Drumroll please....

This week ended our hand-made ornament fundraiser.  Before I give you the total raised, let me quick tell you how it happened in the first place.

January 2010, I met my new friend Joy for lunch.  She's an momma to bunch of biological, adoptive, and foster kiddos.  I had just started the process and wanted to pick her brain about life in Montgomery as a trans-racial family.

Joy had also invited Layla, a local blogger/photographer, who was interested in starting the adoption process.

At that point, I wasn't much of a blog-reader, so I didn't realize just WHO this sweet, kind, and oh-so talented Layla was.

Little clueless, I was.

Layla writes the Lettered Cottage blog....which has like, over 30,000 readers.

Yeah...people know her.

So, when she asked if she could blog about our lunch and post a few pics, I was thinking about 15 people in Montgomery would see it.

Um...wrong-o.

Lots of folks saw that blog post, which in turn sent them over to check out Waiting on a Word.  And by one simple lunch, I had people from all over that had heard our story and have stuck with us through the last two years.

Enter Jessica.  

She is a fellow adoptive mom who lives outside Atlanta.  Last year, they hand-made ornaments to fundraise for their own adoption.

It went so well, they wanted to do again this year and donate all of the proceeds to another family in the adoption process.

Jessica had been following my blog and our adoption story since she saw it on the Lettered Cottage.

Out of the many, many adoptive families all over the country, she and her husband chose us to be the family they would fundraise for this year.

Jessica sent me an email, explaining their offer, promising she wasn't a stalker, and we humbly said, "heck yes!!!"

They bought the all of the supplies, posted the information and our story on their blog, started making the ornaments on Thanksgiving and shipped the first batch out on that Saturday.

Jessica and Greg spent countless hours and resources making the ornaments and carefully wrapping them and shipping them all over the country.  Jessica even made us ornaments for our boys with their names on them.

All for our family.  Complete strangers who share the bond of adoption.

That is amazing.

One lunch.  One blog post.  Two years later.

One REALLY big blessing in our lives.

Our ornament fundraiser brought in $1680!

We had additional $355 donated in the fundraiser...

Which brings the total to $2035! 

First, a big THANK YOU to those of you who purchased the ornaments.  We hope that this year, as you look at the ornaments, you will pray for our process with Tyson as we are hoping to travel SOON to finally meet our son.  In the years to come, we hope that the ornaments will be a reminder to pray for the many children worldwide who are waiting for their forever families.

Joy, thank you for being an honest, vulnerable example of living life as a transracial family in our town.  You continually encourage and challenge me.

Layla, thank you for having a blog that everyone on the planet reads.  Thank you for including me that day in your blog post- it really should have been a post all about Joy and her amazing family, but you were gracious to add me too.  Because of that, you were a big part in helping us raise over $2,000 for our adoption.

And finally, Jessica and Greg, thank you, thank you, thank you for choosing us.  We are so grateful for the many, many HOURS you spent making sure that this fundraiser was successful.  One day soon we will meet in person and I will get to hug your necks.  Thank you for being obedient to what God was calling you to do and for being willing to do this for a family you've never met.

We are continually amazed at the way God has provided for us in this journey.