I'm eating for two.

I don't get away with anything. I mean, I'm technically expecting a baby! But no eating for two. No buying maternity clothes. No strangers trying to invade my bubble. Nothing.

Just once I'd love some huge hormonal fit, complete with balling and throwing things! And in a public place! While demanding ice cream! I'd put a beach ball under my shirt so everyone would know where it was coming from.

When I was pregnant with my daughter I made my husband do midnight chimichanga runs as I laid on the couch weighing over two thousand pounds. And as he was running out the door I'd ask him if I looked fat and if he found me pretty. (I may have had puke in my hair.) Then he'd come home with the chimichanga and it would smell terrible because the window of opportunity to feed me in between bouts of harsh nausea had come and gone. I would get upset with him that he wasn't faster and ask him why in the world he would bring a chimichanga into my house when I'm this miserable?!!! Then he would have to walk down the road to the dumpster to throw it away because the smell was making me hurl. About ten minutes after I hurled all I wanted in the world was a chimichanga. Not having one in my hand that instance was also, I'm pretty sure, my husband's fault.

Heh. Good times.

<<<UPDATE>>> My husband says it was a chalupa. I blamed not remembering on my pregnancy hormones. Yep still using that one. :)

<<<ANOTHER UPDATE>>> My husband then said, "You said you were over two thousand pounds, you meant to write two hundred. You were over two hundred pounds if I remember right."
...
I let him live.

What kind of adoptive family we are.

Can you seriously believe Roland has his ransom?!! Our wonderful friends are still doing a couple of fundraisers to cover initial medical costs until our tax credit comes in, but we have the ransom!!! I'm just amazed! I thought this would be a huge financial burden. Really this doesn't look like it will cost us a single extra penny! Adoption made easy! Brought to us by hundreds of people! Overwhelming!!!

Thank you! From the bottom of our hearts! Thank you.

Now what was I saying before that quick "brb" to raise a trillion dollars? Oh yeah, talking about my son and adoption. :)

So I wanted to share my view on our situation and our adoption. I read a great quote today (trying to track down the source) that went something like, "There are as many ways to be a mother as there are mothers." I like that. And motherhood has this initial phase (usually the pregnancy) that everyone seems to have opinions on, but no two pregnancies are alike. And just like every pregnancy is handled differently, so is every adoption. And different does not mean wrong.

But I'm going to focus on two views of adoption from two groups of adoptive parents: the emotional adopters and the calculated adopters. Emotional is good. Calculating is smart. But both camps don't really understand the other, so here's my attempt at explaining them both.

An emotional adopter sees a child's picture on a website, commits to him with lots of paperwork and then, as if they birthed him themselves, he is their son. No unknown condition he has present at "birth" (aka when they see him for the first time) matters. If they show up and he's missing four limbs, half his face and is a different color--he's their son. They take him home and deal with it.

This is our adoption. We would not call him our son if these were not our feelings. That would be wrong.

A calculating adopter is a good person who wants to do good in the world. They see pictures of children and see what the best fit is for their family. If they travel and this child requires more than they can handle, they move on and try to help someone else or re-evaluate their situation. My husband is a calculating adopter, but has run our adoption as an emotional adopter; often times against his better judgement. :)

An emotional adopter can have traits of a calculating adopter and vise verse. And I think social workers tend to try to encourage families to become the best of both. With little success I imagine.

A calculating adopter raises funds towards "their adoption," and the emotional adopter raises funds towards "their son." A calculating adopter gets in trouble if they use the phrase, "God led us to this child," because they don't mean that the same way an emotional adopter does. An emotional adopter gets in trouble if they... get emotional. Let's face it, you look crazy when you cry over some picture of a child you've never met whose plight you've never experienced.

What I can't stand are people in one group judging or harassing the other. For those who say to the calculating adoptive family, "How could you not choose that child! You left him there!" Hey, they did not leave him there. Not them. A system left them there. A birth parent left him there. Not them. Are you going to adopt him? Is he your son? Are you in their shoes? They were out there. Doing something. Doing more for that child than anyone else, and families like that usually become that child's biggest advocate afterwards!

How they run their adoption is between them and their supporters.

And to those who say to the emotional adoptive family, "How stupid to fall in love with a picture! That's not your real child." Hey, how a mother is motivated to adopt and bond with this unknown child is important and vital. He is as much their child as your son is yours. You not understanding is inconsequential.

The adoption community can really be an anchor for moms who often feel like the "odd ball out" in mommy circles. My hope is that this community can continue to be supportive, or at least basically kind, when we see those who do it differently. There needs to be understanding. For me it started with gaining a lot of respect for the people who can go out and do good without that super emotional kick-in-the-pants so needed for my own adoption. For my husband it was understanding (and then falling prey to) how knowledge about someone's needs can lead to emotional bonding, even when it's one-sided.

Some of you know the catalyst for this blog. Some of you after experiencing a different kind of adoption than you thought best were still kind and supportive, even when you felt hurt and didn't understand. You are my heros.

And this is so important because there's an orphan crisis. A real crisis. And we need all kinds of adopters. I'm serious. We need to be better to them.

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE FULLY FUNDED!!!!!!!!!

Fundraising was from 12/21/11-1/21/12 (one month).

The only thing standing between us and getting our son home now is paperwork. I just closed the ChipIn since we reached our goal!!!!

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE FULLY FUNDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE RAISED HIS ENTIRE RANSOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*collapses*

Final Countdown! $1,000 left to go! Whoa, people!

Haha, those financial barriers were starting to get sneaky. But we beat 'em! Whoa! We're almost done with this thing! We only have one pesky financial barrier left to go!!!

This is amazing! I can't keep up!!!! We're almost fully funded! And donations are getting doubled like mad! Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 1 left to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Final Countdown! Only $2,000 left to go!!!

We sucked up another financial barrier!!! Oh my goodness! Only 2 left to go!!!

If you're thinking, "Well, gee, it doesn't look like we've raised enough money to destroy another financial barrier yet." Just remember we have matching donations that get counted too!

We're so close to being DONE with fundraising!!! Can we do it tonight?!!!

Matching Grant!!! All donations doubled!!!!!!!

Remember when I said that it hasn't yet been a month of fundraising? Remember that I joked it would be cool if we could pull this off in one month?! Well guess what! The end of today marks one full month of fundraising! And...

Two anonymous donors (who have never met each other) have offered us a matching grant!!! But it's only good TODAY (January 21st) until midnight (PST)!!!

Every $1 you give to our ChipIn becomes $2!

$5 becomes $10!

$100 becomes $200!

And every donation is doubled from now until midnight or until we reach our goal! At the end of the day we total up what was given and double it until we reach our goal!

If you were waiting to give until we were at the end, this is it! And your gift will be doubled! Please share this with your friends and let's finish this thing!

Go to the link on the right or click here to donate!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Final Countdown: $3,000 left to go!!!

We jumped one of the last hurdles!!!!! Only $3,000 left to go!!! And it looks like some anonymous donors like that we're so close and have offered to help us pull this off! Stay tuned!!

Final Countdown! $4,000 left to go!!!

Dun na.

Dun na.

Dunna dunna.

Dunna dunna dunna dunna DUNNA DUNNA DUNNA DUNNA!!!

*bite-y bite bite bite*

*urp*

Only $4,000 left! Only 4 more pesky financial barriers to go!!! Do you remember a time when we had 21 financial barriers? It may be hard to remember aaaaaaaaaall the way back to December 21st. Hehe. :) We've raised more than I make in a year in less than a month! Whoa!

In four days it will have been a full month since we started fundraising. You think we can do it in four days? Would it be breaking some kind of record? Are the guinness book people around?

I mean my dad offered to sell his car. We planned on getting a big loan. We planned for a lot of crazy contingencies. I really thought I'd be worrying about finances during my daughter's surgery that's in less than two weeks. What a glorious relief that we're free to just focus on her!

(And free to focus on all the paperwork. Paperwork is hard. Boohoo.) :)

You people are amazing! I'm overwhelmed!

THANK YOU!!!

Taquitos for a Cause!

Taquitos for a Cause was a HUGE success!

We didn't do a single thing for this fundraiser. We simply drove up to L.A. and ate their food. :)

We had a great time with great people and great food!

Then before we left we opened the box that had been discretely sitting in the corner all afternoon.

It was FULL.

How full?

$871.00 full!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have now shortened the total amount on our ChipIn based on this gift! (I also figured in PayPal fees I hadn't calculated before.) We're now only $4,271 away from being done with fundraising! That's 4/5th of the way done!!!

And we're only $271 away from destroying another financial barrier!

And our tummies are full! :)

Thanks so much to everyone who came by to eat wonderful food! And thanks especially to Carmen Rivera for hosting, buying all the food and making all the food! And Amelia Infante for making the rice! And for Ileana who brought us all together!

And thanks to everyone who put up with our "Dora Spanish." ;)

The food (we had seconds).

They made over two hundred taquitos!

And a whole box of conchas!!!

The very fancy donation box!

Doing all the hard work!

Check out my husband getting some baby time. :)

Our daughter thought Ileana's dad was the best. :)

One configuration around the table. More people would come by and we'd switch around!

Laelia's friend, Elliot, and her Mama, Angie!

Such a happy girl! (3 months older than Roland!)

Ileana caught us playing with the box of kid toys. :)

We hadn't opened the box yet. We didn't know what to expect.

I need a little teller's visor or something.

WHOA!!! $871!!!

That was a ton of fun!

Final Countdown! Only $5,000 left to go!!!

Sorry financial barrier, you're going DOWN! We crushed it! We got out our pebble spray. Sorry to be stone cold about this. Don't mean to rock your world. Graveling won't help. I have concrete evidence that we reached our financial goal. (I crag myself up.) We only have FIVE financial barriers left to go!!! 

(My husband asked, "Why are they playing poker?" POKER! Obviously he doesn't have my religious background and has never seeing a stoning before. ;))

Only $5,000 left to go in our ChipIn! Right after writing a blog post about my frustrations then we get this huge encouragement! I think you all are making this "hard" fundraising process one of the easiest in the history of ever. Not gonna let us whine for long before shoveling out the blessings, eh? I see how it is. :)

Tomorrow we're driving up to L.A. where our friends are doing a taquito night for Roland! I love my AMC family and can't wait to see them!

And now I'm going to bed, happy with another destroyed financial barrier. The last five really don't stand a chance. ;)

Welcome to the Paperwork Jungle--We Don't Got Fun and Games

There is absolutely nothing glamorous about doing adoption paperwork. Of the four important notarized documents we had to get last week, four had something wrong with them. We are in the process of redoing two of them (including notarizing them AGAIN) and we'll see about the other two.

That's two weeks lost in the paperwork jungle. In this game of hurry up and wait, I don't feel like I have two weeks!

We've already been in a tiff with San Diego county. To nearly quote them, "We've been doing the paperwork this way for years and people seem to be able to adopt their kids just fine so we don't see what the problem is." Neither do we. For whatever reason our son's birth country is picky. Now please redo it all. Please and thank you and please.

On the bright side, we finally have all the certified copies we'll need of both our birth certificates and marriage license. We have passports. We are 2/3rds fully funded. So okay, not too shabby. ;)

But on the paperwork side of things it's been a frustrating time. And we're only halfway through!

And it only gets more frustrating when I look at my son's picture and he's just lying there with his little "Hug me?" arms. Waiting. Over what seems to me like stupid things.

JUST HAND HIM OVER ALREADY!!!

Confession time: I have not been visiting the adoption support group forum as much because all of the things I'm frustrated about are all the same things all of those adoptive parents are frustrated about. Plus some of them are farther along in the process and, spoiler alert, it's still frustrating. For the first time in my life I'm worried that my entire dossier will be rejected. Or catch on fire. Or be carried off in a tornado. Or eaten by zombies.

But is it worth it? Look at his little face! Am I going to remember any of this darn paperwork drama when I'm looking into his little eyes? No.

This is doable. Many others in much worse situations have hacked their way through this jungle and come out the other side with a new family member. We can too. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Speaking of other families, the big news today is that the little girl we had considered adopting before deciding on "Joel" got a family! That's right! Anastasia moved to the My Family Found Me page on Reece's Rainbow! It's been so exciting! My daughter and I have prayed for her to find a family every single night. Tonight we got to say, "Thank you!"

We pray every night for a handful of orphans. We started doing this last year sometime. Obviously "Joel" got a family, and now Anastasia. We also watched Sandra and Patrick get families too! Then there are these two little guys below who have been in our prayers continuously but are still waiting.

This little guy needs a mommy so badly. My daughter doesn't understand what an institution is, but she knows it's a bad place. So she asks God to get this boy out of his "big time out." Let's not leave him to waste away in time out! (The link says his hands don't look affected. Well this AMC mommy's eyes see dimples on his wrists that indicate contractures. He probably has the same type of AMC that my daughter and son have. I'm officially offering my support in every way to whoever steps forward to claim him.)

And this kiddo is my daughter's age and is a total doll. The picture isn't that good and I doubt we'll get a better one. Still, look how straight he is! Both my kiddos have their knees all bent up and will require all this therapy and surgery. How great to have a little guy who starts off a little straighter!


So even though paperwork is yucky, I would do anything to get my son home. And I can't wait for two families who feel the same way to step forward and get those two little boys.

What's new, Cowboy?

We have $11,000 left to raise, but oh wait! What's that I hear? It's the Wesley Savings Account Cowboy! Hehe. After we throw our saved money into the pot, we only have 6 bad little financial barriers left to go!!! ($5,714 to be exact.)

WOOHOO!!!


Okay I really never in my wildest dreams imagined we would raise $10,000 in three weeks. I mean, holy frijole! So sorry if the rest of this post feels out of left field. You see, after speaking to some adoption professionals and a CPA we're switching up our fundraising.


Part of the reason we called our giveaway winners a bit early is because after hitting our $10,000 goal on our Reece's Rainbow donation page, we switched to a ChipIn account that is not tax deductible. So to be fair to those giveaway participants who were offered tax deductions we decided to end it early.


The other reason we called it early is because our daughter's upcoming surgery preparations are pretty distracting. Please pray for us here. Pray for sleep and good pain management for her. This will be a hard surgery for her. But on to happier things...


See the pretty ChipIn button to the right? Pretty.


So why a ChipIn account? It's because we cannot access our adoption grant money raised so far through Reece's Rainbow until *after* our dossier has been finished and approved AND our son's birth country gives us official travel dates. (That's to make sure the donated funds go to his adoption and not some tropical vacation or something. :)) But there are some expenses we need to pay for now while compiling our dossier. Thus the ChipIn.


Also none of our RR fund is counted toward our tax credit. So in order to get that tax credit in 2013 we want to be paying things out of pocket from here on out. Switching to a ChipIn account accomplishes that and allows us to pay for these things out of pocket.


100% of the ChipIn account will be used solely for adoption expenses. Our ChipIn is a direct line to Roland's ransom. When we raise the entire amount, we'll have met his ransom.


But ChipIn is straight funds. No tax deductions.


If we somehow go over our ChipIn total, those funds will go directly towards our son for things like medical care or food for the weeks we're in his birth country. And while that would be wonderful, I want to be totally clear that we only need the $5,714 to be good to go get this boy!


Thank you all so much for giving from your hearts. We will be good stewards of your gifts and good parents. We're not perfect, in fact this process makes us painfully aware of everywhere we are deficient, but you have been our backbone. And I am forever thankful.


PS: If any of this doesn't make sense please email me at rolandquest@gmail.com. That's the email address I set up just for this blog to answer questions about Roland and his rescue. I'll answer your questions as best I can or forward them to someone smarter than me.


PPS: If you wanted to give a donation, but you were counting on the tax deduction (especially if you were donating through a business), you can still give to Reece's Rainbow. They are a wonderful organization helping children in need. There's one other little guy who is near and dear to my heart. Click here to go to his page. He doesn't yet have a family and he's living in an institution. Any funds his way would be 100% tax deductible and greatly appreciated.


Thank you!





WINNING!

First of all thank you so much for participating in our giveaway! We had 378 entries!!! Plus we reached our $10,000 goal! And all that money was raised IN THREE WEEKS!!! (13 days before the original end of the contest even!) I'm blown away!

Now without making you wait through all my exclamation points and sentences in all caps and crazy excitement, I'll get to the reason we're all here: the winners! Okay I put 378 entries into random.org and I'm picking the first winner now...


And the winner of our first prize is... (#115) Jennifer Schonher!

Jennifer, you have won a $50 gift card! Please email me at rolandquest@gmail.com and let me know your mailing address and which gift card you want!

You can choose Starbucks, Benihana's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, P.F. Changs, 24 Hour Fitness, Michael's, Target or Amazon.

Our second winner according to random.org is... (#319) Linda Record!

So fun! Linda, you've just won a 16GB iPod Nano!!!! Congrats!!! I will send you an email shortly on how to collect it!

And our grand prize goes to... (#203) Zippy!

(Looking up real name.... sorry... wait for it... Jen Epp!) Congratulations! You've just won our grand prize! There will be an email waiting for you in a bit with instructions on how to get in touch with Lauren Burke! Start thinking now if you want the custom blog banner.

Example used with permission.

Or the Family Caricature Portrait!

Example used with permission. Available on iStock.

rules:

-maximum of 5 family members together in banner (photos are necessary for reference).
-The caricatures are designed to be together in one image (characters are not designed to be separated).
-from waist up
-maximum of 2 small revisions after the final design
-must take advantage of the giveaway prize within two weeks of winning.
-simple background elements (solid colors, simple flowers, polkadots, etc)
-simple text

Winner will receive a high-resolution file for printing OR a web-resolution file for their blog banner.

(Standard/common blog banner sizes OR 8x10 family portrait size file for portrait in standard-sized frame.)

Congratulations to all our winners! Thank you for helping

us reach our $10,000 goal!

$10,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was it! We hit $10,000!!!!!!!!!!!! Another financial barrier eaten up! Hurray! And that was super fast! Oh my goodness!

And what a nice, pretty round number too! Can you believe we raised all that in less than a month? Seriously! Less than a month! We never would have done it without our family and friends and a huge thank you to the many members of our generous AMC family!

With the Joel fund added (raised last year), you've all given us HALF our adoption expenses! Whoa!!! You must want this little one home! Haha! Yay!

(I'll update sometime tomorrow with the remaining total we need after we dump our own savings account into the mix. Stay tuned for the final count! Exciting!!! We're getting close, people!)

Please please let me know how many entries you get by posting on this blog or emailing me at rolandquest@gmail.com TONIGHT. We will announce a winner tomorrow around noon! I don't have quick access to a list of donors so I don't know how generous you are yet! So please tell me! I want you to be able to win prizes!

The gift card, iPod and personal art design are all three unlocked and up for grabs! My husband is helping me put all your entries into a spreadsheet and assign them numbers. Then random.org will choose a number out of our total. The first number drawn will be for the gift card. The second will be for the iPod. The third will be for the grand prize--a personalized design by Lauren Burke! If someone wins two prizes then I'll contact them to choose one and draw a new winner for the one they don't want. That way three prizes go to three winners. Make sense? Okay we'll do this around noon (California time) tomorrow. Exciting!!! 

Giveaway Update!

Hello! We are $680 away from unlocking all prizes in our giveaway! How exciting!

With our daughter's upcoming surgery around the corner, we have decided that this fund raiser needs to end either January 25th or when we reach our $10,000 goal!

We're only $680 away from reaching that goal! So if you had planned on entering the contest, now is the time!

The day we reach our goal (whatever day that is) entries will still be accepted until midnight that night. Then the contest will end and winners will be announced the next day!

So the finish line is $10,000! And we're nearing it! Oh boy!

Thank you so much for giving and for helping this fundraiser be so successful! Thank you!!! It's an exciting time!

And stay tuned! Some changes will be happening in our fundraising after the giveaway. Details to follow!

$9,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness!!! Oh my goodness!!! Do you see that financial barrier up there? Do you see it being BLOWN AWAY!!!

We only have 12 more financial barriers left to go! ($12,000 is the estimate.) We have until April. We can do this!

And please please please let me know if you donated so I can add you into the drawing for these fabulous prizes! I know a lot of you don't do it to win anything (I'm not like that, I like to win), but just think of it this way: We want to give back! We have been taking and taking--gifts of all kinds: encouragement and prayers and finances! We WANT to give back. We WANT to bless someone else! It's a happy madness to receive so many blessings and not be able to repay all of you what you deserve! So enter to win by posting a comment on this blog (to encourage others) or email me privately at rolandquest@gmail.com. (And just so you know, I am hunting some of you down and entering you anyway!) Thank you!

~~~
Every $5 donation you make to Roland's ("Joel's") grant fund gets you one entry to win! All donations are tax deductible!

Also! If you share our story/fundraiser on Facebook you get another chance to win!

Also! If you have a blog post from your blog devoted to Roland's story you get two additional chances to win!

The winners will be chosen by random.com on January 25th, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. PST (that would be midnight for you East Coast people, aka "Eastcoastertionishciaingerestinashoodserdoodles"). 

You MUST comment on this blog OR shoot me an email at rolandquest@gmail.com and let me know how many entries you get! I don't want you to rely on me being observant and stuff. Just a quick, "Hey I gave $10 and shared on Facebook!" or "Hey, I put you on my awesome hardcore guinea pig racing blog!" would be perfect!

Our first prize is already unlocked!
Our second prize is now unlocked!
For our biggest prize to be unlocked we need $1,000 more generated from this giveaway!

Our first prize is a $50 gift card! The winner will choose one card from the following: Starbucks, Benihana's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, P.F. Changs, 24 Hour Fitness, Michael's, Target or Amazon. 

(This prize is already unlocked and up for grabs!)

Our second prize is a 16GB iPod Nano Special Edition RED, product MC074LL/A. Worth about $330 on Amazon. This is a new, still-in-the-box product that sat on my donor's shelf unopened for over a year. Now it can be yours!

(This item is unlocked and up for grabs!)

The BIG prize is...

EITHER

A blog banner with custom characters for your personal or business blog by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! (Yes THAT Lauren. She's pretty famous apparently! :))

Example blog banner used with permission.

($1,000 from being unlocked!)

OR you can choose:

A Family Caricature Portrait to hang in your home (or put on your blog or Facebook profile or whatnot) done by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! See the one she made for us back in 2009 in our About page! Or check out the sample family below!

Example used with permission. Available on iStock.

($1,000 from being unlocked!)

A message from Lauren: "I am really looking forward to such a fun project for an exceptionally worthy cause! I can't wait to meet the winner and get started. Let's bring Joel (Roland) home!"

Click here for samples of Lauren's work.

rules:

-maximum of 5 family members together in banner (photos are necessary for reference).
-The caricatures are designed to be together in one image (characters are not designed to be separated).
-from waist up
-maximum of 2 small revisions after the final design
-must take advantage of the giveaway prize within two weeks of winning. 
-simple background elements (solid colors, simple flowers, polkadots, etc)
-simple text

Winner will receive a high-resolution file for printing OR a web-resolution file for their blog banner.
(Standard/common blog banner sizes OR 8x10 family portrait size file for portrait in standard-sized frame.) 

Good luck!

$8,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry if I'm the queen of the exclamations lately, but we made it to $8,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We broke that financial barrier down!!!! BOOYAH!

But that's not all! We've raised enough to unlock the next prize in our giveaway! The iPod Nano is now in the running! So for all of you who have donated or shared on Facebook since this giveaway began (or within a few days in some cases) AND have told me about it in either a comment on this blog or emailed rolandquest@gmail.com (don't rely on my mommy brain, I beg you) then you are now in a drawing for not only the $50 gift card but also the iPod!!!


Every $5 donation you make to Roland's ("Joel's") grant fund gets you one entry to win! All donations are tax deductible!

Also! If you share our story/fundraiser on Facebook you get another chance to win!

Also! If you have a blog post from your blog devoted to Roland's story you get two additional chances to win!

The winners will be chosen by random.com on January 25th, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. PST (that would be midnight for you East Coast people, aka "Eastcoastingerestinashoods").

You MUST comment on this blog OR shoot me an email at rolandquest@gmail.com and let me know how many entries you get! I don't want you to rely on me being observant and stuff. Just a quick, "Hey I gave $10 and shared on Facebook!" or "Hey, I put you on my awesome hardcore guinea pig racing blog!" would be perfect!

Our first prize is already unlocked!
Our second prize is now unlocked!
For our biggest prize to be unlocked we need $2,000 more generated from this giveaway!

Our first prize is a $50 gift card! The winner will choose one card from the following: Starbucks, Benihana's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, P.F. Changs, 24 Hour Fitness, Michael's, Target or Amazon.

(This prize is already unlocked and up for grabs!)

Our second prize is a 16GB iPod Nano Special Edition RED, product MC074LL/A. Worth about $330 on Amazon. This is a new, still-in-the-box product that sat on my donor's shelf unopened for over a year. Now it can be yours!

(This item is unlocked and up for grabs!)

The BIG prize is...

EITHER

A blog banner with custom characters for your personal or business blog by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! (Yes THAT Lauren. She's pretty famous apparently! :))

Example blog banner used with permission.

($2,000 from being unlocked!)

OR you can choose:

A Family Caricature Portrait to hang in your home (or put on your blog or Facebook profile or whatnot) done by Lauren Burke of Burke Vector! See the one she made for us back in 2009 in our About page! Or check out the sample family below!

Example used with permission. Available on iStock.

($2,000 from being unlocked!)

A message from Lauren: "I am really looking forward to such a fun project for an exceptionally worthy cause! I can't wait to meet the winner and get started. Let's bring Joel (Roland) home!"

Click here for samples of Lauren's work.

rules:

-maximum of 5 family members together in banner (photos are necessary for reference).
-The caricatures are designed to be together in one image (characters are not designed to be separated).
-from waist up
-maximum of 2 small revisions after the final design
-must take advantage of the giveaway prize within two weeks of winning.
-simple background elements (solid colors, simple flowers, polkadots, etc)
-simple text

Winner will receive a high-resolution file for printing OR a web-resolution file for their blog banner.
(Standard/common blog banner sizes OR 8x10 family portrait size file for portrait in standard-sized frame.) 

Good luck!