Young Ladies Helping Hudson Home

* A month or two ago, some young ladies contacted us about wanting to do a fundraiser to raise funds to help bring our son Hudson home.

* At first they wanted to do a car wash, but that didn't work out.

* So, they decided to do an event in which families could drop off their young children for a few hours while the parents went on a date for several hours.

* These young ladies are incredibly intuitive, innovative, passionate, and caring.

* The event went over very well and 4 families dropped their kids off for a few hours while the parents went on a date event.

* They didn't just 'watch' the younger kids and put them in front of a TV, they taught the younger children. They did crafts with them, help teach them about Jesus & His resurrection. It was a

* I talked with their mom and the mom explained how the girls came up with the idea by themselves and it was from their desire that this idea was born.

* About a week later, we received a note in the mail from them and a cashier's check for $205.17.

* We were completely humbled by this $200+ donation, but even more than the actual $$$ amount, was the heart that these young ladies put into the event to help us get our son home.

* These young ladies used their God-given creativity to give of their time and expertise (teaching and training younger children) to help us raise funds to complete our adoption.

* To everyone involved, in this both in the young ladies who ran the event, the parents who helped them, and the parents who dropped their kids off...THANK YOU!!!!

Meet the McAlpine's...rejoicing in the Lord

Meet Clinton & Amanda McApline: I love the name of their blog: 'Walk by Faith - seeking joy over happiness while waiting in the darkness.' Beautiful.

This past weekend they had an Adoption Fundraiser in Minneapolis, MN.

Please read...it is a very encouraging post. CLICK HERE

Pray for them also. They are waiting for a referral of a sibling group from Ethiopia. Waiting is hard, but good.

Are you overwhelmed with adoption expenses?

If so, read the link I posted below. It is really encouraging. I don't know Tim and Alicia Rowe, but was reading their blog and was totally encouraged by one of their posts related to adoption expenses and how God provided and is providing for them.

 Here is the LINK their blog post of how God provided!

A fun idea

A family in our church has 3 girls who love our kids and have gotten behind us in our current adoption.

Next Saturday then are having an open house for families with small kids who want to drop them off for 3 or 4 hours to get a date night and whatever money they raise they are going to put it toward our current adoption.


We are so thankful for the countless people who have helped us and especially for some creative youngsters who are trying to help bring our son home!!!

Thanks Atha's!!!!

Garage Sale Fundraising Tips

To all the other families out there who are in the process of adopting and don't have the capabilities to write a $25,000 check to complete your adoption, a garages sale/community sale/etc. is 1 of many great ways to help raise awareness and funds for your adoption or someone else's adoption.

If you are thinking and brainstorming ideas of what to do, we thought we'd just share a few things we found helpful in our case.

1. Surround yourself with people who love you, will stay up late with you, get up early with you and blister their feet (literally) with you and for you.

2. Have multiple items to sell. Of course lots of garage sale items, but also sell drinks, freezer jam, donuts, pizza, etc. People like variety.

3. Make clean, clear signs giving good information. I know one thing for sure...whenever I see a yard sale sign I usually can tell from the look of the sign what type of sale it is going to be. If the sign is sloppy and throw together at the last minute, I can almost guarantee that the yard sale will be arranged and ordered in the same manner. Seems like a small thing, but it isn't. Also, make sure the signs are big enough for people to read from 40 feet away.

4. For us, we decided to do a 1 day sale. This had more to do with our location, etc. but it worked out ok for us.

5. Advertise in the appropriate spots. 1) Good signs in a lot of places 2) Craigslist 3) Facebook - make it a noteworthy item for people to talk about and spread 4) Newspaper - people still actually read the newspaper for yard sale information. I made sure I talked with people to see how they heard about our sale and a few of them said the newspaper...so I guess it was worth it.

6. Have a Donation Box.- We had several people put some extra change/bills in there. Our message was being communicated and their hearts were stirred by our story. We don't take any credit for that...it is simply the graciousness of the Lord to provide in this manner.

7. Have a sheet with information about where to send Tax-Deductible Donations.

8. Expect rain - I think it is something the Lord allows to make sure our dependence is on the Lord and not in circumstance & pray that it doesn't

9. Be amazed at how God works.

Giving Thanks...Adoption Fundraiser Update

Saturday was a flurry of activity:
To bed on Friday night at 1:30 am, awake at 4:40 Saturday morning.
Begin setting up at 5 am and shoppers starting come at 7 am Saturday morning

We saw the Lord answer countless prayers and are so grateful to everyone who helped us in countless ways.
Here are some answers to prayers:

* Between items sold, generous people contributing toward our adoption and selling our Change Your World For One designed shirts, the Lord brought in $5,375 which all goes directly toward the remaining costs associated with our adoption of our son Hudson.

* People understood why we were doing this and thus didn't barter much. They were excited to buy stuff that they needed, especially knowing that it was helping an orphan and his family get united. Several people even paid more than the cost of the items...absolutely unheard of in the world of garage/yard sales.

* When we left our house at 5:00 am, it was beginning to rain. (First rain in probably 3 weeks) As we set up, put tables out, the weather was extremely threatening, but it cleared up and turned out to be a fabulous day. Not too hot, not to cold...it was perfect.

* Tons of helpers. We are so blessed to know and be loved by the greatest people in the world. If you ever decide to do an event like this, make sure you are surrounded by people who would die for you...and blister for you. There were several families who were at the Sale all day long and got very tired, hungry, sore, and they continued to serve in the strength & joy of the Lord. A special thanks to our growth group/community group from church who have given so much as we have gone down this road of adoption!!!

* Tons of items to sell. There was no shortage of items to sell. Tables after table after table after table of stuff to sell. We had a steady stream of helpers who would move things around, rearrange items, and helped customers.

* People who came to the sale. There was steady activity from 7:30 am through 3 pm and people still came between 3 and 5 pm. Seeing that we are toward the end of summer, we were wondering if we'd get people because a lot of people would be getting their last summer activities taken care of before school starts. There was somewhere between 500 and 800 people who came to this sale.

* Location of the sale. My broker's at Windermere were extremely gracious to use their building and parking lot for the sale. In real estate, the phrase 'location, location, location' is used regularly...same is true for a big sale like this.

* The church across the street that was having a HUGE Rummage sale at the same time...so that boosted the activity. When we chose the date of the sale (about 2 months ago) we had no idea of this. Friendly surprise and the Lord answering prayer before we even were praying for it.

* WE SOLD A LOT OF STUFF. When the sale was over, we only had about 1/8 of the items to pack up and move back to our house.

* Union Gospel Mission volunteered to come and pick up the items that didn't sell.

* There was only 1 big heavy item that didn't sell...which at the beginning of the sale, there were about 8 big heavy items. There was 1 lady who said she would have bought it, but it couldn't fit in her house...but SHE GAVE US $80 to put toward our adoption. Amazing.

Adoption Fundraiser Community Sale - TOMORROW - Aug 21st

Today is the final day of preparation and tonight is going to be a full night!!!

We still have people dropping off donated items for the sale, which we are thrilled about.

We are going to move all the items (part of what you'll see in the video) over to the location of the sale tonight from 7 to 11 pm.

Then tomorrow, bright and early, we are going to be setting up from 5 am to 8 am and the sale begins at 8.

Here is the Link to the Craigslist Ad we have posted if you want to see more details of what we will be selling.

The Change Your World For One shirts are in and we will be selling them at the sale. We hope to have sold all 115 shirts by the end of the day. (Don't worry if you have already ordered, we will have your shirt to either pick up or we'll be mailing them to the out-of-towner's early next week.)

Again, the details of the sale are as follows:

August 21st, 8 am to 5 pm
9017 N. Country Homes Blvd.
Spokane, WA 99218

From our calculations today, we should have about $5,000 to $6,000 of priced items For Sale at the Help Hudson Home Adoption Fundraiser.

If there is anything unclear in this post or you have follow up questions regarding anything, please feel free to email me at dustin@changeyourworldforone.com OR  call me at 509-435-1107.

2 Days Until Garage Sale of the Year

• Picked up 2 more loads of items last night
• our neighbors graciously let us use their garage because our house is completely full. Good thing the weather is nice because the kids can play outside...no place to play inside.
• Picking up 2 or 3 more loads tonight
• Have 4 more loads of items dropped off at the location of the sale tomorrow.
• Will have a Frig to sell, Stand up Freezer to sell, 4+ desks, 5 televisions
• Kids toys galore
• Probably $6,000 to $8,000 total items to sell
• Anyone who has come to our house in the last few days has looked inside and said, 'OOOOHHHHHH MMMMYYYYYYY this is a lot of stuff'.
• Contacting News Companies
• Craigslist Ad going out tomorrow.
• Facebook Event going out later today
• First Church of the Nazarene is directing across the street from my Windermere office and will be having a Sale also that same day. 

Thank you everyone for contributing, helping, supporting us and our family as we seek to raise the remaining $9,500 needed to bring our son Hudson home from Ethiopia within the next 3 to 6 months.

Garage Sale Update...4 days away.

• We continue to get lots and lots of stuff to sell



Full Garage - It will be organized

•  Beautiful Ar-moire ( I really don't know how to spell that word)
• Several Desks
• A few tables
• Tools
• Kitchen ware
• Etc. Etc. Etc
• Fine China
• Christmas Trees
• Kids toys
• Weights
• More, More, More
• Strollers
• Tables and Chairs
• Our Garage is totally stuffed full of sale items



Living Room

• Our living room is overflowing
• Our bedrooms are now getting filled up
• We Love it...we have several more people who are contributing items as the sale gets closer by the minute. 
• This should be a great sale. We know the amount of people who come and buy is completely in the Lord's hand, but we are hopeful.
• August 21st, 8 am to 5 pm
• 9017 N. Country Homes Blvd. Spokane WA 99218

Camille's bedroom

 


  -

Spokane and Beyond: We need YOUR Help!!!

Yes, our Spokane Yard/Everything sale fundraiser is almost here! It is easy to dream about an event like this, it is quite another to pull it off...lots of time and lots of work.

We have been so blessed by countless people giving toward the sale and we are humbled by people in their support and now that the sale is a week away, we are really feeling the crunch.

PLEASE come help us and be part of the fun! I really think this is going to be a blast!


Here's what we need help with:

Sale Information - Make sure you see the AUGUST 21st DATE.

1. Volunteers to come help at the sale

- We need help pricing and sorting on Thursday (08/19) evening. If you can come anytime after dinnertime, that would be awesome!!

- Friday evening (after 6 pm) we will be moving all of the inventory from our house to the location of the sale. Thankfully it is only about a mile away, but we will need some good trucks and some bodies to help move the items & getting the tables ready to set up for Saturday morning.


- We need help setting up Saturday Morning early, like at 5 am. We'll be up early setting up tables and laying out the merch (we have to pull everything out of boxes and lay it out to be displayed. This is a huge job, so if you can come help with this, even for a little bit before you head off to work that morning, that would be UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME! Our sale starts at 8 a.m. so anytime before that that you can come help... we'll be here working and would love an extra set of hands to help! And helping set-up means you get first dibs on all the awesome stuff we have to sell!

- We need extra bodies throughout the course of the sale. Can you come hang out on Saturday for a while? With a big sale, and lots of shoppers, it seems like there is always something that needs to be done, or someone that needs help. This is one of the easier jobs, but just as important!

- We need help tearing down Saturday evening! The plan is to coordinate a pick-up for all the leftover stuff at the end of the sale, but we'll need to get it all off the tables and boxed back up. Again, a big job that requires lots of hands.
    * For the items we don't sell (depending on how much) we will be transporting it back to our garage and selling via Craigslist or having a smaller garage sale over the course of the next two weekends at our house. Whitworth University begins that next week, so hopefully some ridiculously rich parents will come by our house and want to help with our adoption by purchasing garage sale items for their new freshman students. :)

 And you can be there to witness us tallying up the grand total and then doing our happy dance!

2. WE NEED CANOPIES


- We have lots of stuff to sell, and we need lots of tables to display it all. Folding tables, card tables, saw horses and ladders with wood to lay across them... If you can help us out by lending us any of these items, again, it would be AWESOME!

- The weather looks like it is going to be good. Let's hope it isn't the 2nd day of rain we will have seen in the last 60 days.



4. Spreading the Word

- Tell your friends!

- Email people you know!

- Facebook and Tweet about it! Just link to this post.

- And pick up some flyers from us and post them where you work, or in your neighborhood, or hand them out to people!



5. PRAYER - We would love to have this fundraiser covered in prayer. That might sound cheesy to you, but it is not.  Would you please join us in praying for this next yard sale? We need prayer for...


- Lots of traffic (shoppers, shoppers, shoppers)

- Plenty of help

- Health and energy for all of us working the sale


- God to move in a MIGHTY way again through this fundraiser!



Please email (dhgreenup@gmail.com) O call us and let us know if you can help!!



Thank you all for your support and encouragement! What would we do without you all?? We love ya!

Day 4 of wearing 'Change Your World For One' shirt(s)

If you have read the earlier posts, you will have read that I am going to wear the 'Change Your World For One' shirt(s) until we go to Ethiopia to bring our son Hudson home, or at least until we have the remaining amount needed to complete the adoption...$9,500.

Our Big Garage Sale is this upcoming Saturday.


Regarding T-Shirts sales, we have firm orders for 33 thus far. If we sell 633, the full amount of the adoption will be completed...so you will see on the sticker below that I am referencing # of t-shirts sold as a marker for our progress toward the remaining amount of $$$ for the adoption.

So, you'll see that on Day 4 of T-Shirt selling we have sold 33 of 633 needed. Once the garage sale is over I imagine that number will jump quite a bit.

Here is a picture to see what I mean. I look forward to updating the number of t-shirts sold. If you are considering ordering one, the sooner the better.

Day 4 = Number of consecutive days wearing 'Change Your World For One' shirt

33 of 633= Approximate number of shirts sold

P.S. Regarding the Ladies T-Shirts, ladies have mentioned they like them because they aren't like a typical t-shirt, because a lot of ladies just don't wear t-shirts...so please know they have a little tighter fit and don't have that typical t-shirt look and feel.

T-Shirts for Sale

Some sample T-shirts are in and we will be ready to take orders probably starting tomorrow. Below are a few pictures of the style and design.

Men's medium

For $20 you get a great looking shirt along with the fact that the proceeds of shirt sales go directly toward the remaining money needed to complete our adoption. As of August, 12, 2010 we need approximately $9,500.

*The mens and women's shirts look the same but the ladies are a bit more taylored to fit curves. 

* Sizes run a bit small. For example Dustin is wears a Men's Large and it is pretty loose and Heidi wears a woman's Medium and it fits nicely. In the picture on the right, Dustin is wearing a Men's Medium.


If you are out of Spokane, WA area, we'll need to add $3 for shipping the shirts. If you buy more than 1, we'll keep the price of shipping at $3. Thanks for understanding.

Ways to Buy:

1. Click on the PayPal 'DONATE' link on the right side of the page and then each shirt is $20. So if you are buying 2 shirts, put in $43 ($3 shipping) if we will be shipping the shirts to you.

2. Pay by Check. Email us at dustin@changeyourworldforone.com  and we'll send you our address of where to send the check and we'll send you the number of t-shirts you have ordered.

3. Facebook Dustin

4. Facebook Heidi

Thank you to Zome Design for taking our chicken scratch design and making it into a sweet shirt & helping us make selling the t-shirts a vialble option.

Adoption Garage Sale Video, inspiring

The video below has been an inspiration to us of why we are doing our garage sale. Heidi and I were talking last night and I asked her what she was hoping this garage sale would raise in funds??? She said, "Somewhere between $3,000 and $3,500 would be great!"

Yes, that would be great. I think Heidi would attest to the fact that I am usually the one who is a bit out of the box in my thinking, but this caught me off guard (in a good way). I was thinking somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500...but we have had many many people contribute toward the sale, so maybe that is possible. Thankfully we serve and great and glorious God who loves to bless and show Himself faithful.

ABBA FUND is the site I originally saw this site.

Help Hudson Home Sale - August 21st

On Saturday, August 21st, we are going to be having a HUGE sale to help raise the remaining $9,500 needed to complete our adoption from Ethiopia.

Location: 9017 N. Country Homes Blvd.
               Spokane, WA 99218


If you'd...
 ...like to help us on the day of the sale (or the days before) we would love it. We have countless items to organize, arrange, price and get ready for the sale.

If you'd...
...like to get the word out to other people who might be interested in coming and spending loads of money, let them know. :) (Just kidding, every $1 helps)


If you'd...