Guardian Angels' 2nd Anniversary!

Today is the second anniversary of Guardian Angel’s very first blog post! TWO!

In my opinion it has flown by. The anniversary totally snuck up on me!

Two years ago we were excited and trusting in God, but had no clue how this was going to work or how successful we would be. In some ways that’s something we continue to experience every time we pick a new family! We never know what’s going to work and what isn’t, who’s going to respond and who isn’t, where donations will come from, or if they are going to come at all.

We’ve learned a lot through trial and error! Some fundraisers are far more successful than others. Sometimes a fundraiser will be super successful, but when we try to replicate it, it doesn’t work. We’ve learned that some months are way easier to fundraise in than others. Some months we get a lot of response from people we know in person, other times we are blessed by people we have zero outside connection to (which we LOVE! It means that word is getting out!).

We’ve learned to be flexible. Sometimes months are slow and we extend fundraisers. Sometimes we hear about a family on a time crunch at the last minute and switch our plans of who to fundraise for next. Sometimes (and this is the most fantastic ‘problem’ for us to run into!!) we announce a family and then before we can even start fundraising, they are fully funded!

In the past two years we have announced our intent to fundraise for 13 different families, three of which were fully funded before we could actually start fundraising. Two of the remaining ten have completed the adoptions we fundraised for and are in the process of adopting again, and we have already celebrated the homecomings of six children!

The news we’ve delivered to our growing group of followers hasn’t always been happy. Some of it has been downright heartbreaking. We’ve mourned the deaths of two children we were fundraising for, watched as adoptions could not be completed due to changes in eligibility both state-side and in country, and we’ve grieved heavily over Russia’s ban on American adoptions, preventing not only one of “our” families from completing their adoption, but MANY others as well.  

 The four of us have learned and grown, not only in our ability to fundraise, organize, and work as a team, but also in our friendships with each other. Genesis’ family and Amanda and Madison’s family have each grown by one, and Amanda and Madison’s family is about to grow by two more!

We have laughed a lot, planned a ton, prayed even more. We’ve cried and worried and lost sleep over what we can’t control. We’ve left it up to God, relied on our families, and begged for donations. We’ve celebrated victories both big and small, and mourned the heavy losses not only in our own lives but in the lives of the people we’ve been blessed to meet in the last couple of years.

I (Caitlin) feel so blessed to work alongside these three girls and cannot imagine life without them, no matter how cliché it sounds. I am still waiting for the day that the four of us are all in one place for the very first time!

Thank you to everyone who has made these last two years successful through donations, prayers, and support! We could NOT do this without you!

Happy Anniversary Guardian Angels!

With lots of love,
Caitlin, Amanda, Madison, and Genesis