The Final Three Thousand | Reece's Rainbow

When I began this adoption journey a year ago, I was staring at a whopping $30,000 that I needed to come up with some how. I had faith that it would happen, but I had NO IDEA how.

Through the crazy path of changing countries, then losing Wren and finding Dub, the $30,000 total budget stayed fairly consistent.

But the amount I have needed to figure out has slowly, amazingly gone down.

The day I emailed my agency to ask about Wren, a generous donor gave $12,000 to help fund her adoption. When she died, I was given the option of putting that money toward the adoption of another child with Down syndrome - what a blessing.

When I saw the picture of my Dub for the first time, Reece's Rainbow was in the middle of their annual Angel Tree project - a wonderful fundraising drive for waiting children. My little guy's amazing warrior worked hard to raise $1,000 for his adoption - another huge blessing.

From surprise grad school refunds to an extra paycheck and salary increase, money has been provided in ways I never could have imagined a year ago - again, so many blessings.

I'm now down to about $3,000 to be fully funded.

This is so doable.

I am going to continue updating this post with every step towards that $3,000. I can't wait to see the blessings listed out here one by one. And if you look over to the right, there is a cute little thermometer that will go up, up, up as the money is raised!

Thank you for being a part of my journey.

Love, Elizabeth



P.S. Over the last few weeks, I have had several people ask me about fundraising. Why am I still fundraising? If I gave for Wren's adoption, what happened to that money? Is it all a big scam?

I get your questions. I promise. No hard feelings.

Here's what I want you to know.

If you donated money or bought something I was selling, the money was spent on adoption. Even though this process has been long, the paperwork from Uganda and Wren's adoption have carried over. I did not have to redo things. I (miraculously) did not lose money when Wren died.

It's just that adoption is expensive.

At no point in this process have I been fully funded.

That's where this last $3,000 comes into play. $3,000 to fully funded. (And no more fundraisers.)

And if you think this is a scam, I'm sorry. I wish I didn't have to ask for money. But the truth is, I do. As much as I dislike it, I will do it for my son.

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GOAL: $3,000

March Madness Bracket Fundraiser: $128
Donations: $525.22
5/5/5 for Families Grant: $847.73
3rd Place in Weight Loss Challenge: $47.06
Speaker Giveaway: $120 and counting...

Total: $1,670.01
(as of April 29)