Are You Up for a Challenge?

I'm so excited about this.  Since coming back to China, I've been trying to figure how how to maintain my involvement with NDFH, a place that will always be near and dear to my heart.  There have been little projects that have come about since coming home - enough to keep me feeling a bit connected - but to be honest, I've been too busy, distracted, and consumed with our own homecoming/resettling and with mothering to stay involved to the degree that I would love.

(I know, I know - Seasons for everything, yada-yada-yada.  I'm OK with the tension right now, but I want to make sure my heart stays soft to the real needs of the world in the midst of us getting ourselves settled and all that it entails... this new furniture buying, cell phone procuring, play-group forming, errand-running life.)

So when I got an email from a friend of New Day asking me to help with a Matching Grant Fundraiser, I was so excited.  It was something I could do to help those kiddos I love so much!  Here's what she sent me:

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I’m just a mom. Just like most of you. I scurry from soccer games to choir, grocery store to library, dishwasher to washing machine. And then finally I fall into bed. Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day, that I forget to look at the horizon, stop and enjoy creation and see the big picture of life. Do you ever feel like that? I know that there is more than “just keeping up.” In James 1:27 we are commanded to look after the widows and orphans in their distress. If you are anything like me you read that and think “but what can little old me do in my small world?” In the midst of our every day comforts we lose sight of the fact that necessities are not equal to wants. Yes, the economy is not what it used to be. Yes, gasoline is on the rise. But how many dollars do we waste and not even blink at it. To an orphan, every dollar counts and makes a difference. 

As most of you know, the first step for many Special Needs kids is to have the surgery they need before they can move toward adoption with their forever families. Please join me in a “Surgery Fund Challenge” for the new kids at New Day Foster Home.  For every dollar pledged, another dollar will be matched up to a maximum of $5,000. (Carrie's Comment: THAT'S A TOTAL OF $10,000 YA'LL!)  Did you know that if just 200 people will commit to $25 we could meet the match amount? Will you consider: giving up eating out for lunch or dinner just once, maybe twice; a pedicure; a couple of Starbucks; or a hair cut and pledge that amount to this fund? Perhaps you could hold a garage sale and give some of your proceeds to the fund; collect aluminum cans; have a bake sale at a soccer tournament and pledge that amount to this fund? Your sacrifice will make a difference to these kids.  

Like many of you, I read the blogs, study the faces of these children, know them instantly by name, and celebrate the arrival of their families. That is nice, but in my heart I know there needs to be more. I realized I can’t make a difference if I sit on the sidelines. Please stand up with me for these kids and pledge whatever you can. Together we can make a difference. Click on the ChipIn button to donate directly to the New Day Foster Home Surgery account.

Thanks for your consideration,
From a Mom just like you

“Then I heard a voice of the Lord saying

‘Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us?’ 

And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’”

Isaiah 6:8

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Do you get what she's doing?! A "Mom just like you" is going to match every dollar we give to this fundraiser up to $5,000. A total of $10,000! That's enough for a heart surgery. All we need to do is give! And, if you want to get more involved, maybe consider reposting this and putting the ChipIn box on your own blog. All the donations made via ChipIn go directly to New Day Foster Home.

You know what I love?  This is not an "official fundraiser" organized by New Day Foster Home (though all donated monies do go directly to them).  It is an outpouring of love and support from those of us who love this place and whose lives have been changed by the children who live there.  I'm excited to see us give them $10,000 for surgeries.

I've been thinking about what I can do to make this a bit more personal to me - other than just posting it once on my blog.  Here's what I came up with.  So I've become slightly obsessive with making hairbows for Cora.  Maybe you've seen some of my work.  (If you've seen a picture of her with a hairbow, it is one I've made.)  Recently I've been approached by some people on the street asking where I got her bows, and when told that I made them, they asked if I could make them some as well.  Maybe there is an Etsy store in my future.  Who knows.  But what I do know is this... They are dang cute, if I do say so myself.  And if you chip in $50 or more to this wonderful cause (and email me to let me know - I don't have anyway of knowing who gives otherwise), I will make you a special little hairbow for your special little gal.  (Or any special little gal in your life.  Heck, you can even send it to your sponsored girl at NDFH!  You know how much they love hair accessories!!)