Dear Baby- #5 Meet Your Future Family

Dear Baby,
This past Christmas we got everyone together for a family photo.
They are all praying for you and can't wait to meet you!


- Love,
Russell and Meagan

The Next Step

I shared in an earlier post about the cost of adoption. I mentioned that our first goal was to raise the money required to list our profile with the adoption agency. This way our book and profile can be shown to prospective birth mothers. I told you about the Hopes Prayers and Lullabies cd that I wrote to help raise money for this process. I wanted to raise the first payment, $1750, by selling this CD. In the middle of December I wrote to you saying that we had 50 more CDs or about $500 more to go, and that I wanted to raise that by the end of 2010.

I am glad to report that today we reached that goal. We have a few finishing touches for our book and then we will mail it, along with the first check off so we can be listed. It is a great feeling and an awesome time, yet I know there is much more work to do.

Someone asked me what happens now. Well, once we are chosen by a birth mom, and agree to be the adoptive parents then we will have our next payment of $5000 due. This could be at any time from a month, to a year or more. This means we will need to continue saving, and raising money for when this happens. I am glad to say that we have received some donations to apply to that payment, so we are on our way.

How can you help?

1. Keep Praying
2. If you have bought a CD tell your friends about how they can get one and how you like it.
3. If you have not bought a CD, buy one.

Thank you all for your support as we travel down this journey.
We'll keep you posted!

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Russell and Meagan Martin

Cds Update Now 23 Left To Go!

Almost one week ago I wrote about needing to sell 50 more CDs, to raise enough money to post our adoption profile. I am glad to report that many of you purchased CDs and now we are only 23 Cds away from our goal.

Our hope is to have this all ready to go by the first of the year. That means we have 9 days to sell 23 Cds. If you break that down it's a few more than 2 Cds per day.

When I wrote the songs for the CD I had in mind a lullaby CD for infants. Many people though have written me back since purchasing it saying that their kids, and teenagers have "stolen" their CDs to listen to. One church uses some of the instrumentals for altar times. Teachers are playing it in their classrooms.

Since my last update I have been contacted by two churches who want me to share my music and our adoption story with them. From the beginning Meagan and I said that one of our goals, one of the reasons we have started this blog is so that through sharing our adoption journey, we can be an advocate and encourager for other couples wanting to adopt. I am so thankful for these upcoming opportunities.

So I hope that you will do three things. 1. If you have not yet, buy the CD. 2. Consider having me come to your church, class, group or meeting to share my music, lead worship, and talk about our adoption journey. 3. Pray for us, couples considering adoption, birth moms making the choice to put their child up for adoption, and all those friends and family members supporting those on all sides of this process.

50 CDs Away

I sat down and did a little math to figure out that we are closer than we thought. When I originally came up with the idea for the Hopes Prayers and Lullabies CD I wanted to sell enough to pay for our first payment of $1700. Thanks to your generosity we only have $500 to go, that's about 50 CDs.

There are several ways we can get to 50 CDs by the end of the year.

1. Someone could buy 50 Cds to give to all their friends.
2. 10 of you follow this blog. If you got 5 friends each to buy a CD then that would be 50
3. 314 of you follow Hopes Prayers and Lullabies on Facebook. If 1/6 of you bought a CD that would be 50. If you each bought one that would be half way to the second payment.

So if you know of someone who would like a CD tell them to go to http://www.indieheaven.com/artists/russellmartin and buy one. If you have a website or store for children's clothes, toys, games etc..., and would put up a link or put some CDs in your store, let me know. If you could send out a tweet, email or facebook message to your friends, letting them know about our story and this CD, please do. As always continue to pray.


P.S.
Some one asked me what would happen if all the sudden the Lullaby CD went viral, and we sold enough copies to cover all our expenses. What would we do? First I'd faint. But after that, we plan to put the extra money from the CD into an adoption fund for the next couple who wants to adopt.