We did it!

Thanks to one last Christmas donation and good paychecks from both Klif and I, we were able to chip in enough money to break the $1,000 mark!

We are feeling pretty good going into the new year, and look forward to 2012!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great holiday weekend and spent a lot of time just enjoying family and relaxing. We were also blessed with some financial gifts for the adoption fund, which I have added to our total. We are now over our 5% mark and we are quickly approaching $1,000. I have some items listed online, and a few items that have already sold, and I will be adding that money to the total once I receive all of the money and ship all of the items out.

Not only did the adoption fund get a much needed boost, but thanks to a lot of overtime on Klif's part, some clever saving, and some Christmas money, we were able to have major repairs done on both of our cars over the last couple weeks and it was all done in cash. I hated to see all of that money go at once, but it was a lot better than having to finance any of it!

We hope everyone has a great New Year's, and we will update again soon!

Klif, Jordan, and Will

November update!

I just finished up this year's craft sale at work. We made $150 and all of it went into the adoption fund!

We have been looking at our money situation and the current plan is to have all of our adoption money raised by spring of 2013. Our tax refund money for the next two years will go 100% into the adoption fun, which will take care of about $8,000 of the fundraising. That leaves $9,000 to go, with $641 of that currently raised. We now have a tangible number to work from and we are excited to watch our fund grow over the next year.

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post a quick update. Shortly after our last post a few things happened: Klif's truck broke down, requiring $2500 in repairs, the monthly bills for Will's ear surgery started, and I visited the ER after cutting part of my finger off in a mandolin slicer. Needless to say, our adoption saving had not been as strong as we had hoped! We are finally getting back on track with all of those unexpected expenditures and we are starting to chip a little bit of money in from each paycheck. It isn't much right now, but it will add up!

I also hope to update my card blog and get some items listed on eBay and Etsy in the next few days.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Klif and I went to our agency on Wednesday for our informational seminar. It was a lot of information to take in, but it was good to learn about time frames and estimated costs. We both came out feeling like we had a better sense of what was ahead of us. For now we are just continuing with the fundraising, and looking forward to starting each of the steps!

Thank you!

Thanks to a couple of larger Etsy orders and a personal donation from a friend, we have raised almost $75 in a span of just a couple of days! This may not seem like much in the big picture, but to us this is HUGE, and every penny counts!

Facebook Fundraiser!

We just launched a fundraiser on Facebook! We are selling "bag gardens", and you get everything you need to grow your choice of 9 different plants. We get $4 for every bag sold, and our goal is to make $200 through this sale. That means we need to sell 50 plants!

Here is the link!

Direct donation button

Klif made a PayPal button for donations. You can find it just under the thermometer at the right!

Where we are at.

We have already sent all of our information to the adoption agency, and our information seminar is scheduled for July 13th!

Beginning Fundraising

First of all, thanks again for stopping by and keeping updated. This post is to outline a few of the ways we already have set up to support us as we raise money for our upcoming adoption. Klif and I will be raising money on our own, applying for grants, and fundraising in various ways, all of which will be totaled on our fundraising thermometer on the right of this page. We look forward to watching it grow with you.

To make a direct donation, which will have the greatest impact on our bottom line, you have a couple of options. To donate online, either directly from your bank account or from a credit card, you can go to www.paypal.com, click on the Send Money - Send Money Online button on the top of the screen, and go from there. The best email address to send money to is jordan.w.rhodes@gmail.com. PayPal is a safe, established financial website, and I have been using it for over 10 years. It is secure and the information that you input is never shared. (We won't see your information either - PayPal does all of the work.)

The second option for direct donations is to mail the funds directly to us. If you don't have our address and this is something you would like to do, please comment with your email or phone number and I will get the info to you.

A third option considering buying items off of my crafting blog. 65% of each sale will go into our adoption fund, 25% will go into Will's savings, and the remaining 10% will go toward more materials. The address for that store is klifandjordan.blogspot.com. If there is something you would like, you can comment on that item, send me an email, or just call.

Klif and I will be contributing to the fund regularly with our income from work, and we are just hoping to raise the money faster with these additional fundraising efforts.

We may pursue other avenues in the future, and I will keep you updated here!

Thanks again so much!

Klif, Jordan, and Will

Welcome to our new site!

Klif and I are excited to announce that we are officially starting the adoption process! I have created this blog to keep everyone updated on the process and fundraising efforts that we have have started.

It has always been our plan to adopt, and we can't wait to get the process started. Adoption is a wonderful way to build a family but it is not an inexpensive venture. We are expecting our adoption expenses including home studies, legal fees, and hiring of attorneys and other professionals and more will cost about of $12,000. Tax credits and employment benefits from my work will help to cover the expenses of the adoption, but we have to have the money up front to complete the process. While Klif and I already have some money set aside, we want to be able to come out of the adoption with our savings not completely depleted.

We are using a wonderful agency in Indianapolis, Indiana called “Adoption Support Center.”

As we continue on this new journey we ask that you keep us in your prayers and stop by the blog every once in a while to keep updated on our experience and our fundraising efforts. Klif and I have really been blessed with the amount of support that we have received over the years from family and friends in every aspect of our lives, and we hope that you are as excited about this new step in our lives as we are.

Thank you for stopping by, and if you have any questions or would like to talk about our adoption, please feel free to email me at jordan.w.rhodes@gmail.com, or call me at 765.215.1986.

With love,

Klif, Jordan, and Will Rhodes