The Bolton Family

I recently told someone that I am convinced that God is clearest in the unexpected places. This was all the more evident this past weekend. We had our first garage sale and were able to raise ~$700. We pulled up at 6:00 AM and before we had the second box on the lawn there was someone coming to look at what we had. At 2:00 PM we closed shop and literally had people sifting through the boxes as we were loading stuff back in the garage. The most expensive thing we sold was $40, but on average we were selling stuff for a buck or two. Between the first garage sale, donations and the money we've raised selling stuff on Craigslist we've raised the first 10% of our $20,000. With that I am beside myself. Our family, co-workers and friends have been so encouraging and inspiring. We've had boxes of stuff donated, money donated and help coordinating every aspect of the garage sale. All we can say is thank you. Everyone has been amazing and God has been incredibly faithful.

We will be having another garage sale coming up in the next month or so, different location (TBD), lot's more clothes, old DVD's/VHS's, McDonald's toys, etc... If you have items to donate and missed this last garage sale please let us know and we will do whatever we need to connect the dots.

We go forward,

Chris, Nicole, Caden & Eli

Reasons to be excited...

- Today America World receieved our signed contract and first program deposit. We now get matched with a family coordinator and begin assembling our dossier/do our home study. We are so appreciative for those who have asked us questions, for those who have shared in our excitement, for those who have shared their adoption stories with us and for those who have either partnered with us financially or our partnering with us in volunteering their time/energy. We are surrounded by people who amaze us.

- Saturday is our first big garage sale. We are very excited to see what happens this weekend.

- Nicole just brought me a Starbucks brownie at work. My wife rocks.

- There are a million more reasons to be excited, but that's what tomorrow's for, eh?

Chris

P.S. I always thought it a little ridiculous when you read people's adoption blogs they often talk about there overwhelming compulsion to be constantly checking their email/phone/mailbox. I thought life moves, you aren't going to get anything sooner just because you check it a million times. Unfortunately I must confess I have fallen into the same trap. I have checked our email for further correspondence from our coordinator about 35 times since this morning when I know she received our documents. My apologies to all whom I have judged and I am going to deny the temptation to constantly monitor my email, we've got plenty of time for that.

As many of you know, our first fund-raiser/way to raise money for the adoption is here. Well, technically it's Saturday. Our place has never looked so clean what with the extreme spring cleaning we have been doing over the past two weeks. Thank you to all those who have donated and to those who are still digging in their garage thank you in advance. Please bring in any donated items as soon as possible so that we can coordinate delivery to the destination garage. We do have more garage sales being held in the next couple weeks so if you miss this one don't resign that box of forgotten McDonald's toys to collecting dust in your garage. Please bring them. If it's not this garage sale we'll work it into the next one.

Details:

May 8th, 2010
7:00AM - 2:00PM
14320 Cabell
Bellflower, CA 90707

What we're selling: A whole lot of awesome stuff. Toys, clothes (both adult and kids), books, DVD's, tools, couches, etc...

Any questions my cell is (714) 658-0679

Redeeming one thing at a time,

Chris, Nicole, Caden & Eli

This past week Nicole and I both missed a call from a out of state number. When we checked our messages it was Teresa from America World saying "Hey Chris/Nicole this is Teresa, I have some great news for your family. Call me back."

If you've been following along we've been waiting on a response from America World as they evaluate our qualifications to be placed in their Rwanda adoption program.

We called Teresa back and were ecstatic to find out that we have been accepted into the program. On top of that we've been able to raise about $1,000 of the $1,500 that we need as we enter into contract with America World.

God has already started to open doors, to connect us with other people who want to join us in this journey and to burden us/those around us with adoption. We continue to be amazed, humbled and awe-struck by God's faithfulness and God's people's faithfulness.

I couldn't say thank you enough, but once again thank you for joining with us in this journey even if it's only to read this blog. Our prayer is that it stirs you to act.

Chris, Nicole, Cade & Eli

We heard back from America World this morning and they needed some additional financial information that wasn't included in our original application. One of the questions was how are we planning on financing the adoption...our answer...any and every way possible...donations, fund-raisers, no interest loans, I'm wondering what the black market will pay for a kidney. I only need one. Needless to say it seemed like the perfect opportunity to launch our first fund-raiser.

Within the first couple months we are going to need to raise $6,000 (of the total $20,000 needed) which covers the 1st installment of our program fee, our home study and then all the preparation of the dossier. Unfortunately we can't apply for any grants or any loans until we get an approved home study, kind of the "yes, these people are okay to adopt and not lunatics" box gets checked.

With that said, we are planning our first fundraiser. It's going to be an awesome, huge insanely productive garage sale. We are gathering together everything that's not nailed down and having a big garage sale.

Date: Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Where: TBD - We will update you once we nail that down
Why: To raise money to bring home our baby
How you can help: This comes in many parts
1) Pray: I'll be honest we don't have the means to cover the adoption (see above), but believe God has called us to adoption and at the end of the day who am I to tell God "sorry, we don't have the money right now"
2) Donate items to sell: We will sell anything, seriously anything, if it doesn't get picked up at the garage sale we will sell it on Craigslist or Ebay or to our cooky neighbor
3) Host a garage sale yourself: I know we have a lot of supporters and at the end of the day we will have more impact having more than one garage sale, if it seems like something you'd be willing to do we could help coordinate people bringing their stuff over to your place as well
4) Did I mention Pray: Sometimes I stop and think about what we are doing and when I am done breathing into a paper bag I am reminded that we are not adopting for the necessity of having a child, we have two children we love very much, but this is the opportunity to breathe into another childs life and show them love, support, Christ, faith and how to play a recorder with your nose (as well as a multitude of other things).
5) Donate money. Whatever you feel led to donate, even if it's only five dollars. I think that might be half the cost of preparing one of the documents we need. Every dollar gets us that much closer to our goal.

Thank you for everything. Thank you for praying, for helping, for donating. Thank you for sharing with us in our vision and for partnering with us.

Chris, Cole, Cade & Eli