National Adoption Month!!

I love National Adoption Month for two reasons. First, because it gives us a deliberate reason to celebrate the miracle, blessing, gift and journey of adoption. Second, because we celebrate my beautiful daughter Willow Hsin-Yi's birthday this month and she was adopted from Taiwan in 2008. As we celebrate Willow's birth, we also give thanks for her birth mother who was selfless and gave her daughter a chance to have a great life, in a loving family, in a country filled with opportunity.

Adoption is a gift in so many ways and it excites me to celebrate it along with so many other families in the month of November!

Things are heating up!

Summer is here, the children are out of school and things are heating up around the Chicagoland area and with Hope to Home. Since our official launch in March we have added 4 new families and have several more in the works. Tracey and I really enjoyed learning about each family's adoption journey thus far and can't wait to see each family joined with their precious angels. Here is an article I wrote for our first newsletter from April. If you have not already signed up to receive our newsletters please do so by visiting www.hopetohome.com and enter your email in the box that says "JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST". Enjoy!

No Expecations!

In 2006 when my husband Paul and I began the adoption process we created a financial plan before starting. At the time the housing market was great and we took out a home equity line of credit to cover the estimated cost of our adoption. As we moved through the process our program fee went up $3,000, the cost of passports went up, and airline tickets were through the roof. Paul and I began to get concerned that we would not have enough money to cover all of the fees. I knew it was time to get creative and find alternative ways to help pay for our adoption expenses.

I decided to join a YAHOO group all about fundraising for your adoption. I was amazed by all of the wonderful ideas and opportunities. However, my first thought was “Why would anyone help us raise money for our adoption? “ The reality was that many people wanted to help we just had to be willing to ask for it. Paul and I provided a product and an opportunity and we received monetary gifts. We were surprised when close family didn’t buy a raffle ticket for $10 or a t-shirt to help celebrate our daughter’s homecoming. I often took it personally. Then I realized that I had an expectation of what I felt people should do, based on what I would do and that was a big no! What I didn’t expect was the enormous amount of prayer, fundraising support, and love we received from people we didn’t know. It was a beautiful and humbling experience that Paul and I are grateful for. Fundraising brought together a community of people we knew and didn’t know for one sole purpose, our beautiful daughter Willow Hsin-Yi.

There are many fundraising opportunities out there to choose from. You may have to do 3 or 4 different types of fundraisers to raise money for the cost of your adoption. Enter into fundraising with NO EXPECTATIONS and you will be amazed at all of the love you will experience.

by: Andrea Hedstrom

Things are hopping at H2H!

Well, since posting in April things are hopping at Hope to Home! Our first newsletter went out and received great feedback.

We have two families the Kinser Family and the Meier Family with their custom t-shirts and personal web pages "live" on our site, and we are curretly working with a few new families to get them up and running . Tracey is doing a fantasic job creating the custom t-shirt designs. You can view those right here on our blog to the right. There will be more to come!

Tracey and I are so excited to work with each adoptive family! We look forward to being just a small part of each families journey to their precious children.

God Bless,
Andrea

Hope to Home today!

Where does time go? Wouldn't it be nice if the adoption process moved as quickly as it feels a month goes by?

Our first H2H newsletter will be going out tomorrow morning. If you have not already signed up for it visit www.hopetohome.com and "JOIN THE EMAIL LIST". This issue of H2H will include and update on Hope to Home, a short overview of the 2011 CAFFA Conference we were at and a heartfelt article written by Hope to Home's CEO Andrea Hedstrom. She talks about her fundraising experience and offers her advice when it comes to fundraising and expectations.

Stay tuned!

Happy 2011!

We hope that 2011 brings you joy, happiness and maybe a little one in your life! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and check out our H2H Shop on our website for new country logos that you can add to all sorts of items and celebrate your child's heritage or great to give as a gift.
Blessings!

Celebrating National Adoption Month

Adoption Walk 2010 was a lot of fun! The Hedstrom Family drove to Libertyville to take part in this celebration of Adoption. It was a perfect day for a walk. It was great to see families that we knew and meet new ones. We are looking forward to walking again next year! For more details on this event visit http://walkforadoption.blogspot.com/.

Almost 2 short years to the day Hope to Home,LLC has been soft launched to my Yahoo Adoption Fundraising group. Tracey and I are excited to see see what the future holds for H2H. We are also looking forward to sharing in many families adoption journey.

Products Page UP! Take a Look!

Our new products page is up at www.hopetohome.com. Please visit and take a look. If there is a country that you would like to view but don't see, please email us and let us know which one. We are currently working on adding more countries in.

We have been feverishly working at getting the last remaining text on the site. Everything is ready to go! We are looking forward to getting the word out and start fulfilling orders and helping people make some extra money towards their adoption.

Blessings!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to a new year! We are 8 days into 2010 and so close to completing the Hope to Home site. We were so hopeful about launching in November and found we were just not ready. Check back frequently to see our stunning custom products and to learn more about our fundraising opportunity. We are so excited to get started and meet all of the wonderful adoptive families.

Peace,
Andrea and Tracey

Big Month

November is a big month....it is National Adoption Awareness Month, my daughter Willow's 2nd birthday and the launch of Hope to Home.

In November we celebrate Thanksgiving and this is definitely a month for giving thanks.

Thank you for your patience and your support.

Peace,
Andrea

Hope to Home Update

What a week this has been! Tracey and I are still on a high from the CAFFA Conference on the 14th. This was our very first conference as an exhibitor. It was wonderful! We met so many people and enjoyed networking with the other exhibitors.

It was uplifting to receive positive feedback about Hope to Home and our mission. The logo was an absolute hit! The many questions we were asked helped us to clarify must have items for the web site that will better explain how Hope to Home can help our customers. It was an excellent experience!

A special thanks to all the exhibitors and guests that stopped to chat with Tracey and me. It was such a pleasure.

I want to take a moment to congratulate Naomi Gilbert. Naomi won the raffle prize we donated for the conference. Thanks for stopping at our table and filling out a ticket!

Tracey and I are working feverishly to complete the web site. I will provide an update in each of my posts. In the meantime please feel free to contact us with any questions. Stay tuned for my next post. I will provide more details about the inspiration behind Hope to Home and what exactly we can do for you.

Have a blessed day!
Andrea Hedstrom Co-Founder

Welcome!

Hope to Home was created to provide adoption assistance through fundraising.

Currently, our web site is under construction and we are looking forward to unveiling it soon.

While we are in the process of getting the site up, we still want to provide you with the opportunity to raise funds for your adoption and help you get one step closer to bringing your precious son or daughter home. To find out more about this opportunity please see our contact information below.

We are ready to get started....this weekend we can be found at the Parenting Through Adoption conference put on by CAFFA (Chicago Area Families for Adoption). It is on Saturday, March 14th. If you will be attending, please be sure to stop by and say "Hi" to us. We would love to meet you!