Exceeding Goals (Again) and then failing to report it for weeks

So we had our big Next Chapter: Operation Adoption bash at our house on July 25th...

We had over 100 people at our house over the course of 8 hours...

And we have just recovered enough to break out this blog post.

Many thanks to our church friends, a coworker, and my dad for letting us borrow their tents and helping us set them up!!!

Our goal was to fill this fundraiser thermomememememeter (the one BEHIND the bar, don't get distracted by the booze...). You can see we were already close, but not yet quite to our fundraising goal of $15,000 by he end of July 25th.

Many thanks to our tia and to our prima for their bartending services!!!

But before I tell you the final results of the July 25th fundraiser, we have a few more people to thank - family and friends made this event not only possible but a real hit.

Thanks to my sister and my cousins: the sign makers.

Thanks to our niece Z for teaching her daddy (our brother-in-law) how to DJ for our party.

To my mom, for catching this photo of Victor and I - despite being the focus of the fundraiser we somehow managed to go the entire night with getting only this one picture of ourselves taken. (Thanks also goes to mom for helping with all the party making/doing/everythinging.)

And to our primo for making amazing tacos all night long!!

And to my aunt, and my grandma, and my other cousins, and my stepmom, and my stepdad, and my parents-in-law, and my sister and brother-in-laws and our many church friends and our church for all of the set-up, food prep, chair/table borrowing, house cleaning and fixing, and all the many many many things they did to help us make this day just straight up perfect.

And to all a good night.

Oh WAIT WAIT! I was supposed to tell you how the actual fundraising went!!

So remember how I mentioned that our goal was to raise $15,000 by the end of July 25th?

Thermomomoter. Exploded.

In case you can't read the small print and arrows at the top of the thermometer: IT EXPLODED!!!

explooooooooooooooosion!

We raised just under $19,000 by the end of July 25th.

!!!!! $19,000 !!!!!

Which is very exciting particularly when the up front costs of adoption are $30,000. So it will definitely go to use!

And we could still use additional support - because we heard a rumor that after we pay for the adoption, we will also have to pay for a baby.

We continue to leave our fundraising website open for anyone who would still like to help us make our family a reality!

Side note: I have recently been told by my copy editor at the museum I work at that I use too many exclamation points. Well, this is my personal blog! So here are some more exclamation points! WOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!