Fully Funded!

May 04, 2021

Fully Funded!

Hey friends! It's been a while!

I know it has been a while since I've written a blog post. I didn't mean to allow this much time to pass but life happens and I just kept putting it off. Please forgive me!!

But we have some incredibly exciting news regarding our fundraising.

WE ARE 100% FULLY FUNDED!!!

Our 300 piece puzzle is complete! Every piece has a name or which specific fundraiser purchased that piece on the back! Can't wait to get this framed!

I've been trying to think of what I could say about this. Again, putting off writing this post just because I didn't know how I could accurately express our gratitude and thankfulness. I still have no idea how these words I am typing will be able to fully express how thankful we are for everyone's support. If I've said it once, I've said it one hundred times. Saying thank you just doesn't feel like enough. Saying thank you just feels so minimal in comparison to how grateful we are. So please know when we say thank you, it is coming from the bottom of our hearts.

I've shared a little about how the cost alone in regards to adoption made us say no - at first. It was intimidating. The cost felt like an irresponsible financial decision, but we knew the Lord was calling us to adopt. He made that very clear, even though, I was questioning Him over all of the reasons we couldn't. The Lord continued to stir our hearts. He continued to work on us and continued to prepare and change our hearts. We knew that if we said no we would be being disobedient. Don't get me wrong, I've wanted to adopt since I was a teenager. We wanted to grow our family through adoption, but the reality of the expense and difficulty was scary. The enemy told me every reason he could to scare me out of wanting to move forward in pursuing adoption. We had to really just lay our fears at the feet of Jesus. You guys... those fears that we had, the fears that made us say no to adoption at first. Those same fears that made me question how I could ever love like this. Those fears are gone! If you would have told me two years ago that the things I was so scared and worried about would be gone, I am not sure I would have believed you. What I've learned is that God does this really amazing thing when you walk in obedience, fully surrendered to the truth that we can't do it on our own. He makes a way in our desert. He made a way with our fundraising. There is no way we could have done this. I could not have done this, but HE can and HE did! We raised $46,400. Little by little each financial milestone was met. We never had a fee we couldn't pay, and let me just tell you, the fees hit you one after the other. God moved the mountains in our way. He always gave us exactly what we needed. He turned seas into highways. We had to choose to let the Lord lead us instead of looking ahead and questioning how we could ever make this work. This fundraising journey and adoption journey in general has kept us beautifully dependent on him. When we look back at this fundraising journey, we see HIM and how HE used all of you. The victory is HIS!

So again, from the very bottom of our hearts. Thank you to every single person that supported us. Some of you gave beyond sacrificially. Some of you donated items and baked goods. Some of you helped watch our girls while we worked on fundraising. Some of you shared posts on social media to spread the word. Some of you participated in our fundraisers and purchased all the things. Some of you offered words of encouragement when I was feeling overwhelmed and weary. Please know it all was noticed. It all was appreciated and our family will never be able to fully express how much it means to us that so many of you supported our family.

Just for fun and for anyone interested in these numbers. Here are the totals from our fundraisers!

Cookies- $8,000 (fun fact- I took a $65 cookie class in October before we started the adoption process. Zero intentions of using it for fundraising. I just wanted to learn how to do it for my kids birthdays and friends. Little did I know that $65 that I almost didn't want to spend because it seemed kind of expensive would turn into $8,000 towards our adoption process)

Egg Your Yard Fundraiser - $1465

T-shirt Fundraiser- $1000

Elderberry Syrup- $1600

Dekko Jewelry- $1369

Yard Sale 2020- $6,000

Yard Sale 2021- $1739

Bake Sale- $1640

Gobena Coffee- $230

Rollin' Dough Bakery- $908

Stove Top Simmer Bags- $2,070

Pepper Jelly- $240

Lyndsey Sayles Photography Valentines Minis- $50

Grants

Long Hollow Baptist Church Lifesong Grant- $5,000

For Him Ministries- $500

Our total goal was $45,000 which is what would cover all of our agency fees and travel fees. We have now paid all of our agency fees and only have travel fees left. Because of your generosity we actually raised $46,400. As many of you know or maybe you don't. We have learned there is a possibility of having to travel for court. Which means two trips to India. Our plan is to use the extra money we raised towards our travel expenses if we do in fact have to travel twice. If we end up not having to travel twice and have left over money we plan to pass it to another family we know that is in the process of adopting from India. I will share all of that as it pans out.

Where are we in the process now??

We are in the court process. We have been told we have been filed in court and are just now waiting for a court date. Many of you already know, India is being hit hard with covid. It has become a very dangerous place to be due to lack of hospital beds and oxygen. It is heartbreaking to see what is happening in our daughters home country. This has caused many cities to go on lockdown and even shutting down many of the courts. We learned last week that fortunately in her city, the courts are still hearing cases. They are just operating at 50% capacity, so things are slowing down but thankfully still moving. They also told us that they are only doing hearings virtually right now. This may work in our favor for the potential for our case to be heard virtually and not having to travel for court. We are hopeful! Court is a very exciting step in the journey. This is the part that will make her legally ours. Once she is legally ours we just have a few more steps, and then we can go get her! She may not be here physically in our home, but I can assure you there isn't a day that passes where we don't talk about her and imagine what she's doing or how much we wished she was here already. We pray over her every day and are more than ever looking forward to bringing her home to be with her family!

In April, we got to celebrate Eva's 2nd birthday! You know us Hollenbecks are going to have a party if there is a birthday. We spent the day baking her a cake, decorating the house, dancing to Bollywood music, made chicken tikka masala for dinner and planted a bright vibrant plant that will bloom every year around her birthday. We sure hated that we didn't get to be with her, but we still celebrated her and prayed that she felt loved!