Home Study Bound and Fundraising Update

                              

It is has been several weeks since our last blog update…and it certainly has been a RELENTLESS few weeks of positive updates, fundraising, and God driven blessings we are thrilled to share with all of you! First and foremost we would like thank everyone for your continued prayers and check-ins over the last several weeks. They mean the world to us and keep us motivated in our journey.

Here is what we have been busy with:

On April 27^th, we participated in a virtual informational meeting, the first formal step in the process with Christian Adoption Services (CAS). This was a much anticipated step in our adoption journey and we were thrilled to be a part of it! We reached out to CAS in October of last year when they notified us that it would several months before their next informational meeting. CAS only accepts a few families at a time into the process to streamline their wait time for placement. This gave us about a 5 month jump start into fundraising! Christian Adoption Services is based out of North Carolina and this is their mission statement:

“The goal at Christian Adoption Services is for children to grow up in Christian homes where they are adopted for the right reasons, loved immensely, cared for, protected, honored for who they are and where they came from. Of all, it is our hope that they come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior so they will spend all eternity with the one true God. We desire for our agency’s ethics and morals to align with scripture, treating all members of the adoption tries with respect and honor. We believe that adoption is not merely a one-stop transaction but rather a journey, and therefore we uphold certain standards that we believe set us apart from many other adoption entities”.

After the informational session, we sent confirmation of our intent to move forward in the process with CAS. The following day, we received the formal application for Domestic Adoption via an online portal. This step took us just over a week to complete and submit the application. It was very detailed and included several online trainings along with lots of paperwork.

On May, 17^th (TODAY) we were notified that our application was accepted and we are officially moving onto the next phase in process- the home study! We have A LOT more paperwork to complete in preparation for our home study which can take several months, perhaps even three months to complete!

Simultaneously, we were working hard at different fundraising opportunities. We reached out to Phillips Farms of Cary to become a vendor at their Farmer’s Market this summer in hopes of raising funds for the adoption. Becoming a vendor motivated the foundation and launch of our new business, Love Relentless LLC! Each vendor is required to have liability insurance and therefore, the move to become an LLC just made sense! We applied for a Federal Tax ID and applied with the State of NC to be able to collect sales tax to accept other forms of payment like credit cards.

We have also partnered with Needmore Farms in Fuquay, NC and began selling our 100% Pure Homemade Madagascar Vanilla Extract at their farmstand!

Needmore Farms held a Lewis Family Adoption Watermelon Sales Fundraiser over Mother’s day weekend. Every seedless watermelon sale that weekend was donated toward our adoption. Over 100 watermelons were sold! This was an amazing demonstration of unconditional love and support!

On May 8^th, we held our first of several Phillips Farms of Cary Farmer’s Market events. We worked tirelessly preparing for the event by building inventory of coffee mugs, tumblers, vanilla extract, etc to sell to raise funds for the adoption. The cost for entry to be a vendor was $35.00. Our hope was to sell enough items to cover the $35 fee and hopefully share our adoption journey with a few people while at the market. A food truck rodeo and the Triangle Pop-Up Craft Market helped bring a large crowd and we raised over $800 in sales! This was an amazing start to what we hope will be a very successful adventure on our next market days as a vendor!

On May 15^th, we participated in our neighborhood yard sale which we turned into another opportunity to raise funds for the adoption! We had several friends and friends of friends donate A TON of items to be sold. We are very thankful of everyone who donated and came out to support the garage sale! It was an early morning and a long day but once again we were blessed and made over $1,000!

Over the last few weeks we have also had some really generous and amazing direct donations! Between our Adopt Together Fund and direct cash donations we’ve received over $700! Some of these donations are from people we don’t even know, which is just another amazing demonstration of unconditional love and of how amazing our village is!

We are looking forward to our upcoming fundraisers:

1.     Come visit us at Phillips Farms of Cary Farmer’s Market

a.     5/29/21 (Memorial Day Weekend)

b.     6/19/21 (Father’s Day Weekend)

c.     8/21/21

 

2.     We are still in the process of planning our Silent Auction/BBQ event hosted by Big Mike’s BBQ in Apex. We have been working really hard at connecting with local businesses for donations for the silent auction! We have a lot of handmade items to auction off along with some great gift cards!

To date, we have raised $11,600 out of our goal of $35,000. We are SO humbled and appreciative of the generosity and support we have experienced! Stay RELENTLESS!