KluckStock 2010!!

As I, Kristin, make my re-entry back into the world of blogging, I thought I would start off with a bang – and tell you all about Kluckstock!

Kluckstock was the kickoff of our adoption fundraising efforts – a little party we hosted at our church (URC) to tell people about our plans and needs. It was also, incidentally, super fun! We had a boatload of desserts (all homemade by me, and a group of friends – I figure we logged about 48 man-hours last week baking. But boy, what fun!) karaoke, a sweet silent auction, trivial pursuit, and a kids movie! There were lots of folks there (estimates range from 70 – 200)and it looked like everyone was having a great time – we sure did! It was pretty amazing to look around the room and realize that lots of people who are dear to us (it was mostly people from church, but there were several who came to a strange church just for the purpose of supporting us, which was awesome!) took time out of their busy schedules to come hear us talk, give us money, and have a good time. It was even more amazing to see lots of people we didn’t know who came for the same reasons! I was humbled to see lots of college students there too – students who are a lot more mature and selfless than I was when I was a student!

There were tons of people who helped us pull this whole thing off. Trisha and Amie did lots of work getting the silent auction stuff together – which was a huge hit! And a huge amount of work to do, I’m afraid, but I wouldn’t know because I just left it in their capable hands, showed up, and there it was… beautiful! I had lots and lots of kitchen helpers, baking the yummy delicacies we all enjoyed: Heidi, Danielle, Priscilla, Katherine, Steph, Amie, Booty, Margie, Megan and Jami – thanks so much! I think I has as much fun baking as I did at Kluckstock! A big shout out goes to Sherre (facility manager at URC, and Evan and Cheese who undoubtably had more stuff to clean because of us) and the diaconate for letting us take over the building on Friday. Thanks to the DeLeons who let us use their karaoke equipment, that really made some memories! To the unsung heroes, those who took care of kids so the rest of us could have fun, thanks so much! The singing heroes deserve some props too, for getting up there and putting it all on the line -- most notably Carissa, who endured so much razzing beforehand. Your performance was worth the wait! Then there were those who helped us set up and clean up – most notably our beloved Scottie, who stayed with us to the very end. But maybe that was just because he had nothing else to do. And then, there were lots and lots of donations, both items for the silent auction and those who bought the items and just flat out gave us money – thank you thank you thank you!

So you want to hear the best part? Ok, this is pretty amazing, so get ready. We had a bill sitting on my desk from our agency for the remaining agency fee for $7,100. The fundraiser brought in $7,240. Coincidence? I don’t think so! I am so encouraged and thankful to see this tangible evidence of support from the body and God’s ability to provide.

What's next, you may ask. Financially, we still have a long ways to go. Our next big expense (we won't count paperwork and medical exams as "big") will be to buy our plane tickets, and have $20,000 in cash to take with us whenever it is we leave for Ukraine. And there is the little thing of needing a bigger car when we get home, one that will actually fit 3 boosters/carseats (this means a minivan, folks, read it and weep Ted!) So we will be applying for grants and looking for all sorts of ways to make money in the next few months -- more on that in my next post.

Paperwork wise, we've still got the lion's share to do: medical reports & labs, police reports, income documentation (this one's especially fun), FBI fingerprinting, birth & marriage certs, and the dreaded immigration papers. Sometimes I feel like completing the dossier is like having a full time job -- only it's a job I pay for instead of getting paid for!

A big thank you, everyone who made KluckStock so awesome, and thank you readers for caring about this long and torturous process -- and caring about our family! Stayed tuned, I'll be posting weekly...