Fund Raising

The one thing that always made me hesitant about adoption was the cost. I thought it was prohibitive. I thought it would be fiscally irresponsible of me to get into this. And then I realized that I would just make it work.

And what I've learned, as I've met more and more people through the internet, is that everyone feels the same way. It reminds me of the old saying, "if you wait to have kids until you can afford to, you'll never have kids."

And what I love about my circle of friends is how ingenious they are in their fund-raising efforts. Not only ingenious but how their efforts mirror their personality, and I guess that applies to me too.

When I was at the Museum in Baltimore, one of the ways we raised money was through raffles. It was easy. And I was pretty good at securing items. It's what I knew how to do when it came time to think about how to raise money for the adoption. For me, doing the raffle was putting to use what I learned in Baltimore. And anyone who knows me, knows that of course I would do a sports-related raffle.

I still have amazing friends in Baltimore, as well as a pretty good template of a letter asking for autographed items. And so that's where I started.

When Lindsay and her husband thought about they were going to raise money for their adoption, they went the t-shirt route. One of her mini-goals is to sell at least one shirt in every state. I am proud to represent New York.

Crafty Megan created her own t-shirts and had a Super Wal-Mart sized garage sale to help with her fund-raising efforts.

And since I know not everyone is a sports fan (I still don't understand people like that), I have supplemented the sports drawings with hand-crafted items, again generously donated by my talented friends.

I've seen magnets, coffee sales, bottle drives, bake sales, egg sales (!)...anything you can think of. In the end, we're all in the same situation -- doing what it takes to make our families complete.