Julie Gumm - Author

Apron sales – Fundraising through Scarlet Threads

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Apron Fundraiser - Scarlet ThreadsScarlet Threads is a compassionate boutique, specializing in unique products designed and produced by talented seamstresses and artisans in both rural Asia and Uganda.

Founded by Carrie & Jacob McKean family in 2009, Scarlet Threads exists to make their core vision of “Work. Dignity. Beauty.” a reality in the lives of their partner seamstresses.

They now offer a fundraising package for adoptive families who wish to sell their handmade artisan aprons.

Their adoption fundraising kit is offered to you at 50% off the retail price. At the end of six weeks you can return any unsold/unopened aprons for a full refund. Or, if you’re wildly successful, you can always order more. The aprons featured in the fundraising kit are pictured below.

You can check out all the details here. If you try the fundraiser, I’d love to hear how it goes.

aprons

Exciting developments with Adopt Without Debt

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Since self-publishing the first edition of Adopt Without Debt nearly two years ago I have been THRILLED with the response. Word of mouth advertising has been great, and I’m always tickled when I see the book pinned on Pinterest or featured on someone’s blog.

But about a year ago I began to wonder if I could, in fact, get a traditional publisher to pick up the book. After all, I’ve got Dave Ramsey’s endorsement and some fairly good traction. I knew that a publisher would help get the book into the hands of even more adoptive families. I sent off the manuscript and an initial summary of the book to an acquaintance who is an acquisitions editor for a literary agent.

And I waited…A few months later we talked on the phone and the agent expressed interest in the book and wanted to see an official book proposal – about a 12 page document that she would use to pitch the book to publishers.

Last summer she gave me some notes on the proposal and the book. The major thing was that I needed to lengthen the manuscript – by almost double – in order for a publisher to consider it.

So, last fall I spent two months writing a much expanded version of Adopt Without Debt. It was actually pretty exciting. The previous 18 months of workshops, speaking and blogging gave me lots of great ideas of content that could be added to the book.

With a revised manuscript and revised proposal, I am now officially signed with The Blythe Daniel Agency. I totally believe that God is all over this partnership for many reasons.

So, my manuscript is starting to make the rounds of publishers. Can you do a couple things to help me?

1) Like my author page (https://www.facebook.com/authorjuliegumm)
2) If you’ve read it, leave an HONEST review of AWD on Amazon (Click Create Your Own Review)

As always, I love hearing your fundraising stories as well so feel free to comment or e-mail me!

How one family “stamped” a child home (Guest Post)

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robertsGuest post by Shelly Roberts.

During our years as church-planting missionaries in rural America, God took us on two adoption journeys.  The first was domestic, the second int’l.  It was during our second adoption that Stamp a Child Home was birthed.

Since we didn’t have a dollar to our name to put towards our second adoption, we prayed for God to show us what He wanted us to do to help raise the funds.  We weren’t afraid of hard work.  That had been proven in our first adoption.  Our three young sons were well-known around our small town as they did all sorts of odd jobs to help raise the needed money.  But our second adoption would take us to a whole new level.  It would become an intensive test of endurance and faith {and plain ole stinkin’ hard work!}.

I made cards.  During our first adoption I had set up a booth at the local harvest fair to sell them for our adoption.  I remember making a total of 50 bucks.  From that, an idea blossomed of taking that vision and launching it on a much greater scale.  Each month gals would come to my home for classes on hand-made cards and paper crafting.  I began using the money from those classes to purchase supplies and launching “Stamp a Child Home” {SaCH for short}.  For about a year … many of the days being 10-12 hours of production in one way or other, we labored.  It was a family affair.  A couple of our sons were good at assembly.  Another was great at counting and packaging.  Each card would be hand made, packaged and shipped all over the country.  Each package would have a label of our family blog where they could learn about our journey.  Whoever wasn’t creating or assembling was helping keeping us all fed and laundered.  It required extreme teamwork.

During a few times over those long and rigorous months, I remember breaking down … feeling like I couldn’t possibly go on.  You see we were considered a “low income family”.  There would be no tax refund at the end of the long journey like there are for so many these days.  Since we were self-employed and didn’t even make enough money for taxable income we were completely ON OUR OWN.  Not completely though.  We knew that the God who called us would be FAITHFUL.  I remember weeping one afternoon, as my hands were feeble and weary …. “Lord, I can’t go on!”.  “You must”, He whispered to my spirit …. your daughter is laying in an orphanage across the world somewhere COUNTING on you to go on!  I’d never before been so humbled.  How could “I” possibly COMPLAIN of how hard this journey was?  All that Jesus had already done for ME.  And so we pressed on.  I would often go back to the words of Eugene Allison, founder of the ABBA Fund, “These children have WORTH and they are WORTH working HARD for!”.  Amen and Amen.

Friends took packets to every place they could think of.  I took on many special orders of personalized design work.  This was all BEFORE the amazing network we have today through Facebook.  Oh what a dream that would have been!  Back then we couldn’t even mention “fund raising” on our adoption blog!  Even so, we ended up raising a little over $10,000 with the SaCH project.  Glory be to HIM who is able to exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever imagine.

Shelly is a dedicated wife and mother of five blessings from around the globe. She is known for being an encourager, prayer warrior and advocate for the Fatherless. She is the author of “31 Days of Hope” – a devotional for adoptive parents. While serving with the ABBA Fund, Shelly strives not only to see children be placed in families, but for those families to thrive. She blogs at reachingheartsblog.com and is also a women’s speaker and enjoys traveling all over the US, bringing inspiring insight to impact and encourage all who hear.