Three Months Home

So a little bit ago it came to my attention that today marks three months since the plane from Hong Kong holding my parents and two new little siblings touched down on United States soil and my life changed for good. While thinking about how much my life changed in a matter of twenty four hours that day I also realized there hasn't been a new blog post on here in, well, three months. So I thought I would give everyone an update on everything that has happened in the past three months.... older sister style.

First picture as a family of 7!

I'm going to skip over the events of July 17th, because that is a story in itself. As you can imagine, jet lag was a big challenge for all four of them when they came home. While this was expected, we were not so much expecting the issue that came with the sleeping arrangement for Maddy Bow-Bow: she would not sleep alone. While my parents were gone, my cousin and I decorated Maddy's room for her since we didn't have time to get to that before my parents left. But once she came home, we found she was not a fan of sleeping by herself, which is understandable because she shared a room with many other girl in her home. Eventually, sleeping with Chloe and I in my room fixed the issue and she slept so much better. Once Chloe's room was finished (we added on a room downstairs) Maddy and Chloe moved into that room and the problem was solved. 

During the first week or so, Maddy grieved for her life back home. During the day there were distractions, but night time when she was settled down she would often cry. Micah... not so much. Even on Gotcha Day my parents said that he kind of had a "yeah whatever" kind of attitude. I kept waiting for it to crack but it never really did. During the first week or so when he got in trouble of just couldn't understand us he would cry. And not just cry, he would yell. And once he was done with that, he would just sit there and yell "ehhhhhhh" for maybe ten minutes even when there weren't any tears. Let's just say I was glad to have time away at a church conference with my friends almost ten days after my parents came back. 

Eventually, the grieving and tantrums slowly went away (although Micah still knows how to throw a fit and will do it occasionally but not near as long). Slowly but surely Maddy's personality came out more and more. I was beyond thankful because she had been very guarded when she came home. Her sweet but very sassy personality came out more and more every day. My parents made the decision to home school them for the first little while and see how they did. They have picked up on so much English it is crazy. Maddy has even begun to read certain words. She also got glasses a few weeks ago. 

Isn't she a doll? 

Both Micah and Maddy are super tiny due to malnutrition. Maddy was the better of the two. Micah will be 5 next month, and he only weighs a little over thirty pounds. They have both come a long way since they came home, but it will still be a little while before they catch up. 

It has been quite the adjustment for all of us adding two new people two are family. We are still searching for, if you will, the "new normal". Life is so much different having a family of seven. There are toys everywhere, and I'm not kidding you. I have found that there is always someone around now- my room is no longer my room. It is Micah's place to hide his stuffed animals sometimes. It is Maddy's place to steal pillows from. 

Lately I have seen a shift in Maddy. If she hadn't come completely out of her shell yet, I think she has now. I have begun to see her goofy side- something I wasn't sure she had at first. She is simply hilarious at times, and does the goofiest things to try and make me laugh. Micah, also. While he is a bit behind mentally I have seen his goofy side too. I can't get over his giggle and the sweet things he does. I am training him to be a gentleman already. 

I don't know what's up with his face

I get the questions at school a lot sometimes: "Isn't it crazy being the oldest of five?", "Don't you wish you were the only child?", "Isn't it hard?". Yes, life is crazy. There is always something going on around here. Especially when I am watching them sometimes and the three littles are running around like a bunch of wild beasts. But no, I do not wish I was the only child. I can't imagine life without any of my siblings. Yes, are family is not at all what you would consider "normal". But I don't want to be normal. I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard. But this is what God has called my family to, and I cannot be thankful enough for the life He has given me. I love my crazy family, and while it is hard... I wouldn't trade it for anything! =) 

Outdoor family movie night

Coloring their Paw Patrol pictures 

 My mei mei 

Banana-eating monster

Transformation of Maddy

Transformation of Micah

A Mistake, a Matching Grant, and A Special Giveaway.

A Mistake

As an accountant I am usually on top of the numbers.  I do it for a living, in fact I usually make systems that double check that my numbers are correct.  So imagine my frustration when I mess up!! And of course it's never in the favorable direction!

If you look back at our last blog post I thought we were $10,000 short of where we needed to be to fund our adoption.  The new math put us closer to $17,500.  As you can imagine it was a punch in the gut, and the groin.

And as you can imagine I went into full on panic mode.

A Matching Grant

This however came as no surprise to our God.  He knew I was wrong all along.  I didn't tell Amanda right away, I was ashamed of my mistake and felt lost.  But God was working.  After confessing to her I started praying out load each morning confident that this was all part of God's plan and he was going to show up.  I also started to write down in black ink the specific concerns we were facing along with a countdown until we left. The intention is to then write in red ink the praises as the Lord starts to work.  And He has been working.

In His timing, He put together a couple people in my life that I shared the problem with and together they offered some financial assistance.  Wanting to maximize their generosity I discussed the idea of making it a matching grant  and they agreed.  The donations will be made to Project Hopeful, these same company listed in our last blog.  Further all the donations made in the last campaign will count towards the matching grant.  Unfortunately, there weren't too many.

This is a $3,000 Matching Grant that will double to $6,000 when we raise $3,000.  Donations can be made here:

DONATE HERE

We understand we have been doing a lot of fundraising and that some of our usual supporters are tapped out.  Please understand that we are extremely grateful for every single dollar that has been donated.  We know that we could not have gotten this far without a great community of people getting behind us.  We understand and have accepted the fact that we will likely be paying for this adoption for years to come, but we know these two kiddos are worth it.  We also know that the Lord will bless us for continuing to step out in faith, and he will bless those who help bring our kiddos home too.

A Special Giveaway

To make this fundraiser a little more FUN we are doing a special giveaway.  We leave for China in six days.  While we are gone we plan on looking for a special giveaway or two for those who support this last fundraiser.  We are hopefully going to find some one of a kind Chinese piece that you can display as a memento of your generosity.  We will be posting from China and you can follow along on our Facebook page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1554245971485047/.

(You will need to request permission to join if you haven't yet).

Every $10 donated between now and when we bring our kiddos home will be an entry into the drawing to win a gift.  Lastly, because we know many people have given already in our immediate circle we are looking for Ambassadors.   Ambassadors are people willing to advocate on our behalf, sharing our posts each day and asking others to join us on our journey to bring our kids home and urging others to lift us up both prayerfully and financially.

100 Times 100 Challenge

Hi Friends,

If you are reading this you have likely been personally invited to take part in our 100 Times 100 Challenge.  As many of you know we are in the process of adopting two children from China and we are leaving very soon to go get them, likely by the end of June.  What you may not know is that we are currently about $10,000 short of funds needed to bring them home.  Honestly it may be a little more or less, but until we get home we won't know how much the travel costs were.

So thinking through the numbers we thought, if we can find 100 people that would be willing to donate $100, that would equal the $10,000 we need.  Now we know that for some of you $100 will be a stretch and we don't want you to put yourself in a place where you can't care for your own family.  So if you are not able to help, no big deal because we know in the end the Lord has this.  But we also know that for some of you $100 is not a big request and you can likely donate larger amounts.  So we ask that you consider this as well.

If you haven't been following our journey on Facebook (or maybe you aren't on Facebook), let me share our children with you.

Madilyn Grace VanderMeer

Madilyn Grace is 6 years old.  Her Birthday was in April.  She currently lives in Guangxi Province, in Nanning.  We will be getting Maddy first on our travels and spending between 3-5 days in her province.  She is supposedly an extroverted little girl that loves to read, we are really looking forward to meeting her and bringing her home.

Micah Samuel VanderMeer

Micah Samuel will be turning 5 in November, He lives in Guangzhou, which is in Guangdong Province.  When we finalize all our adoption paperwork it will be in Guangzhou, which makes it convenient for us to be able to not have to travel to a separate province to pick up our second child.  Micah is also an extroverted child, and is supposedly energetic.



We don't know if this fundraiser will work.  It may just fall on its face like many other fundraisers we have tried, but we need to try.  We know either way we will be leaving in late June or early July to go get our kids.  If we need to find a way to front the balance of the funds we will, we know that somehow or other the Lord will provide even thought at times it seems a bit scary.

If you are willing to join us with our 100 Times 100 Challenge, donations can be made at the following link.  http://www.projecthopeful.org/matched-families/vandermeer-family.  We are grateful to be partnered with Project Hopeful in order to allow our supporters to receive a tax deduction for their gift.

If you decide to join us, we ask that after you make your donation you write a note to Micah and Maddy.  This could come in the form of an email, a letter, or a Facebook message.  We intend to collect all of these and read them with our kids when they get a little older.  Thank you so much for helping us get to the finish line, we know many of you have given already and sacrificed a lot to get us to this point and we are SO appreciative.

Thank you and God Bless,

Matthew and Amanda

All Wrapped Up

Yesterday during my nightly devotions with Chase, the lesson was about worry.  Why do we worry when God created us and cares for us and meets all our needs?  During the reading (while I was trying to keep Chase from turning the pages), it gave a little trick about what to do when you are worried.

The trick was to imagine what you are worried about, placing it inside a box.  put a bow on it and send it up to God, releasing that worry from your mind and trusting God to deal with it.  I don't know if Chase was listening, but I sure was.  I don't worry often, but there are things that do weigh on my mind.  Most of the time these things seems to weigh on my mind for a while.  I do the right thing and say things like "God's got this" and move on.

Lately, however the final cost for our adoption has been weighing on my mind.  I know I can trust God to provide all that we need, but we need approximately $18,000 before we travel to China. Yesterday we got word from our agency that we are out of review and are not awaiting LOA.  This is a big step towards being able to travel.  It has brought the worry about finances to the forefront as it makes you realize just how little time we have until we may be heading to China.

So this morning, during my personal prayer time.  I took my worry about our adoption finances, imagined putting them in a box, putting a bow on it, and sending it up to God.  I was released of this worry and it was in Gods hands now.

You would think at this point I would have predicted the outcome, as God has been nothing but faithful through every step of our adoption.  But when Amanda called me this afternoon, I was speechless.  

"Did you know we were getting a grant from Families Outreach?" 

I am big enough to realize when God is moving.  He took a devotion with my 3 year old to remind me that He has got this, and that I don't need to worry.  Seriously, how many times do I need to learn this lesson?

While the check for $3,000 isn't enough to cover the balance of our fees, it is enough to remind me that He is ALWAYS faithful, even when I am not.  I love the little winks that the Lord gives us along the way reminding us of His faithfulness. 

Puzzle Fundraiser

It is time to launch our puzzle fundraiser.  Instructions for giving are at the bottom of this message. There are many different parts to this puzzle, in total we are hoping to raise $6000.  We are selling the puzzle in pieces and each piece that is purchased will get your name written across the back of the puzzle pieces so our kids can see who helped bring them home.  There are pieces available in everyone's budget so everyone can be involved.

Dragon
The focal point of this puzzle is the Dragon.  The Dragon is a great symbol of Chinese culture and I will go more into that in an upcoming blog.  Because of the amount of space in this puzzle devoted to the dragon we decided to break him up unto 3 sections.  The head, body and tail can all be purchased separately.  I understand some of these pieces are more expensive, but I also know that I have friends that can easily give these amounts and are hoping they step forward in support, or team up with each other to purchase these pieces together.

Dragon Support
The Dragon in the puzzle is just a puppet however, during a Chinese parade the dragon is actually controlled by a number of support characters.  There are 6 support characters represented in this puzzle.  Maybe you can't afford the dragon, but you can be support.  Much like adoption we need a number of support characters to carry the load.

Small Dragons
Maybe you want a dragon all too yourself.  Well you have that option as well.  There are three small dragons following the large dragon.  If you like the symbolism of the dragon maybe you should consider stepping up to one of these small dragons.  They come in three different colors so you can choose one of your favorite colors.  The small dragons are a great way to support adoption in a big way!

Stiltmen
Also following the dragon are the stiltmen.  These 3 characters are up on stilts for a good reason, with the small dragons up front, you wouldn't be able to see them very well if they were on the ground. You can choose to support us by having a stiltman of your own. To me the stiltmen represent people that are willing to watch over our adoption and pray for us through the process.  They keep an eye from a distance and make sure we are staying on the right path.

Palaces
Who wouldn't love to own a palace of their own?  These two palaces are representative of architecture in ancient China. We saw many buildings like this while in China and I was delighted to see these two buildings on the puzzle.  Depending on the style of palace you want you could be the first on your block to own your very own Chinese palace.

Filler Pieces
The filler pieces make up the bulk of the puzzle.  Much like adoption there are many big fees that people associate, but the ones that people don't realize are a large number of small fees along the way.  These can include things like visa applications, postage fees for paperwork, etc.  These nickel and dime fees really add up in the overall cost.  he filler pieces to me represent these costs.  They are the small pieces that hold the bulk of the puzzle together, the puzzle could not be complete without them.

How to Donate
To donate, go to the link at the bottom of this post to go to Village to Village's website.  There you will be able to enter the amount of the donation you wish to give.  100% of the donation will go to our adoption as Village to Village does not take anything for administration fees.  The donations are also tax deductible.   After donating you will get a receipt in the email.  Forward that e-mail to me at matthewvmeer@gmail.com with the piece that you purchased and I will add your name to the puzzle.

Thanks so much for your participation in our adoption.  We are so grateful to have friends that support us so generously.

Purchase your pieces here

http://www.villagetovillageintl.com/the-vandermeer-family-family-112.php

Puzzle Fundraiser - An Introduction

April is here and with it comes our next fundraiser.  We have been working with Village to Village International and will soon be approved as one of the adoptive families that they support, meaning donations given to our adoption will be tax deductible when donate through Village to Village.  I love Village to Village because their concept is simple, they have a goal of having 1,000 people donate $10 a month towards adoptive families costs.  When the reach that goal they will have $10,000 a month to support adoptive families.  How awesome would that be?  Its something I know they will reach after chatting with them a few times this week I can tell they are passionate about what they do.

Our next fundraiser is going to be a puzzle fundraiser w/ a little twist.  Our goal with this fundraiser is to raise $6000.  The cost of the orphanage donation for one of our kids.  The puzzle shown below is a $1000 piece puzzle, so it would make sense that each piece would be $6 right... not this time.  Keep reading for the details.

The problem historically with puzzle fundraisers is that people that are able to give more than $6 might buy 10 pieces which is great, but they could likely buy 20 or more pieces if they were invited too.  So to solve this we will be selling chunks of the puzzle that surround different sections.  So for example you will be able to buy the dragon boat in the upper left corner, one of the smaller dragons in the lower right corner, different parts of the large dragon, etc.  What is left of the "filler" pieces we will also be selling in the traditional style of a puzzle fundraiser where each piece has a set dollar value.

When a chunk or piece is sold your name will be written on the back, once the puzzle is completed we will frame or display it somehow so our kids will be able to see who helped bring them home.

I will be blogging occasionally introducing new pieces of the puzzle.  This puzzle is rich in symbolism and I will be sharing the symbolism of each of the different sections.  We would love to have this puzzle filled before the end of April so please consider supporting us with this fundraiser. Once we get the go ahead from Village to Village you will be able to donate directly to them online or you can send in a check.

As Always thank you for supporting our adoption.

To my BEAUTIFUL slant-eyed siblings...

It has taken me very long to be able to work up the nerve to type this. Most of the time I would sit at my laptop and stare at the screen, expecting everything to come out easily and I wouldn't give it a second thought. But this topic is never easy for anyone to talk about. It keeps me up late at night, making it hard to shut down my brain and fall asleep. This may not come easily, but you are so, so worth it.

I love you. Even though you may not believe me at times, I always have and I always will. I wasn't around for the beginning of your lives, I didn't hold you in my arms while you were a baby or get to visit you in the hospital after you were born. But the moment I laid eyes of you, physically or just in pictures, I would have fought to the death for you. You were meant to be my siblings, and even though we aren't blood related, nothing will ever ever ever be able to rip you from my heart.

Here is where I am going with this. Everyone is different, no one is exactly like someone else. That being said, we are all beautiful in our own way. You guys are beautiful, just like everyone else. But, and yes, I am about to break the ice, you don't look like us. You are Chinese, we are American with different family backgrounds. Your skin is darker than ours sometimes, your noses are more flat, and your beautiful eyes are slanted. Like I said before, you are beautiful in your own way. There could never be a more beautiful you, it is simply impossible. Your skin can give you a really nice tan, which you may or may not like :), your noses are more easy to be kissed when they are flatter, and I absolutely love when your eyeballs disappear when you laugh!!!

But listen to me. Like I said, I would fight to the death for you, as I would for Chloe also. It's because I love you. So when I hear people say... awful, terrible things about you or your race, it takes a host of angles to keep me from exploding all over them. Seriously. They don't know you. They don't understand. They make fun of you to be cool, which is STUPID in caps lock.

Without giving away any information, you each have your own medical circumstances. Oh, the things people say because they don't understand! People at my school... The nasty things they say... This is how mad I am right now, my hands are shaking as I try to type. The things all kinds of people say, the looks you may get sometimes... This is all enough to put me over the edge. I have lost count of the nights I will cry myself to sleep knowing that I can't save you from the cruel world we live in. Knowing that I can't protect you, knowing I can't fight every battle for you. Some you just have no choice but to fight on your own.

This is what I am getting at: You are brave. You are strong. You are a VanderMeer. You have the God of the whole universe on your side. You are going to grow up and have one of the best testimonies and inspire all kinds of people. You already have. I know I can't shield you from everything, but I want you to know that you will always have someone fighting for you. No matter what the worlds says. You have me, but you also have God. I am human, sometimes I may fail, but God can't fail. He will never leave you or forsake you. That's a promise. Go and be the things the world needs. You have it... I see it every time I look into your beautiful slanted eyes.

I love you to infinity and beyond!

Love,

Jai Jai Abby

How we can Fundraise and go on Vacation?

There have been many blogs that I have written that have been hard to write, trying to type just the right thing without stepping on toes.  This is not one of them.

The VanderMeer's are going on vacation!!! The last real vacation we have been on was in 2012, so this trip is long overdue.  We will be sitting on the beach soaking up some sun, probably visiting some touristy shops, eating out occasionally and decompressing and we are soooooo looking forward to it.

We don't do it without understanding the paradox.  How can we go on vacation when we are trying to raise money to bring our kids home from China.  Shouldn't that money be spent towards your adoption instead of asking other people to support you?

Let me recap what has happened since out last vacation.  In 2013 we went to China to bring home Chase.  While you see the pictures on Facebook constantly of happy Chase, what you don't see are the hours, days, weeks, months of intentional parenting, dealing with attachment issues, emotional breakdowns, and outright defiance while he tries to find the boundaries.  We love him dearly and would do anything for him, but it is exhausting.  And that is just Chase.

We have done all we can with the girls to make sure they are getting what they need from us always too.  While Chase has caused us to exert a lot of our energy, the girls have been champions in dealing with it.  They understood going into adoption that is wasn't always going to be easy and they have been great at helping and loving and are the best big sisters that I could have imagined Chase having. They have been great examples of grace to us, but we know deep in our hearts that they have sacrificed more than they should have.

Yet despite some of the trials our last adoption brought we would do it all over again.  And we are!  This summer hope to travel to bring home our two newest VanderMeer's from China.  This time we do not do it through the eyes on naive adoptive parents, but knowing full well the struggles we are going to face.  The battles will be daily for a while as we adjust to a family of 7.  We understand that Chase may struggle to understand his place in the family and that we will not be able to lose focus on the foundation that we have built with him.  The girls understand that we will be going back into post adoption mode and we know that while they will perform beautifully that sacrifices will need to be made.

So with all that being said, we are going on vacation.  To us this is not just an escape from regular life for a while, it is a chance to unwind and reconnect as a family and get ready for the times coming up that will NOT be decompressed but that will be difficult.  This is exactly what is needed for our family, we set the money aside from personal funds after our tax return, not from any money raised for the adoption.  We have done a good job of finding ways to enjoy ourselves without breaking the bank, and we are going ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

So you didn't really address the fact that you are fundraising at the same time... don't you feel we need an explanation if you are going to ask us to give to your adoption?  NOPE.

The truth is that most people that have donated to us or that will donate to us either understand the struggles we have gone through and will go through again.  They understand that a vacation right now is exactly what is needed and they won't judge us.  They will likely encourage us.  The people that choose to sit back and judge our decisions are not supporting us anyway.  So I'm not worried about them.

On a last note I wanted to add after reading through this that we are excited about our upcoming adoption.  I don't want anyone thinking that we are not.  We are excited that we are becoming a family of 7, we are excited that we are done with our dossier and that it is in the hands of the Chinese government.  We are excited about picking up our kids and showing them the love of a family.  But because we have done this before we know what to expect.  We are excited to move to the next step but we knew it was coming.

Right now we are most excited about going on vacation, decompressing, reconnecting and spending time together, and hopefully seeing some dolphins.

A Social Experiment - The Hypothesis

Anyone that has been following my Facebook page yet should know two things.  First we are adopting and doing some kind of fundraiser or planning some kind of fundraiser.  Second we recently started using a nutritional cleansing product called Isagenix.  Besides being the best nutritional cleansing product in the world, Isagenix also has a generous compensation plan.  A number of adoptive parents and others before have used it to generate a great residual income for their family. One of our goals was to use Isagenix to raise money for our adoption, and then continue to use that additional income to help pay for medical needs when our kids get home as well as pay off some debt.

I decided over the last couple of weeks that presenting Isagenix which has numerous ways to help millions of people, is much easier than fundraising.  I presented this idea to some of my adoptive friends as a way to help them raise funds for their adoptions, but I got no response.  I was not surprised because it is hard to rewire your brain when you are saving every penny you have to adopt, to instead spend money on a product for yourself that has potential to make money.  I GET IT.  So I decided to do a "Social Experiment".

We recently finished a 10 X 10 Challenge to fill a $3500 match grant.  It was awesome seeing people give and give generously to help us reach this goal.  You might think that we had a ton of people that stepped up to support us in order to reach this goal in 10 days.  But the fact is 20 people supported us. The bulk of the support was from one person who had promised a donation months ago and I asked her to wait to help us with a matching grant.  I'm not complaining, in fact I am very grateful, the point I am trying to make is that fundraising is hard and does not always work out like you might hope.

The Social Experiment

So here is my so called Social Experiment.  We have been informed that we are soon going to be listed on Village to Village, as one of their Adoptive Families.  This is great news and Village to Village is a great organization and allows donors to make tax deductible donations to their site.  The next step in our adoption fees is going to be the orphanage fees.  These fees are to pay the orphanage for caring for our children until we adopt them.  Since we are adopting two we need to pay two fees. To keep it simple we will round each fee to $6000 (it will probably be a little less but without knowing the exchange rate and each orphanage is a little different so we just round).  We will soon be announcing a fundraiser to try to reach one of the orphanage donations. Here are the subjects in my experiment:

Fundraisers

I am going to start a puzzle fundraiser.  In this fundraisers, potential donors can purchase a piece or pieces of a puzzle.  Their name will be recorded on the back of the puzzle piece so we know who has supported our adoption.  The puzzle will be framed when its completed and the total number of pieces will equate the $6000 goal.

Isagenix

In order to maintain an active account with Isagenix we need to continue to order the product.  Which we would want to do anyways. From the day the puzzle fundraiser starts we will also track any income we receive from Isagenix.  We will only record income when it has surpassed the amount we have spent to get our products.

A Few Ground Rules

Whichever subject is able to reach the $6000 goal first will be the win the experiment.  

If a matching grant is given during the experiment, only the donated amount will count towards the experiment.

Totals will be updated at the discretion of the blogger, based on the amount of free time available.

Both the Fundraiser and the Isagenix business will be pursued in the normal operating manner. Neither one will be shown any favor during the experiment. 

This is how the results will be displayed.

A few words from the Blogger

This experiment is for entertainment purposes only.  I really could care less which one wins.  I just want to get my kids home.  My guess is there are some people that don't like this, I don't care.  Again I just want to get my kids home.  Hope you enjoy following along.  Feel free to share this with your friends or try it yourself if you like the results.

Lifesong for Orphans - Made To Love Matching Grant

We just received news from Lifesong for Orphans that we were approved for a $500 matching grant. The grant is issued through our churches orphan ministry called Made to Love.

This is amazing news as our agency fees will be due in just a few short weeks.  While $500 is just a little way towards the money that we need, all funds that come in excess of the $500 matching grant will still be able to be used for our adoption.  Some grants will cap us at the term of the grant.

So Lifesong for Orphans is making it possible for supporters to make a tax deductible donation to our adoption where 100% of the donation benefits our adoption directly.

We are so grateful that the Lord continues to open doors for us to be able to finish this adoption.  If we have any friends reading this considering adoption but scared of the financial portion of this, I want to tell you one thing I have learned over and over again.  The Lord may not show up early, but when you are in His will He always shows up.

If you would like to donate towards this matching grant here are the details Lifesong gave us:

• Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo, note “family name” and “family account number” (Vandermeer/#5064) to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fundraising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption.
• To pay online go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number” and “Family Name” fields. Note PayPal charges an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

Shirt and Hoodie Fundraiser

Spirit Hoodie - Charcoal ($30)

Spirit Hoodie - Red ($30)

Spirit Baseball Tee - Grey w/ Black Sleeves ($25)

Throughout the month of January we will be selling these awesome shirts to raise funds to help bring Micah and Maddy home.  The text on the shirt reads, "Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders." It comes from a song by Hillsong United, but it speaks to where our hearts are in the midst of this adoption.  We don't know what God's ultimate plan is.  But we know from the stories behind us getting to Micah and Maddy that he has a big plan in store for us and them.  And he keeps showing us through little breadcrumbs that he leaves us along the way that His hand is in this.  So we are encouraged to keep moving forward.

Spirit Baseball Tee - Grey w/ Red Sleeves ($25)

The shirts will be on sale for a limited time only.  We will be selling them through the month of January or until we get 50 orders. If we get 50 orders we will let everyone know that there is only a week left to order shirts and then the sale will be over.  The shirts are being purchased through a company called Fund the Nations, we have bought a number of shirts from other adoptive family fundraisers and are very happy with there quality.  Once the sale closes we will place the order and the shirts will be shipped to us.  We will in turn ship them out to those who purchased them.

Pricing is as follows:

Hoodies - $30

Baseball Tees - $25

plus $5 shipping (unless you live locally and we can drop it off)

If you are interested in ordering, please email Matthew at matthewvmeer@gmail .com.  There is a size chart at the bottom of this post that shows the sizes of each of the shirts.  Once we get your order we will send you payment instructions.  If we are shipping your order we will need your address to ship it to also.

As always thank you for supporting adoption.