Puzzle Fundraiser

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