Final Fundraising!

Orion is so good at posing for pictures!

We have an amazing $300 matching grant that we have until Friday to meet! Our FSP needs to read $16033. This is our very last little bit that we need to raise and we travel in less than two weeks! Our FSP needs to read $16385 now to be funded, so this would put us inches away. Yay! You can donate to our page HERE to help us meet this grant. If anyone wants to be a part of a great group that helps put together matching grants for older kids, I can put you in touch with some people doing wonderful things.

Theo is sitting with another boy who has a family coming! I hope they will get to see each other again once they are here!

We had a spaghetti dinner at our local church that raised $625! It was so amazing to see support and hear kind words from so many people. We haven't lived in this town for very long, so it is extra special to us to see people offer to help us. Everyone is so excited to meet the boys they have heard so much about. People also recognize some of the challenges we will all have adjusting and are sensitive to those needs, especially in the attachment area. I am floored. Just awesome, incredible stuff. Miracle stuff.  We are so thankful to have found such a great community!

I've been imagining how much Barton will love to spend time listening to frogs and birds and rustling leaves in the field behind our house.

We have a few fundraisers left. We have orders open on our outline shirts for four more days. If we get 14 more orders, we will print even if we don't meet the 50 they require.  Kids and adults t-shirts, plus long sleeves and hooded sweatshirts. These are so comfortable. I love wearing my shirt!

bonfirefunds.com/bloom-adoption

We also have a handful of Superman shirts left. We sold some at our spaghetti dinner so I need to recount and post what we have! If you are looking for a particular size or color let me know and I can check. (NOW UPDATED! Check it out HERE!)

Evan is still on my mind. His grant is so close to making it over the $2500 hump. A family wanting to add him to an adoption from the same orphanage would need $5000 or $7500 within the same region. He has a tremendous amount of potential. More of it is wasted every day he spends in that crib. He has been listed for YEARS. For some of that time his profile was mixed up with Theo that we are adopting.  When we inquired about Theo, no one had ever asked about either boy. I hate that he has spent years waiting in a crib in a bedridden ward when he could be going to school, to the zoo, to the park.

http://reecesrainbow.org/1407/evan5004

Gene Has A Matching Grant!

I am happy to announce that Gene has a matching grant that will move him up to the next tier on the "moving mountains" large grant page at Reece's Rainbow.  He will receive a grant of $125 when his account reads $7469.

http://reecesrainbow.org/52866/gene

Please donate to help increase his visibility! The larger grants help more people see him and they also make it easier for interested families to commit right away.  Once he meets this goal, his grant would cover the costs for a family adopting from his region to add him to their adoption! I am so proud of the way so many people worked together to help beautiful Salome and her family find each other.  I KNOW we can do this for Gene too! I want his family to find him before he turns 16 in August!

21 Days of Hope Wrap-up

One of the things I regret not having time to post about more was the 21 Days of Hope campaign at Reece's Rainbow. 23 children received $2100 grants! Three of the last children were Evan, Gene and Velia.

I've already told you guys about Evan. He is such an amazing, sweet boy who is so special to us. Making the top 21 was INCREDIBLE for a child who had been listed for years with a grant of less than $100. His grant is all the way up to $2187 and so many more people know about him now!

http://reecesrainbow.org/1407/evan5004 

Next was Gene. I have signed up to be Gene's Prayer Warrior! He is one of the boys who was transferred with Barton that we hope we will get a chance to see. Gene turns 16 in August. Yep, another older child close to my heart. Some people are suckers for the babies, but these amazing kids who have waited so long have my heart. It is great that there are people who love all the babies though, because the more kids adopted when they are little, the fewer who end up still waiting for families as they are on the verge of aging out. I would love it if there were no more of these heart wrenching battles to raise money and awareness as children approach their 16th birthday. Hopefully this grant will help him find his family. His grant is now $7344!

http://reecesrainbow.org/52866/gene

And then there was Velia. Velia's profile pictures don't show how beautiful she truly is. She is also currently at the same place as Theo and Orion. I believe I've heard she is learning to walk with a walker. She is much happier when she is out of her crib. She even interacts with some of the other children! Her grant is now $4386!

http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=velia

I am so happy for all the children who were given the extra exposure and grants to make it easier for a family to adopt them!

Appointment Date!

We are very excited to announce that we have our appointment date! We will get our first referral on April 15th! We don't know yet if it will be for Theo and Orion or if it will be for Barton. The appointment for whoever we will meet second is typically about a week later.

Orion is doing puzzles. Such a clever boy!

It's pretty funny that I carried my phone around with me for ages so that I would be ready, and when I finally got the call I had to duck out of a meeting to answer.

Barton with his buddy Dell! He has a family coming too!

Our appointment is a couple weeks later than we had first anticipated, but only 8 weeks from when we were submitted. I am still running around like my hair is on fire, which is why my updates have slowed down! I won't post pictures of my to-do lists, because that would just be embarrassing. I do plan on sharing a video of the monstrosity of fundraising materials that have taken over our dining room table! That's only regular, run of the mill embarrassing.

Theo is sitting here, but he was all the way up on his knees a little while later. So exciting!

Now that we have a travel date, I am even more eager to get our fundraising finished up. We only need $1321 to meet our matching grant and be fully funded!

We have 13 days left to order our Outline shirts. You can get youth and adult t-shirts, plus long sleeve shirts and hoodies! We have 10 orders right now. I will guarantee that these will print if we get at least 15 more. I love wearing mine so that I can talk to people about what is happening there right now. Go order one! Or two!

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/bloom-adoption

We also have quite a few of our Superman shirts left. These are $20 each, donated to our FSP HERE and then email me your address and receipt to kayleighbloom@gmail.com so I can ship! We have the following sizes and colors ready to ship as of the time I am posting this:

Sapphire:      Adult:    L - 1,    XL - 1        
                    Youth:   S - 2, M - 1, L - 1, XL - 1

Red:             Adult:     S - 1, L - 2, XL - 2
                    Youth:    XS - 1, S - 2, M - 2, L - 2, XL - 1

Royal Blue:   Adult:   S - 1, M - 1, L - 2, XL - 1
                    Youth:  XS - 2, S - 3, M - 2, L - 1

I'm hoping to add a couple more posts in quick succession here. I've started a few but haven't had time to finish and post them.  Sorry if I end up flooding anyone's feed, and also sorry if I don't have time to finish them all today like I planned. I wish daylight savings time had actually added an hour to the day instead of just changing the clocks!

So Many Miracles

There are so many amazing things happening.  First, I am so happy to be able to say that Salome has a family coming for her! Congratulations sweetheart, and congratulations to the very lucky mama and papa! Thank you to everyone who helped spread the word for her, donated to her grant, and kept her in their thoughts and prayers.

Ready for another miracle? Dell is a boy who was transferred with Barton. He has a family coming too! I hope we will be able to see him when we travel. His family has a $500 matching grant right now!

http://reecesrainbow.org/74470/sponsorkiril

There are many other older children from Natasha's orphanage and Dell's orphanage who are available for adoption. I am hoping that each and every one of them will have a family come for them. One of them is Evan. Evan is the very special boy that we would adopt if we had approval for one more child. Today is his day on the 21 Days of Hope at Reece's Rainbow.  For every $1000 donated, a nominated child will receive a $2100 grant. Evan will get his grant when the total reads $18,000.

http://reecesrainbow.org/21daysofhope

Things are still very touchy in Eastern Europe, especially in certain regions. I would love to see a miracle happen here for the people, for the children, and for the families in process.

So far we don't anticipate any interruptions to our process. We should find out our travel dates at any moment - like yesterday!  We only need $1360 to meet our matching grant and be fully funded! We do still have our t-shirt sales going on. We have youth XS-XL and adult S-XL available in our Superman shirts. Go HERE to see what sizes and colors we have ready to ship!

We have also reopened our outline shirts for everyone who expressed interest in those! Youth t-shirts, adult t-shirts, long sleeves and hooded sweatshirts can all be ordered.  Any profit on these will count toward our matching grant, but first we need to sell enough for them to print! Go HERE to order those!

Thank you to all of you who have been helping and supporting us! You have been giving us miracles too!

Matching Grant to Fully Fund Us!

We have even more exciting news! It just doesn't stop!

We have another matching grant from a very generous donor! This is a grant for $1860. We will receive the grant when our account reads $17,010. This will make us almost exactly fully funded! Isn't that incredible? Spread the word! You can donate HERE.

Thank you so much to the donor and everyone who has been supporting us! We are so thankful for everything!

So Thankful

Yesterday was amazing. Every day is amazing, but some extra special things happened yesterday.

The first was a $10,000 donation from an anonymous donor.  We have no idea who it was, but we are very, very thankful. That is the majority of our extra expenses to add Barton to our adoption.

The second was the end of our auction, which earned $478. Thank you to everyone who donated, placed bids and shared our auction! We have another round going live tomorrow! I will repost the link when it is ready.

As I am typing this, we need less than $4000 to be fully funded for all three boys. Amazing.

Update!

First, thank you to our matching grant donor and everyone who helped us meet the match! That has been deposited into our account! Hooray! We will have a new total for what we need after our auction ends tonight, so I will post that as soon as I can.

Now, Salome.  Her birthday is so close.  Her grant has grown. $20,000! Her adoption is paid for if a family will just come forward. Money has been raised for her USCIS fees, but that form and fees need to go in NOW. TODAY. It is so easy to fill out and mail in. There is also a donor who will help with some of the other fees.

She needs a family. She is in a bedridden ward at an institution and she will remain in a bedridden ward at an institution for the rest of her life if she isn't adopted. No one has ever given her a chance, but she has so much potential. She LOVES attention. She has the most beautiful laugh I have ever heard. I could go on and on about how special she is. But people need to see that for themselves, and they need to see her as her daughter.

http://reecesrainbow.org/59327/salome

Next, what are we up to?  Our auction ends tonight! Come check things out and put in a last minute bid. We will also be holding week-long auctions after that, so you can still come back for more items.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Empty-the-Shed-Auction-for-Theo-Orion-and-Barton/206328386227205

How are the boys? We have confirmation (twice!) that Orion and Theo are okay.  Orion was even up late asking to play a game.  Hmmm...sounds like a teenage boy to me, wanting to play video games all night and then sleep in late the next morning!  

We aren't able to get updates on Barton, but we believe he is safe because his area is even further north. We still intend to travel no matter what.  I am so thankful that my husband and I are on the same page here.

Finally, from March 1-21 there is a challenge at Reece's Rainbow. For every $1000 raised for their Voice of Hope fund, $2100 will be deposited into the accounts for waiting children who were nominated and voted on. A few of them either used to live at Theo and Orion's orphanage or they still do.  One of them is Evan.

Evan is very, very special to us.  If we were able to adopt another child, we would choose him without hesitation. Deciding whether to commit to Barton or Evan was the most difficult decision our family has ever made. I am hoping that a family will come for Evan. His grant now is only $75. This has the potential to raise it to $2175! Please check out the challenge and consider donating. Each donation to the Voice of Hope fund is like a doubled donation to one of these 21 children! Evan is all the way at the end of the month, so we need to make sure all of the children before him (and after!) get their donation too!

http://reecesrainbow.org/21daysofhope

http://reecesrainbow.org/1407/evan5004

                                     

Are You Scared to Go? How is Fundraising?

We have been getting the same two questions - a lot.

I am going to start with the thing we are getting the most questions about. With the current events in Eastern Europe do we still plan to travel? YES. We would walk through fire to get to these boys, although we don't think it will come to that. I don't want to minimize the effects these events will have on the future of the country. I also don't want to minimize the things that different people are seeing. Families who are there now are experiencing different things, but mostly just temporary inconveniences.

If we were to get a phone call saying to catch a flight tomorrow, we would do it. First you would need to revive me though because we aren't even packed yet! We aren't expecting any long term shut downs at present. These boys have been waiting long enough. We won't make them wait any longer.

Now on to the next most frequently asked question - how is fundraising going?

We have met our $1000 matching grant! Many thanks to the generous donor and everyone who helped us meet it! After we receive the match, we will need about $2500 to be funded for our second child, Orion!  We are really hopeful that our auction will be able to meet that need.

So let's talk about THE AUCTION! I have a bunch more items that will be added for week 2, but there are some things we are SUPER excited about. Two of them are already listed - autographed guitars signed by Disturbed and Flogging Molly! We don't have time to get them authenticated (or even stop to breathe) with everything we are doing to finish our fundraising and get ready to travel, but my husband is the original owner for both.

 
And, does everyone remember our vacation giveaways and auction? Well now we will be auctioning TWO timeshares. The whole thing, not just a single stay! They are at the same resort and the same type of room that we did for our other fundraisers. Right near Disney in Florida, 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom suite with a full kitchen, dining and living room. If you are interested in bidding on either of these, I do ask that you contact me ahead of time so that we can discuss all the details and the closing process. You may also bid privately if you don't want to post a bid on Facebook. Here are the basics. Timeshare 1 is for odd years, the 8th week of the year. In 2015 the dates will be 2/21-2/28. Timeshare 2 is for even years, the 6th week of the year. In 2016 the dates will be 2/6-2/13. For both of these, you can also choose to use a smaller room every year.

Our most recent Superman shirt order will go out in tomorrow's mail. I have a listing HERE of what we have in stock ready to ship for any interested buyers. We have plenty of shirts on hand in red, sapphire, and royal blue if you missed our open ordering period. I can collect special orders for another batch, but we won't be placing that order until we have sold most of what we have now.

We have been so busy, busy, busy between fundraising and getting the house ready, but I will keep everyone updated on our progress!

The Auction Is Up!

First up: fundraising! Thank you to everyone who has been helping us meet our $1000 matching grant! We are almost half-way there. It's amazing!

Orion says it is amazing too! 

Our auction has kicked off! I will still be posting more items and we are still accepting donations. Right now we have a lot of books and holiday items posted.  My husband is even parting with his extensive Star Wars collection that he accumulated over many, many years. If you know my husband that will tell you how much he wants to go get these boys! Come see what we have and make sure you LIKE the page so you can see when new items are added!

Auction Page

Our family warrior has been working hard to help us too! She is almost sold out of hard candy right now. Check out the Reece's Rainbow group to see if there is any left!

Theo says candy is pretty sweet!

Now, what are we working on at home? We are getting all of our things ready for travel.  It turns out there aren't a lot of people submitted before us, so we anticipate traveling within 2 months.  That's a pretty quick timeline since we aren't being expedited.  Only certain diagnoses are eligible and we don't know for sure if these boys have the medical codes they require. It's just as well, because I would panic if we needed to travel any sooner!

We are also getting the house set up for the boys. I decided we needed a few more stock pots since teenage boys can eat a lot.  These were only $35 for a set of 3, so we picked them. I've been using them all week and I really like them so far.

Excelsteel Set Of 3 Stainless Steel Stockpot With Lids

We cook a lot of less expensive, healthy, whole foods but I'm still expecting shock at our first grocery bills. We will also be trying out a lot of new recipes! My husband is quite the chef and I am sure he will be taking notes on all the food the boys are used to. 

We know a lot about where Theo and Orion are and we have an idea of what kinds of food they are used to.  Sadly, we don't know as much about where Barton is.  He is in a different region than the other boys and he has been transferred to a new institution at least a year ago. We hope he is getting nutritious food and enough of it.  We hope he has gentle caregivers who give him a chance to learn new things.

It will be such a relief to have all of them here, as much as it will pain us to know there are so many others who will be left behind. We are trying to take comfort in the hope that our adoption from Barton's new institution may open doors for many other children to be listed and adopted. We are also hoping that more people will adopt from Theo and Orion's institution, especially because most of the children there are older and will age out within a few years. I would be more than happy to keep an eye out for any children we might see and let people know how they are doing!