My Last Minute List

Our visit to Houston was wonderful.  Fun times with my sister and nephews, my parents, and our best friends.  And yes, we surprised their socks off.  It was awesome!

I know a number of you reading have told me you know someone who wants to adopt, who is thinking about adoption, or you are in the process of adopting.  I wanted to provide my most practical piece of advice, my Last Minute List.  As the nursery was coming together, and we were purchasing more and more off of our registry, I decided to make a list of items that we would need were we to get a last minute phone call.  It also included last minute tasks and chores that would need to be done.  It would be a list we could email out to friends and supporters to see if anyone wanted to purchase any of the bigger items or to see if anyone wanted to help me with some minor preparations.  My list included bigger items we were in need of including a car seat, stroller, swing, and pack-n-play.  It also had chores including laundering bed linens, clothes, blankets, and washing bottles and pacifiers.

On the day when we got the phone call about "Elliott" one of the first things I did was open my Last Minute List.  I began tasking out jobs and decided what I could do myself.  The incredibly awesome part about our trip to TX was that our car seat, stroller, swing, and pack-n-play were all purchased for us the week before we got the phone call.  It was all shipped to Michigan and waiting for us when we got back from TX.  There were only a few items left to be purchased.  For all of those times when I felt crazy at Babies R Us buying things for myself, I was completely prepared for that last minute phone call.  All of my preparation had payed off.  Yes, people could have bought us those things last minute as well, but I much preferred them providing meals and diapers for us instead.

Another item not on my Last Minute List, but something that we knew we would need was CA$H.  It was something that we continued to communicate about with people through email updates and in person.  Our friends were gracious enough to ask when we would see them how the fundraising was going, and we would be open about it.  Friends and supporters would send us checks for the adoption for hundreds and thousands of dollars.  One couple offered to email a list of their friends they knew would be interested in our situation.  Complete strangers sent us money.  Again, thousands of dollars.  By the end of the summer we had $11,000 and were only in need of a few thousand more to add to what we had saved up to put toward the adoption.  Amazing.

More to come,

Amanda