Wednesday, August 20, 2014

QUILT RAFFLE FUNDRAISER!

Hi Everyone!

Here is a great, fun, and easy opportunity for you to help with our adoption fundraising!

Carol McKinney who is a professional quilter and a special friend to us, has graciously made a beautiful hand-made quilt for us to raffle off in hopes to raise some money for our adoption.

The quilt is a twin size and is covered with bright colors and circus animal patterns! This would be great for any boy or girl!

For your chance to win this amazing prize, you can purchase a raffle ticket for just $1 or 6 tickets for $5. The drawing will be held at our yard sale fundraiser on Saturday, September 20. *You do not have to be present to win.

How to purchase a ticket:
See Megan Smith or Carol McKinney.

OR

Purchase a ticket(s) using our online giving site HERE.
  • Click the "Give Now" button.
  • Designate the amount  (there is a $2 minimum with this site)
  • Enter your name, email, and in the "Message" box, please specify that you are giving towards the quilt raffle. (We will be alerted and will fill out a raffle ticket(s) for you)
  • Continue filling out card information. 
We hope that this raffle can raise some money to help us to finish up our dossier (paperwork) and get it sent to Ethiopia!

Please share with your friends and family!


THANK YOU!

Ryan and Megan Smith

Monday, August 18, 2014

Our Building Runneth Over...



Hi Everyone!

Hope you all have had a wondeful summer! Ours has been super busy which is why it seems like forever since our last blog post.

First, we want to say a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who donated their used items to go towards our Yard Sale Fundraisers. It has been amazing to see all of this stuff come in! 

When we began collecting items for the yard sale, we had no idea how many donations we would get. Since April, over 70 people have donated their used furniture, clothes, home goods, toys, books, etc. You name it, it was donated! This has been such a blessing to us!

We do have to report that we are now completely full and have to end our Yard Sale Collection. Our 2-car garage building is now busting at the seams and we just don't have anymore space to store items.  
*Thank you to those who were planning on donating, but please pass along your items to others in need.

But don't worry, we have TWICE as much stuff as we had at our first sale! It will be HUGE!

For those of you who are interested, there are still other ways that you can help.

  • TABLES: We are going to need LOTS of folding tables for the sale. If you have a table that we could borrow, and could drop it by our house on Friday, September 19, that would be so helpful. 
  • SETUP VOLUNTEERS: We will need many volunteers on Friday, September 19 in the afternoon and evening to help unpack boxes, set up tables, and get things ready for the sale.
  • SALE VOLUNTEERS: Volunteers are also needed on Saturday, September 20 from 7am-3pm to help during the actual yard sale. We will need strong guys to carry tables out into the yard, people at different spots helping shoppers, money takers, food servers, and floaters.
  • BAKE SALE: Our plan is to sell baked goods at the yard sale. Any bakers that would like to whip up some yummy treats?? We will also need someone to run this table!
  • RAFFLES: We will selling raffle tickets for some great prizes donated by wonderful independent sales people. We could use a few more prizes as well as someone to run this table!
  • COFFEE & DOUGHNUTS: This was a big hit at our first sale for those early birds. We need a couple people to provide coffee and doughnuts and work the table! 
  • PRAYER: We need everyone to start praying for this fundraiser. Pray that God will provide volunteers and shoppers and that there will be NO rain! 
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY.....COME SHOP ON SEPTEMBER 20! 
 If you would be interested in serving in any of the areas listed above, please contact Megan at megananne1020@hotmail.com.

http://icareaboutorphans.org/
"Christians have a clear command to care for orphans, and there are many ways to get involved—praying, giving, mobilizing your church or adopting."

*Adoption Process Update
We just received our approved Home Study in the mail today. It now has to be sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be approved. This is the last step before our paperwork can be submitted. Please pray for a quick process with the USCIS. :)


Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Our 1st Fundraiser!

On Saturday, June 7, Ryan and I had our very 1st Yard Sale Fundraiser! It was a HUGE success and we were able to raise $3,200 to go towards our adoption expenses. WooHoo! We couldn't have done it without the help of those who donated items,  our family and friends who volunteered their time, and all the people who came out and shopped! Thank You to EVERYONE!!!!!!

So, here is the story of our 1st Yard Sale Experience! 

Who knew yard sales were SO much work?!? With this being our first yard sale EVER, we definitely underestimated the hours of preparation that would be needed.

Our first step was collecting items to sell. We began in April advertising that we needed yard sale items and it wasn't a day later that we began receiving calls about donations! Ask and you shall receive, right?

We ended up with thousands of donated items from friends, family, coworkers, and even people we didn't know.
{God was working}

Side Note: We had planned originally for our 1st yard sale to be in September, but when our building began filling up so quickly, we knew we had to move our yard sale date up to June! Here is a picture of the "mountain of donations" that we accumulated in just 1 month! 


Once donations started rolling in, we began sorting, pricing, and boxing everything to get it organized and off the floor! This was the fun part, getting to see everyone's "junk" that would soon be someone else's "treasure"!  We had some really cute things donated and I was even able to go ahead and sell some of the larger furniture items on Facebook so they wouldn't be taking up space in the building.

Side Note: There are too many little experiences to share on how we saw God working, but we sure did see Him...a lot!

Here is my BFF, Courtney, helping me sort and price items!

The week of the sale arrived and we were busy making signs, putting out flyers, posting ads online, gathering tables, and lining up volunteers. More stuff kept rolling in that week, so we were quickly pricing everything. It was fun to get to spend time with family & friends who came over to help get things ready! {Thanks to Courtney, Mom, Mimi, Papa, Mommio, Stef, Jessica, Caitlin, Chad, & Jayme for all your hard work that week}

Working on our signs for the road!

Friday, the day before the sale, we started setting up tables, unpacking boxes, and filling the tables with stuff. We had several people who let us borrow their folding tables which was a BIG help! {Thanks Jay, Matt, Gregg, Kenn, Mom, Dad, Jill, Phil, Louise, Chuck, Judy, and Jayme!}

I had some awesome ladies who took on the job of organizing all of the clothes by age, size, and gender. This was a huge advantage on the sale day because it made it so much easier for people to find what they were looking for! {Thank you Ashley, Maddie, Stef, Nancy, Jennifer, & Jill for doing this tedious task}

By the end of Friday night, we had most everything out except for the big items. We covered everything with plastic and tried to get some rest for our early morning the next day!

The morning of the sale came quick and we were scheduled to start at 8am. We moved all the tables out by 7:00am and shoppers were already showing up. It was a good thing that we had already put most of things out onto tables. We dragged the big stuff out and by 8am we were amazed that we already had a yard full of people!

Our friends and family came early to help and were there assisting people, moving big items, and collecting money! It was awesome to see everyone come together to help for this special cause! {Thank you Mom, Dad, Mimi, Papa, Nancy, Keivin, Stef, Jeff, Jess, Jayme, Chad, Shane, Summer, Christian, Joash, Seth, Taylor, Courtney, Tiffany, Chuck, Judy, Jill, Jennifer, Sarah, Ashley, Maddie, Ryan, Matt, & Brad}

Here are a few pictures from the day!
Our yard getting filled with stuff!

The checkout table

All of the categorized clothing

My wonderful friend Jess who helped set up!

Chad, Shane, & Jayme bringing out more stuff!

Steffie leading the pack & getting things organized!

Lots of goodies!

Our yummy doughnut stand ran by Christian & Joash!

Gloria, Nancy, and I taking money

Pretty aunt Jill!

The future grandmas!

Tiffany & Taylor pricing items!

Maddie organizing kids toys!

Baby clothes were the HOT item!




The men hanging out!
The Best Friends Ever!

Chuck & Judy were a big help!

Our first Yard Sale Fundraiser was AWESOME!
We had a blast doing our 1st Yard Sale Fundraiser and we are so excited to for our next one on Saturday, September 20! We are already collecting new items and are taking any donations now through September(or until we are full)!

Thank you to anyone reading, that came out to the sale and shopped and to those who helped in any way, we are so appreciative!

Side Note: Can you believe we did not have a single rain drop on Friday while we were setting up or on Saturday during the sale! :)

We saw God present in so many ways during this first fundraiser and we just can't wait to tell our children one day about all of the "miracles" we experienced and about all of the people that came together to help get them here!

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this process and as we continue to do fundraising events!

Ryan & Megan

Here is the flyer for our next yard sale- SAVE THE DATE!