Can we Do it? Yes we Can!

 I'm reminded of the words of Bob the Builder as I titled my post today.

Yes, We Can!

Been hearing a little bit of rumblings as to why Open Hand wants to give new shoes to orphans in Burundi and Kenya, Africa and it's troubling me. A few people have stated, "why not used shoes?" "School shoe drives won't give new shoes" and to that I say, "Why not?" It certainly isn't hard to give shoes that are used. There's no sacrifice in giving away your hand me downs. Used shoes to orphans - how cliche. How about giving them something NEW. Something that shows them that they are valued and deserve it. How about giving till it hurts... just a little, to buy those $20 pair of Crocs™ heck, we're even accepting knock offs which I didn't want to do, but I digress. New knock offs are better than used shoes any day.

And to the nay sayers I ask, "What about TOM's?" For every pair of shoes you buy, they give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. And TOM's are AT LEAST $50 a pair. And yet, they have given over 2 million pairs of shoes away to children around the world. Guess that means it's working right? 2 million pairs of NEW shoes..... I can only imagine if Open Hand could be so lucky to partner with those who want to live a generous life. Those who want to live life with an open hand and not a closed fist. Those who would like to give an orphan a new pair of shoes. I challenge you to live life generously and see what happens.

Things I want to remember

Over the past few days I've been hearing some big positive thoughts about Open Hand and the impact it will have. Now granted, some of it has been from my loving husband but he's not normally one who would over encourage. I feel like I need to document this just in case it is one of those 'from your lips to God's ears' type of thing.

The first being last week when I attended my three year olds Valentine's Day party and his teacher asked me about my trip to Africa. In our brief 3 minute long conversation after I told her what we were trying to do she said to me, "we're going to know you before you were big. Some day you are going to be on the Today Show and we're going to say we knew you before.." I don't know about you but that's such a random comment I had to tuck it into my heart to think about later.

And then there's my husband. Every time I get excited telling him about all the plans we have for our Sole Sister parties he looks at me and says, "you're going to be big." I always answer, "I just want to raise a ton of money for widows and orphans."

I thought it would only seem 'fair' for me to write this on this date so that hopefully, years from now we can look back on this post and see that someone knew we were going to be huge before we even knew it.  We are T minus exactly one week till our first Sole Sister party and I think we are ready. Professional photographer, professional vendors, gorgeous house, amazing hostess, delicious food and women who we can only hope come ready to live out the lifestyle of generosity that Open Hand wants to have.

This week I filed the charitable contributions form for the State of Georgia - which is a huge step and Form 1023 is ready to be reviewed by multiple people before I send it to the attorney for one last run through. Another interesting opportunity has presented itself for Alisha and me. We're going to be in a fashion show. Yep, you read that correctly. With so far, 400 people in attendance! Good news is they wanted 'real' women so we fit right into that category. This fashion show is being held by a long time local organization that helps women who have been sex trafficking and abused turn their lives around and become productive members of society. It's going to give us a great opportunity to see how a fashion show is run by a non-profit that has been around for a long time as well as an opportunity to make some connections that we can hopefully draw on in the future. I've been practicing my cat walk. Ha! Just kidding, but I am working on my 'end of the runway pouty mouth twirl around and don't fall face' .

Oh, and how could I forget the one story that makes me think Open Hand IS going to be huge... a 1st grader heard about us raising money for shoes for orphans and gave $1.25. If children understand the importance of helping orphans how much more should adults. ... "out of the mouth of babes..."

Choo! Choo!

In honor of my three year old who LOVES Thomas!

Here we are a couple of weeks since my last post and I'm still chugging away at filling out all the necessary paperwork for the IRS. Of course, I'm juggling a somewhat part time job and being a Mom and a wife but hey, no sweat right? I can always create more hours in a day :) The paperwork has to be exactly right so after I'm done there will be many people reviewing our packet before it is sent to the IRS. Heck, who am I kidding, I may just pay an attorney to look it over because once we send this baby there's no going back - or getting our application fee back either. I've been told that if all your paperwork is in order, you can get your Determination Letter within two months. And the Determination Letter is the holy grail of non profit status. Everything hangs on that letter. The government still allows us to raise money but the catch is that we can't tell people it's a tax write off yet. Key word YET. Everything that is donated from the time we incorporated (which was January 11, 2013) until we get, I say, GET our Determination Letter is retroactive. So in essence, as long as we get approved by the government then all our donations up until then are tax deductible. But we understand why some of our big donors want to wait to make sure we get that letter!
In the mean time, we're planning, planning, planning and strategizing on our Sole Sister Parties, our gala ideas, and trying not to put the cart before the horse; which is very hard because we are ready for this horse to run!  In the mean time, we've gotten our first few donations and have been able to buy some shoes for the orphans. Many, many more are needed and we can't wait till our first Sole Sister Party. We've got lots of fun things planned and hope to have a lot of ladies show up who are looking to support an awesome cause - shoes for orphans and micro loans for women.