Earning Money to Adopt

I've been hinting at this party I'm throwing for a while now, and it's about time I explain.  Actually, I'll let my friend Chris explain because this e-mail she sent was so touching:

Many of you know that Jon and I have talked on and off for a long time about adopting a child.  It is an enormous decision and about six months ago we found ourselves on the same page.  I was still in school so we decided to wait until the fall to make any big moves.  Well, it's the Fall...and we recently decided that we are committed to moving ahead and have chosen our agency.  This is so very, very exciting to us I can't begin to tell you!  We are looking to adopt an "older" child from Ethiopia and could not be more excited.  By "older" we mean a child some where between 3 and 5ish.  Jackson has been asking for a brother or sister for as long as I can remember and he is thrilled at the idea.

So that's the awesome news...

And here's our challenge...it's damned expensive!  You may or may not know that adoption, especially international adoption, is frighteningly expensive. The likely cost is between $20,000 and $30,000.  Given that we don't have that laying around (does anyone?) I have been wracking my brain about how to continue working as a nurse AND raise money on the side toward the adoption...in a way that doesn't have me away from my family too much more than I already am.  The answer came to me a month or two ago and I am now getting ready to begin!

I've decided to sell a line of jewelry independently to raise money for the adoption.  Some of you may be familiar with the line...Silpada.  For those of you who are not, what I can tell you is that I love it enough to sell it.  I really didn't think I'd be interested in spending time on this sort of thing at this point in my life, particularly with my new nursing job. But I have to tell you...I love the darned jewelry!  For those of you who know [K], she's bought enough of it from another rep that she's had to buy a piece of furniture to store it all!  I love that girl!   My hope is that this will allow me to do something independently to raise money for the adoption while not having to take time away from Jackson or Jon to do it...very important.

So as you can probably guess, I'm hosing a Silpada Jewelry party for Chris next week.  First, I want to help her reach this goal in any way I can.  I admire her so much for her commitment to pursuing her values, and what an exciting goal!  Second, I needed a good kick in the butt to get me started socializing anyway.  I want to meet my new neighbors, and I want to get to know the few people I've already met better, so this was the perfect opportunity.

And even though all I have to do is invite people and put out a bit of food, the whole process is terribly frightening to me.  I went through a couple of days of high anxiety trying to put together the invitation list, but at some point, I let go and realized that the worst thing that could happen was I might have to cancel the party if not enough people wanted to come.  Big deal, right?  But my social anxiety is not rational.  I'd like to make friends and be able to attend social events without dread.  Really, this is quite a big step for me.

If you're interested in the jewelry or helping Chris out, you can browse the catalog here.  You order by e-mailing Chris what you want using the link on her site.  I bought a necklace and earrings and they are some of the nicest pieces that I own.  You might even strategically leave her web site up on the family computer - Valentine's Day is coming up soon, you know!