Fundraising...

So, we haven't been having a huge success with our fundraising efforts.  We have tried gofundme.com and that has brought in some from some of our amazing friends.  We sent out letters explaining our situation to friends and family and we have received some through there as well.  Now we have decided to do a t-shirt fundraiser.  My brother Matt took a design that I showed him and made it our own.  We need to sell 11 to get them printed and we would love to sell all 50 that we set out to sell.  After the 21 days of this sale is up, we will probably do it again with another design. 

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/barry-and-jens-adoption-fundraiser

I really hate trying to get people to give us money.  As much as I know it will take us forever to pay of these loans, I just don't really like having to count on others to raise the money.  People always ask us about why adoption is so much more expensive than having a baby.  One HUGE point is this, most people have insurance to cover the birth of their child.  Insurance doesn't cover adoption.  Ours didn't even cover fertility treatments.  Also, we have found out that most of the money for adoption goes to the agencies.  The birth mom only really sees a small portion of the money for her expenses while she carries the baby.
We recently saw a situation that was over $3,000 over our budget.  Even though the money was so much higher than we had planned, we felt super passionate about the situation.  We said that if it was the right one, we would trust that God would provide the money we needed to make up the difference.
For those of you who have helped us already and those who will help in the future, we appreciate you more than you will ever know.  Thank you so much for being a part of our adoption story.