grow in ways we never expected, and a reason to always put our hope in our Savior, not our own talents or in this world. 

Missing limb? Limbs are overrated anyway. 

Small heart defect? No biggie! 

Anemia? Nothing a transfusion can't fix. 

Developmental delays? Looks like a great excuse to quit my job so I can spend all day with her! 

Downs Syndrome? Whatever...she's a joy to be with! 

Rare neurological disorder? Phhhhtttt...please, I got this.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

 Romans 5:3-5

Matching Funds in April!

We have a very generous friend who is willing to match all money raised in April dollar for dollar up to $2000!  If you were considering donating to help bring Ai Lan home, April would be a great time to do that!  We have a Paypal button off to the right that you can use for secure giving online (and you don't even need to have a Paypal account to use it).  We want to thank our friend (you know who you are!) for his generosity and for believing in adoption!  Thank you so much friend!