behind the scenes of the fund the nations adoption campaign

I’m writing this on the other side of Fund The Nation’s adoption campaign because I just couldn’t gather my thoughts to write anything beforehand.

If you follow me on social media, you likely saw the blow-up I did with our big news. I wish I could share every single post and Reel I created, and I might trickle some of the posts I made into their own blog posts, but today I wanted to bring you behind the scenes of the adoption campaign that radically affected our lives.

Our very first adoption fundraiser was selling tshirts, and we connected with Fund the Nations to design and provide our merch. We absolutely love them as a company and I kept up with them on socials and would tag them in whatever social media content I would create from our own merchandise.

In November, they have a heart to spread adoption awareness and several years ago they created a campaign where they would select 10 families, create a one-of-a-kind shirt for those families to sell for votes (each shirt sale = one vote) and the money would go towards fully funding the #1 family who had the most votes.

As soon as I saw the application was live, I applied. Over a week later, we got an email saying we had made the top 25 and we needed to make a 3minute video sharing our story. After we sent that in, we waited several days before we got the call that would tell us if we had made the top 10 or if we had not.

To our utter shock, we were informed we had indeed made the top 10.

That night (11.9.22) we got on a Zoom call with the other families to hear more details about what we could expect along with some tips & space to get any questions answered.

We had the next morning (11.10.22) to prepare for the 12pm launch. Once the website went live, we hit the ground running. The entire week (10th – 16th) was a hodgepodge of vulnerable posts, creative reels, texts sent out to friends (+ reminder texts) and friends and family sharing our link with others.

Some behind the scenes things we did —

+I created a post schedule list by the hour to try to keep me focused. Sometimes I would write up the post the night before or the morning of to try to avoid the stress of impromptu posting. My schedule looked like this:

6am – outfit idea reel

8am – vulnerable / real life post

10am – fun reel

12pm – vulnerable / real life post

2pm – montage reel

4pm – random post

6pm – random post or reel

8pm – fun reel

I usually posted around those times and some times got skipped, but I was still posting several times a day, which was the goal.

+I wore my shirt every day and worked it into my conversations everywhere I could to try and get more votes.

+I texted people on Saturday (mid-way through the week) that said,

Hey. I don’t know if you’ve seen on socials, but Aaron & I have an incredible, life changing opportunity to have our adoption FULLY FUNDED.

If you haven’t already voted, here’s the link – XXX

We’re also asking that you pick at least 10 people to send this message to (see below). I’m also including a graphic if you want to send that too.

Every single vote is making a ginormous, eternal difference and we are seriously so incredibly grateful for you and the way you continually invest in bringing our boys home.

And then I followed up with the text they could copy/paste to their friends –

Hey!
Some friends of mine are in the process of adopting twin boys & they have an opportunity to have their adoption fully funded. There are 9 other families and whoever gets the most votes gets their adoption funded. Can we rally together to help the Shaver Crew win? They have until Wednesday the 16th.

A “vote” is a purchase of ONE item (shirt, sweatshirt or kids shirt). The more you order, the more votes they get.

If you don’t want a shirt but want to support them, you can donate $25 to Sarah’s Venmo – @sarahmshaver

Here’s the link to see their story & place your vote! XXX

You can also follow our adoption journey on Instagram — @sarahmshaver

Thank you!!!

+I printed out a map of the USA and we would color in the states as we got orders. It was fun!

+I tried pretty much all the ideas the leaders of the campaign suggested and worked them into my post plan

It’s hard to explain the mix of emotions this campaign brought – it was exhilarating and exciting but also extremely overwhelming and incredibly exhausting. We felt so loved and supported and I did a little happy dance every time someone told me they voted/ordered or we saw someone reshare our posts.

Oddly enough, THREE of the ten families were local to Birmingham, Alabama and one of the families had a connection at the news station. Our campaign got a highlight and they said all three family’s names (including ours) that were from Bham.

At the end of it all, we did not win but we were so thankful and honored to have even been in the top 10. I posted this on socials a couple days after we found out –

Being a part of Fund the Nation’s adoption campaign was surreal. I was shocked we made it to the top 10 & yet I was hopeful we could win so our adoption would be fully funded. After months of constant fundraisers, it would be a dream.

After a full, exhilarating, stressful & overwhelming week, we did not get our adoption fully funded.

We truthfully are so excited for the TWO FAMILIES who got their adoptions funded. And Fund the Nations was so generous and still blessed our family with a few-thousand dollars. So shocking and thankful!

People have asked, so I’ll be honest – I’m living in this fog of pure joy & excitement for others and yet disappointed for my own situation. I don’t know what story God is writing for our adoption. I don’t know what to think or what to say. All i can do is lean on Jesus & trust that he is working things I cannot see.

Looking back on our week in the campaign, I truly believe we did our best! We worked hard, thought creatively, was bold, had fun, only had one tearful breakdown and ultimately, did everything we could. No regrets.

We are so incredibly thankful for all the people who voted for us! Cannot wait to see everyone in their shirts & you can wear it knowing you helped two families bring their babies home AND that the Shaver Crew were blessed financially as well.