Workin on it

This is Laura writing - I guess I should always clarify that! I have had quite an amazing week. In just 10 days we have gone from not knowing when we'd become a nonprofit to being a nonprofit, and then being a nonprofit with a website! Honestly, my own personal attitude has gotten in the way of our progress as an organization. If I'm tired or too busy or I have too many other things on my plate I end up shifting the orphanage to the back of my mind.

It was never like that in the beginning. I was so beyond excited and motivated that I couldn't WAIT to get home and get working on something for this project. And really, the only thing that as changed since then is having a baby! That sounds so easy, to just blame being busy on Jadon, but it really has altered our lives in ways that I never understood until I had a child of my own. We both have also changed jobs. I have gone from a regular 8-5 job, Monday through Friday, to an irregular schedule; I rarely have 2 days off in a row. Now while this is not a pity party, it has been an adjustment. Instead of having 2 days with my husband and my family, I have a day off during the week and then we both have Sundays off. The same goes for Phil.

I think the biggest issue here is that I let my business take me over instead of grabbing my to do list by the horns and getting down to business. I am learning. It's not easy to be a working mom or even a stay at home mom; I've tried both! But I think I enjoy working and I feel that my family benefits more right now from me working. Also, when we move to Mozambique I will be a "stay at home mom" with about 20 kids! How awesome will that be?! I look forward to that time.

I think right now, I need to focus on the prize. That prize is allowing God to work miracles among our community so that we can raise this $100,000 we need to get everything in order. We know that our hearts are so willing to go that if someone wrote us a check today for everything we would need, we would be on a red eye flight tonight! The willingness is there, but our feet have to reflect how our hearts feel.

I am personally working on my attitude. I also know that I don't have as much energy as I used to but I'm also not taking care of myself like I used to! I need to eat healthier, work out regularly, and get plenty of uninterrupted rest!

Please pray for me to do some personal work on myself. I'd ask for prayers of motivation and good discipleship/mentors now that we are in Farmington. As always, thanks for reading!

Approved...

It feels like forever ago that we started on this journey to make Heart for the Needy a nonprofit organization. It has been about a year and a half of work, but we definitely didn't do it on our own! The amount of paperwork wasn't as much as I had first thought, but all the "additional information" that went along with every question was seriously tedious and frustrating most of the time.

The birth of this organization happened about the time I found out that I was pregnant with Jadon. About this time, we were going through so many changes as a family, like Phil getting a new job, me finishing school, and just being pregnant was a huge change! I was extremely tired and trying to finish school and Phil was learning so much at work that we weren't very motivated to really work on the nonprofit paperwork. Then Jadon was born and more life changes occurred and yet again, we put it on the back burner.

Thankfully, our board of directors has been amazing and so encouraging. Sandy Goodell really pushed me to get going on it. She was so helpful and so knowledgable that I couldn't help but get motivated. Finally, in April of this year, I sent in the first copy of our nonprofit application. From prior experience with the U.S. government and Phil's residencey paperwork, I assumed right off the bat that we would hear something about the status in about 4-5 months. Only 3 weeks later we received a phone call from the IRS. They needed one more piece of information in order to push our application through to the next level. After this was done, on May 31st, we received a letter from the IRS stating that we are now a 501 (c) (3) - in other words, we are now a NONPROFIT!!!!! YEAH!!

It was the best news I could have asked to hear. We were so blessed to have such wonderful people here and at the IRS who were fighting on our behalf. I truly believe that God's hand was on every piece of this process. How amazing!!

Now the only thing that is holding us back from fullfilling our God-given dream and mission is money - hey, if God can take care of the IRS in 8 weeks, I'm pretty sure he can help us raise the necessary funds. We really need to revisit our budget for the orphanage because we are using figures from 2 years ago and things all over the world have changed. I think if we could raise about $125,000 we could head back to Mozambique for good! Now that we are completely tax deductable, we are praying for donors to help us realize this dream. The great thing about Mozambique is that we need about 10% of what an organization in the U.S. would need to do what we want to do in that country. Thankfully, God has given us a heart for a place that so desperately needs an orphanage and we can't wait to get started!!

Our board will be meeting soon to get ideas solidified for some fundraisers coming up late this summer and in the fall. Feel free to send ideas this way! Or, if you'd like to get involved, stay tuned...we are working on getting our website up and running. More info on events to come!