Bolton Adoption Auction

This weekend was our adoption auction and it was a HUGE success! My best friend Maggie came to me at the beginning of August, maybe even July, to see if we would be interested in doing an auction as a fundraiser. Our church had auctions in the past to help raise money for the youth and they were always successful. I immediately told her I would love to do it if she would coordinate it...because anyone that knows Maggie knows you WANT her to plan your events (she was my wedding planner also). We were at the beginning of our puzzle fundraiser so I asked her if we could wait a couple months. We checked the church calendar and set the date for October 21st.

Maggie, Kat, and Rebekah immediately went in to planning mode. We met at Starbucks one night in August and by the time we left the meeting, we already had an auctioneer, 4 tickets to an ECU game, and Kat calling everybody she knew to see if they would donate a good or service. We also had our game plan for auction night and Maggie's vision really started coming to life.

September was busy with us announcing the auction and seeking out people that would be willing to donate good or services. Our goal was to get 40 things that we could auction. It was a little slow at first but we were off to a great start. October came and we were in full on planning mode. Craw and I wanted to serve hotdogs beforehand as a way to get more people engaged and also say thank you to everyone that came out. My parents also helped us out greatly by generously offering to buy all of the food items for the hotdog supper (Thanks mom and dad)!

We set up the church on Friday night and it was awesome to see all of the items that were donated.  We ended up receiving 70 items to auction...way more than our initial goal of 40. So many people helped to make the auction a success. From the people that donated, to the men that cooked hotdogs, and women that served the food, to the ladies in our church that cooked cakes/baked goods/pies/etc. And of course my dream team: Kat, Rebekah, and Maggie. The auction would not have been successful without everybody that gave of their time, goods, services, and of course...MONEY!

We ended up raising $6,600 from the auction and donations are STILL coming in!
GOD IS GOOD!


Yall, I can't even explain how much this has blown my mind. I tried not to set expectations on the night but in the back of my mind, I was hoping for $2,500. All I could do was cry when they read me the total. Craw and I were so emotional Saturday night because this is the loudest we have EVER heard God speak to us and he is speaking LOUD AND CLEAR! Adoption is not just something that we want to do...God is commanding us to do this! And He is making sure that NOTHING stops us. Money is the number one reason why people don't pursue adoption and He is making sure that's not a problem for us.

We can't thank everyone enough. We keep saying thank you and that just seems so inadequate. I wish we could personally write thank you notes to everyone that has impacted us but I simply can't keep up with it all. So please please please, from the bottom of our hearts, know that we are THANKFUL for YOU and we love you! Craw says all the time that we can't wait for the day when we are on the other side of this, have our baby in our arms, and are able to help another couple pursue adoption.

As far as pictures go...I barely took any and I feel like a failure! LOL!! I'm hoping other people got some so I am waiting for them to send them to me but for now, here are the two that I took.

This boy is a GEM to me! I love him and his sister dearly and they were so excited to help raise money for Baby Bolton. They took it upon themselves to set up a picture drawing station where people could purchase pictures for .50 cent and they would get a picture of Craw, Hank, Baby Bolton, and myself to put on their fridge. They ended up raising $25! These kids are going to be WORLD CHANGERS with their hearts already yearning to help others!