As a child, I used to love
doing puzzles. And when I say love, I
mean capital L, Love. (clearly I had a
rockin social life). I remember sitting at my desk under the warmth of my lamp, scanning the pieces of
a puzzle. There was nothing quite like
finding the right piece, putting in place, and watching the picture come
together. In fact, I loved my puzzles so
much, when I finished a puzzle, I would put modge podge on the puzzle so that I
could hang it in my room. I even asked Brittany to be my girlfriend
on the back of a puzzle that she put together in a Stake ‘n Shake back in
college.
I loved puzzles.
The thing about puzzles is
that each and every piece is important.
And each and every piece has a special spot in which it locks in other
pieces. Puzzle pieces cannot be interchanged
or manipulated. If a piece is missing,
the whole puzzle is messed up.
The more I learn about
adoption, the more overwhelmed I get.
Adoption is a really big, complex, beautiful puzzle. There are paperwork pieces (the mountains of
forms, tests, interviews, fingerprinting, home studies, and photobooks),
logistic pieces (how do you plan to “have” a baby in another state, organize
travel, find a place to stay for an uncertain amount of time, trying to make
arrangements for our other kids), emotional pieces (we can’t have a baby, how
do we talk about adoption, this is so hard, will anyone pick us, what is taking
so long, is something wrong, the birth mom breaks our heart, will the baby have
drug damage) and of course financial pieces (everything costs money: forms
being processed, homestudy, photobooks, travel, prenatal care, attorneys,
licensing, counseling for the birth mom, and on and on and on).
In order for us to see the
complete picture when it comes to our adoption, we need your help getting all
the pieces in place. Unfortunately, the
financial piece of the adoption is a large one - too big for us to manage by
ourselves. That is why we are asking
that you prayerfully consider helping to fund our family bringing it’s newest
member home through purchasing puzzle pieces.
We will have a puzzle made
for our future child that will be placed in a two way frame. On the front, it will be the puzzle
picture. On the back, each piece will have
the name of who purchased it, or the name of who it was purchased in honor of. Each
piece will cost $20 and you can buy as many as you want, or split a piece with
someone else. We will be able to hang
the puzzle and show our child how many people had a piece in their joining our
family.
If we sell all 500 pieces we
will raise $10,000 to go towards our adoption costs (which are going to total
about $25,000-$35,000) and we would have a wonderful start and a great keepsake
for baby Immink.
You can donate through youcaring.com/immink
or by sending cash or check to us (email us for our address – Brittany.immink@gmail.com)
Thank you everyone SO much
for your love, prayers, and support!
- - Mark
