Flood us with your Ideas!!!

Whew!!  We have officially met the required down payment for the first due date!!  With three more to go, I know it's going to be personally challenging for me to trust that God will move the hearts of people, and make it possible to provide fully for this trip.  It's amazing to hear the encouraging words from others, and so very much needed - that I can't thank those of you enough that have been backing us up, not just with your words, but with your prayers through this process so far.  And because I want to make sure that I am keeping you all informed - here are the next set of due dates and fees we will need to come up for each:

May 8th - $1000

June 5th - $1000

June 20th - $1800 (eek...this fee scares me most!!)

We are trying to think of ways, outside of our support letters that we can raise money.  Some ideas floating around right now are yard sales and raffling off items.  AJ is amazing at woodworking, so we were thinking of having him build the Jeffersonian Book-stand (sells for anywhere between $500-$2000), out of solid Oak, and then maybe selling raffle tickets to win it.  My only worry about that though is that it's such a 'niche' kind of piece, that I worry about possibly not selling enough raffle tickets to even pay off the price of the supplies.  (Of course - here we go, gotta leave that to God also!!)  Plus, me not being on Facebook anymore kind of limits my reach-ability and networking to people that may be interested, and forces me to rely on word of mouth and this blog.  

 The other possible idea was for me to do photo shoots with people that were interested, and instead of paying a ridiculous amount, asking that they donate an amount towards our trip.  That way, not only would it be affordable, but it would go for a good cause.  But then of course, me being me, I think of all the 'what-if's' and the worries.  "What if the lighting is bad where we go, what if it rains (since I can only do natural light photography with the equipment that I have), what if I get too nervous around people that I'm not comfortable with..." etc.  

Another idea is a bake sale.  Except I have no clue where I would have it!  I love to bake, and granted if I were to sell enough, that would help - but it's all about location and advertising something like that. Two areas that I am at a complete loss about.       

One day at a time, right?