Meredith's Birthday Giveaway!

In my last post, I told you all about how much it's going to cost to bring Meredith home. Now, let's see what we can do to make that number move downward. I have some really generous people in my life, so we're going to do a giveaway. Let's see if we can raise $1000 in honor of Meredith's 5th Birthday!

Let's pretend you are my friend and I am inviting you to my child's birthday, she's turning 5 years old. What gift would you choose for her? How much would it cost? Meredith doesn't need any toys for her Birthday, she needs two things...a family and a larger grant. Now, take whatever you would have spent to buy a gift and donate it through the chip-in on the right hand side of the blog.

Your donation will earn you an entry into our giveaway. What are we giving away? I'm glad you asked :)

Prize #1

A beautiful, personalized, crib blanket from Pampered and Posh!

Prize #2

A print of your choosing from VT Designs! She has some beautiful prints to choose from!

Prize #3

A $10 Target Gift Card!

and a $5 Starbucks Gift Card

Prize #4

A Candle of your choice from Celebrating Home! 

I may have more to add, later. For now, here's how you can earn an entry, or two, or three.

1. Make a donation of any size to Meredith's grant and you earn one entry.

2. For every $10 donated you earn three entries!

3. Share this giveaway on facebook, twitter, or your blog and you'll earn a free entry! 

All donations made through the chip-in go directly to Meredith's grant on Reece's Rainbow and they are tax-deductible.

That's all! I want to keep this simple. Help me find Meredith's family.

Pray, Adopt, Advocate, Support...Do Something!

Hidden in Christ,

Mandy

How much will it cost? How long will it take?

I know you all must love Meredith as much as I do. I have been fielding emails and messages about this sweet girl all week. The biggest concern for every family is how much will it cost to bring Meredith home? Closely, followed by, how long will it take? Let's talk about those things, today.

First up, the cost...I know you're hearing horror film music in the background and you're just peeking through your fingers, afraid to look at the screen. It's really not that bad (says the crazy lady who's $15,000 into a $22,000 fundraising goal). Let's do the math together and pray that I do it correctly, because math is not my best subject.

Agency fees: $7,450

Program fees: $9,500

Homestudy fee: ? Let's use $2000, it's a good average homestudy cost.

Travel and document fees: estimated cost...$5,000

My handy-dandy calculator puts us at just shy of $24,000. We're going to use $24,000 because it's a nice even number and math is not my best subject. It's like ripping the band-aid off...$24,000, now let's see if we can make it better. 

Meredith has a grant of $5,200 (my goal is to raise that number to an even $6,000 by the end of the month). There are grants available through her agency for up to $3,000 and other agency's that they will connect you with to help with other grants. Time to pull up my calculator, again.

Now, we're looking at about $15,500. Still a big number, but you should be feeling better. That's totally doable and she's worth every dollar! There are adoption loans that could be considered, but I recommend that be a last resort. You will have about a year to raise this money. That's a little over $1,000 a month. You can do it! 

Okay, take a deep breath, get your head clear, we're going to talk about a time-line. If you committed to Meredith, today, she should be home in 12 to 15 months. That sounds like a long time. However, if you decided, today, to make a baby the good ole fashioned way you could also be looking at a 12 to 15 month wait. Sure, it could go faster, but there's no guarantee that it would. There really are no guarantees in life. 

Meredith is waiting, now, and she's been waiting for a long time. She needs a Mommy and a Daddy. What are you waiting for? 

I'm working on Meredith's first fundraiser. I hope to have it up and running tomorrow. So, come back and let's see how much of that $15,500 we can knock out for Meredith's family. 

Pray, pray, pray...God is stirring hearts towards Meredith and I do believe we're about to witness a miracle. A miracle where the great, big God of the universe finds a family for a little orphan girl on the other side of the ocean. 

Hidden in Christ,

Mandy

Meredith's Birthday Month!

Meredith is turning 5 years old this month. Most of the time when a child turns five, it's super exciting. It's a little sad for Meredith. Turning 5 marks the end of one more year that Meredith spent as an orphan. It also marks the beginning of another year that she will spend as an orphan if her family doesn't find her. We're going to try to raise Meredith's grant this month and one of the ways were going to do that is with a Birthday Party for Meredith!

I know you're intrigued and I'm working on the details. Remember to share Meredith with everyone you know. Maybe before her Birthday Month is over, she'll have a family coming for her. Now, that would be worth Celebrating!

For now, "Happy Birthday, sweet Meredith! We're praying for you and love you bunches, baby girl!"