An overview:
- Donate money - Donate time to help with the sell - Tell all your friends about our sell and its purpose - Introduce us to someone who can hook us up on a good deal for rentals (popcorn machine ect.)
Again, all money raised will go towards our | |
Hey everyone, You are officially invited to my Garage Sale Fundraiser.... See details when you click on the PowerPoint (get it?) below! Want to help out but can't make it or have nothing to add to the sell? Please consider donating to our Kapipal page. We are also talking about renting a cotton candy or popcorn machine, grilling up some hotdogs, maybe a bake sale.... anything that people would get people to open their wallets, so we are also looking for volunteers to meet and greet our 'customers', help them, and help explain why we are having the sale. If you are interested in helping or donating please contact me!
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Well, after tons of research and brainstorming, I think I figured out how to make the "envelope sale" work online!! I found this site called Sign Up Genius, and you can use it to organize meals, volunteers, or even tasks. In my last blog I explained what an envelope sale fundraiser is and my doubts of the success of something like that unless I could find a online format for it, and I found it!
To make it unique to me, I changed the format and named it "A Pre-Baby Shower". Instead of envelopes numbered 1-25 or so I named gifts normally given at a baby shower, and asked friends and family to pick the present they want to gift, such as bottles, and instead of buying the bottles, sending the cash value of the bottles rather than the gift itself. The concept behind the 'game' is to relate the money value to a gift someone would or has bought another couple for their shower. People tend to have negative connotations when the idea of giving someone money out right, but usually have no problem buying items for someone else. I shared my idea with my dear husband and he said it was cool, but a little early for a baby registry(he didn't understand the concept), and while it is too soon to get or buy any baby related items, I am more than happy to forgo a normal baby shower in the future to help raise money to pay the costs associated with making the baby I get to bring home! Anyways, let me know what you think; personally, I think it is pretty cool! To view my Pre-Baby Shower Click Here! In other news, I came up with a possible T-shirt design for those who donate $50 or more on Kapipal, let me know what you think of it! Research has never been easy for me, I tend to get easily distracted... a lot! But when it comes to all things baby research is one of two preparations I can do. The other being fundraising. With the cost of our surrogacy to be around $30,000 (ideally) I have heard horror stories that couples have spent upwards of $200,000!! Now, while we hope to never come near that kind of cost, we are still facing a substantial financial set back. In many situations I have heard of couples borrowing money against their equity of their home or from their IRA's, unfortunately we have no equity and the IRA is not an option either. A personal loan is another route some couples go, and while this is an option, it is our last option as the monthly payments could make it hard to raise the child once he or she is here. That leaves us with trying to make and raise as much of the costs as we possibly can. As you know by now we have started a Kapipal account which is similar to gofundme or other crowdfunding sites but with much smaller fees then the larger sites. Unlike some crowdfunding sites that can charge up to 12% or more, Kapipal charges $0.30 and 2.9% per transaction, which is a large percentage for a smaller donation ($1 donation ends out being $0.66 after the fees) but works out much better for larger donations ($20 is $19.12 after fees).
Today we signed up for a Flower Power fundraiser. This site sells bulbs and seeds for your garden and donates 50% of every sell to our journey! I like this because it is free to sign up and people are buying items instead of just giving you money, it feels less like panhandler then asking for straight donations. The next fundraiser idea we are planning is a massive (hopefully) garage sale in early spring, and maybe a second one in late spring. I am hoping to have a banner made that has a brief story of what the garage sale is benefiting, and maybe also one or two other attractions such as a bake sale or raffle or something like that. One fundraiser that I keep reading about is called an "envelope sale" actually it is called a lot of things, but in this fundraiser you have a set number of envelopes, for example 25. Each envelope is numbered 1-25 and guests choose an envelope and donate the dollar amount on the envelope, so #1 would donate $1 (or more), #2 would donate $2, #25 would donate $25, if every envelope is 'sold' 25 envelopes would raise $325, if 100 envelopes were collected at each amount the total will be $5,050, and 50 envelopes would collect $1,275). I love this idea, but the problem is I do not have that many local friends, so I would have to find a way to do it online, and I am struggling to figure that part out. Do you have any ideas to make it work? Do you have any fundraising ideas or opportunities? Let us know in the comments below! Oh my gosh! Is it just me or does it seem like the days are dragging? I feel like I should be doing more, I guess in a way I am nesting but at the same time I know there isn't too much more that I could be doing at the moment. I am planning a fundraiser, promoting my Kapipal Fundraiser page, and making appointments as necessary, but it feels like I am missing something.
Two days ago was Valentine's Day and it was sweet and heartbreaking to see all of my friends and family posting pictures of their children as their Valentines. I am very lucky to have the husband that I do, and I know I will forever have a Valentine in him, but it is hard to stop and be thankful when my heart aches for a second Valentine to love and cherish. I was asked a while ago if my lack of ability to mother a child was God's way of telling me I am not suppose to be a mom, and this got me thinking, I wonder if this person would have had the same attitude had it been them that could not conceive. Many of you reading have children, could you imagine your life without them? Imagine not getting to hold them for the first time, or their first steps, first day of school. I guess if you do not want kids, this wouldn't seem like a big deal but for 1 in 6 couples that deal with infertility this is our hell. I am not trying to gain sympathy or anything like that, this has just been on my mind the past week and needed to vent. Oh my goodness! Sometimes it feels like time is standing still, or maybe it is me, but I must remember that time is moving and sometimes the only progress that can be made is to watch the time pass!
The day after my last post I received a call from my doctor's office telling me that they wanted me to come in to go over labs, it freaked me out but it turns out they were just telling me what I already knew, that I had PCOS and that he was going to put me back on meds to help. While I was there the Doctor asked me when he will meet with my surrogate and I explained that our friend and surrogate does not live in Washington and asked if a phone call would suffice, he agreed and the appointment is made for the two of them to talk! The next thing is to meet with a lawyer and start getting the contract all set up. I hate dealing with lawyers, but maybe this will be better than the last time! To fill my time I am working (which almost all profits from my business goes towards this journey, other profits go back into the business, or are donated to a local charity), and trying to organize a fundraiser to help with the costs. I am thinking a garage sale/ bake sale? I don't know for sure, any ideas? This of course is in addition to our Kapipal account where our goal is $5000, which will pretty much cover the lawyer fees, so that will help! I have heard of one couple that bought candy at costco then sold it at work to friends as a fundraiser, however because I am my own boss and only employee that doesn't work for me and I am not sure it would go over well at Brad's work. Well it is back to work for me, after being sick all last week I have some catching up to do! Yesterday I finally was able to talk to my doctor about my potential surrogates. He was very happy with both my options but overall felt one was a safer bet. I have contacted said surrogate and we are figuring out what comes next! If everything goes as planned we could be pregnant as soon as July!! What!! We still have a lot to do before that point though. The surrogate has to meet with my doctor, we all have to meet with a counselor to make sure we are mentally ready for this, and we also have to meet with a lawyer to get a contract written up. Once all that is done we can start hormone therapy to prepare my body for the egg harvest and the surrogates body for the transfer. Now is when all the big bills start coming! I mean its going to be about $5000 just in lawyer fees! But I know in the end it will all be worth it when I get to hold my biological child(ren)! I am beyond excited but I know there is still a very long road ahead! 6 months until conception and then another 9 months till birth! But 15 months is nothing compared to the 9 years we have already waited! Please consider donating to the cause: And a HUGE THANK YOU to those that have already donated and/or wished us luck! Without the support of our friends and family this would not be possible!!
EEEK!! We received our first Three donations! I could not be more excited! We are saving like crazy and I am working my butt off in my business so we can put more and more money away but the fact that we have friends that care enough to help means sooo much to Brad and I!
Still not a lot to say, I have two potential surrogates that I am going to 'report' to my doctor, hopefully he thinks one or both of them would make a great surro for us. I will know more next Friday. I am in that place right now, a place I have been before, where it is way too early to plan, buy, and decorate, but at the same time, what else am I suppose to do? I am praying the next few months will fly by and that everything goes as planned. I guess it is a good thing that I have my business and some short term goals I am striving for! On one of the sites that I frequent that is for Surrogates and IPs, there is a forum titled, "In the Meantime" it asks what other IPs do to make the time pass. What did you do to make the time pass, whether that time was the pregnancy, or whatever your path was, how did you handle the 'meantime'? So, even though there is not too much to share right now, just that we are seeking surrogacy as a way to build our family and that we are seeking the perfect surrogate we have gone public! I do not want to bombard our friends and family with Facebook posts every time something happens, or doesn't happen, although it will probably happen anyways, so I will be posting updates here on our site. Please feel free to ask me anything, send prayers and well wished and anything else to show your support. I am a very open person and think that surrogacy is a beautiful thing for one woman to do for another, so I am all about helping educate people on what it is!
Our news today is that we have 2-3 people friends that have offered to surrogate for us, I feel fairly confident that our doctor will like at least one of them, however we would like as many offers as possible just in case it doesn't work out. If you are willing to surrogate or would like more information on what surrogacy is, or how to start your search for a surrogate please feel free to contact me!! Common requirements are that you:
Recently I learned that some surrogates carry for intended parents (IPs) in different countries. A new surrogate friend of mine is carrying a baby for a couple in Sweden and she lives here in the US so location isn't really a factor like I though it would be. Well better get to work! Let me know what you want to hear about! How is it possible that time can both stand still and fly at the same time! I cannot believe it is already the 13th but at the same time waiting for the 20th is excruciating! There really isn't a lot to update you on today, which is why we haven't exactly gone public with our decision, we are waiting till we have something to tell. Mean while... what to do. Well we have kind of started our search for a Surrogate, we know what we are looking for in a surro but we are searching very hard yet. Again we are waiting to talk to the doctor and see exactly what our timeline and path will look like. I am so excited though, it is hard to be patient! So to help me pass time tell me about you, or ask me a question. It has been a non-stop kind of weekend and I am beat! But I did just want to document a conversation.
During a car ride this past weekend Brad and I were discussing budgets and timelines and what not when he told me that we could use an upcoming bonus for our surrogate plans! This moves up our whole timeline! I am so excited!! I am not sure how long everything will take, and I do think I will still have to be patient, but still progress will be made!! -Kelsy |
AuthorI am Kelsy Rising, and I am the intended mother in a third-party fertility treatment plan. Brad, my husband is the intended father. We hope to conceive a biological child with the help of a surrogate. Archives
April 2015
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