$100 Grant Tomorrow,Friday April 1st, for top Affiliate

As you are now most likely aware, we are all about helping adoptive families raise money for their adoptions, as well as those traveling on missions.  We are offering a $100 grant to the affiliate with the highest total of commission beyond $75 tomorrow, starting at midnight tonight. So the affiliate must reach the $75 mark in commission to be eligible. The grant will be awarded to the top commission of the day beyond the $75 mark. Remember that all of our affiliates receive 40% of the subtotal of each order. If you are purchasing on behalf of an affiliate DON'T FORGET to click on their affiliate name in the drop down menu during the checkout procedure. That way they get the credit for your purchase. If you would like to purchase on behalf of an affiliate to help them reach their goal, but don't know an affiliate to credit your order to, feel free to browse through our affiliate's blogs on our side bar to see some of their journey and stories. Your purchase just might be a surprise blessing to one of them :)

If you would like to find out more info or sign up as an affiliate in order to participate in this matching grant, you may do so by clicking HERE. You are still eligible no matter when you sign up.

Remember that our store has awesome shirts and product, but also has a way for you to be a blessing to children in Africa as well as the Affiliates. Check out our STORE for more details under Product Donations for Children in Africa. Don't forget our affiliates receive 40% of every purchase back to them when you click on their name in drop down menu during checkout.

Grant contest is being offered starting at MIDNIGHT tonight, Friday, April 1st at 12:00 am and will run through 11:59 pm Friday night.  I will announce the winner on Saturday of the affiliate with the highest total in commission. 

Thanks for your support!!

Latest Updates, Happenings, and Prayer Requests!!

I can't tell you how many amazing families I come across in our OH world. I am blessed to hear many of your stories of adoptions from around the world, of both healthy and special needs children. I am blessed to learn of the the unbelievable calls of God on your lives which result in you laying your lives down for another in some pretty amazing ways. Our mission at OH is to inspire and empower ORDINARY people to make an extraordinary difference in the life of a child in need. All of the families I have the pleasure of "meeting" in this blog world and through my website, truly are ORDINARY HEROES who are stepping up to CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE and inspiring many as they do. We can all only strive to live out the call of God in the best ways we can. So many of you have stepped up to do just that. I just want you to know that I am blessed to be able to share a small part of your journey and life calling as we share the same heart for adoption, outreach, and missions to help those who can't help themselves.

I first want to mention two great prayer requests that I would like you all to be lifting up.......

The first one is little Lucy......

Some of you have probably seen the number of prayer requests going up for this sweet child, but just in case you haven't I want you to remember to pray God's strength, grace, and HEALING for this little girl and her family. Lucy was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer and is currently being treated at St Jude. Her mother blogs openly about their journey of heartache, frustration and amazing faith in God through this time of trial. You can visit her blog HERE. Grab her button and remember to pray for Lucy's healing from cancer. This family is a testimony to us all.

Second, I would like you to pray for little Kirill.......

Kirill is a beautiful little boy from Russia. Please pray for God to release this child into the loving arms of Tesney and Greg. They have signed up to adopt Kirill and fallen madly in love with him. Kirill has Downs Syndrome and from what I have been told...."the judge said no, that he would be better off in an institution for the rest of his life b/c of his "medical condition". She called him socially unadaptable."
That is just awful! They are taking it before the Supreme Court soon and asking everyone to help spread the word about this injustice. So be in prayer for this family to find favor with the Supreme Court and be able to bring home their little boy from Russia very soon. You can read more of their story HERE, as well as grab their button. 


OH Banquet!!
We literally have sold all but one table to our banquet on April 7th!! Yay! It is going to be such a great dinner, silent auction, and event!! If you would like to attend and have not purchased your ticket, please contact Colleen@OrdinaryHero.org.  It is going to be an amazing night!!


Waiting Children!!
There are new waiting children from Ethiopia added to our waiting children site right now. There are also Ugandan children as well as updated pics of some of our past waiting children. CLICK HERE if you would like to view the waiting children. You must email Kristi@Ordinaryhero.org for the password, as this is a password protected site. Who is waiting for you??


I have some beautiful handmade necklaces from Ethiopia I will be featuring for sale on my blog in the next day or so, in order to raise money for Adoption Grants.  Be on the look out for those soon!!


I will leave you with a bit of encouragement from Jesus Calling Devotional today......


Stop trying to work things out before their times have come. Accept the limitations of living one day at a time. When something comes to your attention, ask Me whether or not it is part of today's agenda. If it isn't, release it into My care and go on about today's duties. When you follow this practice, there will be a beautiful simplicity about your life: a time for everything and everything in its time. 
A life lived close to Me is not complicated or cluttered. When your focus is on My Presence, many things that once troubled you lose their power over you. Though the world around you is messy and confusing, remember that I have overcome the world. I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. 
(Eccl 3:1, John 16:33)

Winner of our $100 Matching Grant Today!!

Nothing blesses me more than to be able to give grants! I really pray for an abundance to be able to do this more and more. But today......WE HAVE A WINNER!

The winner of our $100 matching grant to the first person to receive $100 in commission today was
MARY LEIGH BROWN!!   They are in the process of raising funds for their own adoption right now. You can click on her name and check out her blog. Congrats, Mary Leigh! You have been a hard working fundraiser.

I have two honorable mentions who came in 2nd and 3rd place today who also met their goal, but were not the first ones. Jill Funkhouser and Danielle Chrisco. Way to go ladies!! You did a great job fundraising and we would like to bless you with a free item from our store for your effort and meeting the goal.

We saw many affiliates accounts rise today which is a blessing to them. Many thanks to ALL of you who purchased on their behalf to help them reach their fundraising goals for their adoptions or mission trips. God is doing great things!!

$100 Matching Grant for Affiliates Tomorrow....Plus, Adoption Tshirts!

Thanks to our online auction and the sale of another Ethiopian dress, we have $100 in grant money we are just itching to give away TOMORROW in a matching grant for our Fundraising Affiliates. We have many families signed up in our fundraising program to raise money for their adoption, or mission trip. This will be a great way to add an extra $200 toward the fundraising goal of the affiliate who reaches $100 in commission tomorrow first. The grant will go to the first affiliate to reach $100 in commission (not sales). Each affiliate receives 40% of anything purchased from our Store. I will announce the winner of the grant later in the day tomorrow. If you are not signed up with our Affiliate program but would like to, get signed up today, and you will be eligible to participate in the matching grant giveaway tomorrow. This will be one matching grant for the first affiliate to reach $100 in commission. But this will be a great way to boost everyone's accounts. Blessings to all who participate :)

Also, I am excited to announce that we will begin adding fundraising families own adoption tees to our store. I have been contacted by a couple of families who created really awesome tees but they now have their child home and do not want to sell them anymore, so they are donating the design and the left over tees to OH for us to add to our store in order for other fundraising families to be blessed by their shirts and be able to raise funds from them. I think that is so awesome. I have already received an awesome new Ethiopian tee and several handmade Ethiopian necklaces I will be adding next week. These tee shirts will be pre order unless I am given some in stock. We will print them when we receive a reasonable amount of orders, which should not take long :)

If you have your own tee, jewelry, etc, and would like us to consider it for our store, email Kelly@OrdinaryHero.org.  We will set the price and all fundraising Affiliates will receive 40% of the sales to help them reach their goal to bring their adopted children home or travel on a mission trip.

Waiting Sisters

I wanted to share that the sisters are getting some inquiries since my and my sister's last posts about them.  If you did not read that post then you can CLICK HERE.  I pray that one inquiry will turn into a family for them.

Some good news for them. We have had several people that are pulling together and making them a goodie bag of lots of special things that will make them smile. They will be carried over to ET and given to them in just over a week from now :) I know they will be so glad to actually see someone come through those gates specifically to bring something that was made for them.

Also, I have a family in our affiliate program who is raising money for their own adoption. She was on the trip with my sister a couple of weeks ago and witnessed the older of these sisters crying because no one ever comes for them. She said it was so heartbreaking that she is going to donate half of her money raised in the program toward an adoption grant for the family who steps up to adopt these precious girls. So if you are looking for a way to help these girls and an adoptive family at the same time you may click on Susan Allee in the drop down menu when you check out of the store and 40% of your purchase will be credited to her account.

Keep praying for a family for these girls.  If you would like to inquire about these girls you may email Sue@celebratechildren.org.  For pics you may email Kristi@Ordinaryhero.org.

Blessings!!

Auction Winner and Donations.

The dress and doll will be going to the new home of Jen Gray. She was the highest bidder. Thank you, Jen!! You will love this dress and dolly :) Those funds will be going into the pot for a matching grant for affiliates. Yay!

Also, I wanted to make everyone aware that in our store, we have a new category called Product Donations for Children in Africa.

This is a way to bring much needed basic necessities to children we will be visiting on our July mission trips, and the affiliate receives credit for it as well.

So check it out in the Product Donations for Children in Africa section in our Store. You will find......

 Why Aqua shoes? It is wet and muddy and so many children need durable shoes as you can see from these pics from our last trip.

 Why Blankets? Because one thing you may not realize is that in July in Ethiopia...IT IS COLD! I can't tell you how many children we found shivering and all we wanted to do was give them a warm blanket.

 Why Raincoats? It rains every day during the rainy season. There were children everywhere with no protection from the rain.

So you can hop over to the Store and check out these product donations for yourself. We will be taking these items with us in July and you can follow along on this blog and watch us pass them out. Thank you.

Online Auction Today...Check Out This Ethiopian Dress/Doll Combo...Currently at $50. Keep the bids coming :)

 Online silent auction starts now. You will be bidding on the gorgeous handmade dress from Ethiopia, above, that comes with the handmade Ethiopian doll pictured below. This is a combo set. One bid for both.

 I purchased these items in December while I was in Ethiopia.

 My niece is modeling this awesome dress. I love the detail throughout it. Notice the top picture for the detail on the front of the dress. She wears a size 3t, so I figure this dress would fit anywhere from a 2t to a small 4t child.

 It comes with a matching headwrap.

 And it also comes with an Ethiopian doll in her own fancy, handmade dress and headwrap.

 Lucy made friends with her ;) so I will name this dolly Lucy Lu after my niece, Lucy Lane :-)

So don't miss out on this great combo! Remember every penny that comes in from this silent auction will be used as a matching grant for one of our Fundraising Affiliates. These folks are raising funds through the OH fundraising program to aid in the cost of bringing home their adopted children or they are raising funds to travel on a mission trip to serve children in need in other countries. So, not only will you receive this awesome dress/doll combo, you will literally be doubling someones money to help bring them closer to their adopted child or children they will serve through missions. This is a great cause!

Place your bid by leaving a comment on this post. Bid is starting at $40. Please bid in at least $5 increments. This auction will end at midnight tonight.  Make sure to email me at Kelly@ordinaryhero.org if you are the winner and give me your contact info.

Have fun bidding :-)

Encouraging ET News Plus...Give Away And Online Auction

There is some encouraging news coming out regarding ET adoptions...The Joint Council posted...

Since announcement, the Department of State has heard many rumors, but none have been substantiated.  The U.S. Embassy can confirm that the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs has shuffled the portfolios of key adoption personnel.  The Embassy has not been able to confirm how this reorganization may affect the processing of cases through the ministry.

Additionally, the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa is discussing the possibility of developing a consolidated assistance proposal to MOWCYA to find out what the resource needs are and find what assistance can be given to allow MOWCYA to accomplish their goals.

An adoption agency posted today......

Today we want to update you on the feedback we received yesterday from our foreign staff in Ethiopia, which was confirmed in a discussion with our adoption colleagues in a Joint Council caucus call later in the day.

At this time, all Foreign Staff on the ground in Ethiopia are reporting that MOWA has completed their staffing changes and are now currently working at full capacity to complete those adoption cases currently re-scheduled or assigned a court appointment through the courts of Addis Ababa. Our staff believe this to be around 800 cases they are working at full force to complete with no restrictions on the number of cases processed each day. This is great news! We are thrilled to hear these drastic changes do not seem to be going into full effect.

We are also pleased to report that for new cases moving forward; it appears the original changes proposed by MOWA will not be implemented to the degree of 5 cases a day. At this time it is unknown whether or not MOWA will issue a formal statement regarding how they will process cases in the future, but from all discussions it will not be a drastic decrease from before. Through the continued work, meetings, and advocacy of many Foreign Staff members in Ethiopia, it appears any future changes within the case processing for MOWA will avoid sweeping and disproportionate alterations to the number of cases processed each day. 

You can also read what  the US Dept of State issued HERE. 

SO EITHER WAY IT IS GREAT NEWS FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES. KEEP THE PRAYERS COMING!

IN OTHER NEWS.....

We have two online auctions/give aways going on. First I want to make you aware of Kim's Blog. She has an AWESOME give away going on with some great stuff! She is traveling with us on our OH team mission trip in July to Ethiopia and wanted to do something significant to help the children that we will be meeting. She has chosen the El Olam orphanage to fundraise for. The money she receives from her Give Away Entries will be donated to El Olam orphanage for much needed care for the children and repairs. You will see us in action at this orphanage in July so hop over to Kim's blog and enter one of her giveaways. It is for a great cause!

Second,
I am having an all day online auction starting tomorrow. All the money raised will go toward a matching grant for one of our fundraising families. So you will get 2 fabulous, authentic items and you will also be helping a fundraising family move one step closer to bringing home their baby. It is an awesome cause.

So what am I auctioning? Glad you asked :)

As you may remember, if you follow my blog, I traveled to Ethiopia in December. While I was there I purchased a few authentic, hand made items from the market. So, our first online auction, I offer you this beautiful handmade Ethiopian Princess dress ALONG WITH a beautiful handmade Ethiopian doll. I had my beautiful Ethiopian niece, Lucy Lane, model them for you. She wears a size 3t, so I would say this dress would fit anywhere from a 2t to a small 4t.

Here is where I found these dresses and dolls in Ethiopia in the market.

 Now here they are in America.....
The doll's dress is made from the same authentic material as the girl's dress.

 I just LOVE this dress. It is soooo beautiful! Lucy looks beautiful in it as well, I must say :) I mean, she is my niece and all :)

 You can take comfort in knowing that this doll already has made a new friend :)

 Again, everything is hand sewn and detailed beautifully..... and is here all the way from Ethiopia.

So bidding will start tomorrow, Friday, March 18th, at 7am Central time and run until 12 midnight Central time. The starting bid price is $40. You may bid in increments of $5 by leaving a comment on the post tomorrow. As it approaches midnight I would ask that you contact me at Kelly@ordinaryhero.org and let me know your contact info in case you win and I need to contact you.

Again, this auction is for the dress and the doll TOGETHER. The starting bid is $40. Whoever wins will get both the dress and the doll.

Let's really step up and help these fundraising families with their adoptions and missions by bidding on this awesome package gift.

Winner of our Affiliate Matching Grant!!

We have some awesome families in our Affiliate Fundraising Program. I announced that we would give a matching grant to the first family to raise $300 in commissions on March 3rd. Here it is, not even two weeks later, and WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congrats to the McCuistons! Her $300 in commissions just turned into $600. Angie has been doing a great job of spreading the word about the OH Fundraiser, to the point that they won the matching grant! I love that a sale that is credited to an affiliate at checkout gets them one step closer to bringing their baby home or going on that mission trip to serve those in need.  The McCuistons are adopting from Ethiopia and here is what Angie says in her own words....

Our family is excited and humbled to be on the journey to adopt a baby (boy or girl) from Ethiopia! We believe that the Lord has called us to this and has confirmed His will for our family over and over again.  The further into this we get, the more our eyes and hearts are opened to the overwhelming needs of orphans around the world.  We are excited to see how the Lord will use our family to love on these precious children.  We are changing and praising God for it!  We can not wait to have our little one home and are so grateful to all that have supported us along the way.  

You can check out the McCuiston's journey on their blog. Their family is precious! I will also be adding all our affiliate's blogs on my blogroll, who would like to be added, very soon. If you have not signed up to fundraise with OH and would like to, CLICK HERE to learn more.

I look forward to featuring an affiliate fundraising family and letting you all see a glimpse of their journey each week. Seeing other families adopting, and/or stepping out in faith to help others, is very inspiring. We all need to see that and be encouraged and challenged in our own walk of faith.

Congrats again to the McCuistons, and many thanks to all the families who participated and are fundraising and working on reaching their goals as well. We will have other opportunities and fun things coming up soon.

Get Your Green Speak Up Shirt For St Patrick's Day....

Visit the Ordinary Hero Store and look in Men's/Women's apparel section to order. If you order today then they will go out in the morning. If you live close to Nashville area then you will get yours on Thursday :) If you are local you can always pick it up :)  Don't get pinched and tell people to SPEAK UP for the poor and needy all in one!  Awesome!!

Waiting Children and more....

My sister, Kristi, who is the Coordinator for the waiting children at OH, just did a great post on these waiting sisters. You will have to go check it out. After my other sister, Kasey, just got back from ET for her first court date, we were looking through her pics and I noticed the older sister of these two in the background crying in every picture. When I asked her about her crying, she said it was just the saddest thing because she was simply crying because once again, no one had come for them. She said it broke everyone's heart to watch. They all tried to console her but she was just simply HEART BROKEN.  Well, I just wanted to cry when I saw the pics. I have met these girls twice now and they are just the sweetest. The older one has always expressed to me how badly she wants a family.  I even have a video of me with them that you can see if you email Kristi@ordinaryhero.org and ask her for the link and password. You can see their pics on our waiting list if you email Kristi and ask for the password.

I realize that things are very frustrating right now concerning Ethiopian adoptions.  But these kids need support now more than ever. Think about kids like these sisters who have been waiting such a long time already and now the doors just closed even tighter. BUT there is hope!! We serve a GREAT GOD! I have seen what a difference you can make just by being a part of a child's life through sponsorship and support. It makes them feel loved and cared for, even if you are a thousand miles away. I can't tell you how often I hear the words " you have changed our lives" from the boy and his mother we are sponsoring in Ethiopia. We have simply sent him to school and helped his mother so that the little boy doesn't have to feel the burden of working to support her and he can go on to school.  It is literally life changing and you can make life long connections and relationships.  So all that to say,  for these two sisters and many like them, yes, it may take a while for you to actually bring them home, but there are so many ways to connect with them in the meantime.

So to all of you stuck in this adoption craziness from Ethiopia, keep your faith high and don't lose hope! I have seen doors close before with different countries. Sometimes they open back fairly quickly but sometimes they don't very quickly.  It took me four years to get to my son after going several different routes but Lord knows, he was worth the wait :) God knows your child and the path He has you on to get to that child. It was weaved into His perfect plan. Stay in the word. Lean on Him during this time. And be still and hear His voice as He directs you one way or the other to your child. Waiting does something in all of us. It defines our character in the meantime. Trust me, I know :)

We have had some new agencies join our wait list. We have some new Ugandan children from Adoption Advocates. We have also seen some GREAT success with SEVERAL adoptions taking place from China through Wasatch International. If you are signed with an agency that is not on our list but you know they have kids waiting that you would like to get the word out about, put them in touch with us. Have them email Kristi@OrdinaryHero.org.

Also, our Affiliates are up and running! I have just made it easier as far as the tracking code and all of that. Now all folks have to do when they check out is click on the affiliates name in the drop down list and they get the 40% credit from the purchase. I hope this makes things much easier.

I also received a great comment from someone wanting to make a purchase and wanted to know how to pick an affiliate to give the credit to. I will be adding a list of all of our affiliates and their blogs to my site. Any affiliate who signs up with us to sell will have the option of being added to our site as an official affiliate. It will allow folks to see your story and your cause and help spread the word and bring more awareness to adoption and missions. If you have not signed up as an affiliate yet and would like to you can visit our Affiliate Sign Up page. Read through the terms and conditions and then you can get started.

Have a great day!!

Here We Go AGAIN!! New Affiliate info and New Product is in.

Well.....we have launched our new store and Affiliate program....AGAIN :)
We kept running into some issues with the other program so we have gone another route.

First, check out our new STORE. We have a new look AND our Kid's Winning Tshirt Design is in! Visit the STORE and click on Kids/Youth and check out Makayla's tshirt design. They are available for purchase now.

We also just got in a new adorable hat. Go to the Accessories page in the store to view more pics and purchase.

To all of you wanting to sign up for our Affiliate Program......

If you have not received an email from us last night or this morning then that means that the old system did not record your sign up. Please visit our AFFILIATE SIGN UP PAGE.  Here you will agree to the terms and conditions. Once you agree then it will return to that same page where you will scroll to bottom and there you will find the link that will take you to the actual sign up page. Copy and paste that link into your address bar and go to that page. Click on Create New Account. Fill out the info, submit it and you will automatically receive a url tracking code link to begin selling through.
That url tracking code is what you will send out in emails to your friends and family in order for them to purchase through our store and you receive the 40% commission. We will send you images as well which you can turn into buttons for your blog. Remember, every item purchased through your tracking code link, you will receive 40% of the subtotal.

We are still keeping track of the commissions from the old system to be credited for the $300 matching grant. Right now, Angie McCuiston is in the lead with $229.62 (6 sales)in commissions. She is getting close. In second place we have Mary Leigh Brown with $170.56 (6 sales). Third we have Michelle Munari with $95.86 (2 sales). These are the calculated commission totals in not even two weeks worth of selling.  That is great! You can see how just a few sales can mean big commissions for our affiliates. We are matching the first $300 in commissions.

If this is confusing and you can't figure out how to sign up please don't hesitate to email Karson@ordinaryhero.org with any questions you may have. We are doing our best to make this as easy as can be for you with a top notch system that works great.

We hope to help you reach all your fundraising goals.

A Call To Action For Ethiopian Adoptions!

If you are involved in the adoption community at all then you have probably heard by now that on March 10th, the MOWA plans to cut Ethiopian adoptions by 90%. YOUR VOICE COUNTS!

READ THE INFO BELOW AND SIGN THE PETITION! Let us do our part to SPEAK UP for those who cannot speak for themselves. My prayer is that MOWA will find answers to the problems they face concerning adoptions quickly. I pray that they will take the necessary measures to ensure the children's safety and then quickly move their program back into place for the thousands of Ethiopian children who desperately need a family to call their own. Please sign the petition if you have not done so already. Read the info below. Most importantly if you are an adoptive family stuck in the middle of this process, don't lose heart. God is in control! Keep praying and keep your faith high. God is much bigger than MOWA :)

 

Date   March 8, 2011                          Regarding   Ethiopia                                       Dear Colleagues,   As you know, Joint Council recently released a Statement regarding the announcement by the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs plan to reduce intercountry adoption by 90%.  The Statement can be found on our blog by clicking here.  As part of our continued advocacy, Joint Council has launched an Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children.  The details of the Campaign can be found below.  Please share this information with your friends, family, colleagues, and adoptive families.  The Call to Action can also be found on our blog.   We hope you will join us in advocating for the continuation of intercountry adoption in Ethiopia.    Best Wishes,   Rebecca
March 8, 2011   Joint Council: Emergency Campaign for Ethiopian Children   What You Can Do:   1)      Sign the petition to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi – and pass it on! 2)      Have you adopted from Ethiopia?  Please send us up to 3 photos and 50 words or less with what you would like the Ministry to know about your child – we’ll compile the information and send a book to the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs.  Send your photos and stories toadvocate@jointcouncil.org by Sunday, March 12, 2011 to be included.  Please note that sending photos and stories gives Joint Council unrestricted right to use the information you provide. 3)      Share…Please send this Call to Action to family members, other adoptive parents, and everyone you know!  Post, forward and share your adoption stories via Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.  Make sure you include us in your posts so we can all hear your stories!  Here’s links to our pages: Facebook, Twitter and our blog. 4)      Stay informed: Get up-to-date information regarding the situation in Ethiopia by signing up to receive information from us:  click here to do so, make sure you choose “country and issues specific information” and “Ethiopia.”  And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter andour blog!

You Are Invited to the OH Benefit Dinner!!

YOU ARE INVITED........


Please join us on Thursday, April 7th for our 2nd annual CHANGE THE WORLD FOR ONE benefit dinner. This will be a wonderfully, inspiring night you won't want to miss. You will be blessed by real stories of adoption and outreach to children in need inspired and made possible through Ordinary Hero. You will hear from Founder, Kelly Putty as she shares the amazing things that have taken place this past year through OH. You will have a wonderful meal provided by Carrabba's Italian Grill. There will be a FABULOUS silent auction. It will be an amazing night! Bring your friends. We had many inspired to adopt through this event last year who have already brought home their newly adopted children.

Banquet held at
Durego
1649 Westgate Circle
Brentwood, TN 37027

Reception & Silent Auction begin at 6pm
Dinner and Presentation begin at 7pm

Tickets are
$50 person. ($40 of ticket price is tax deductible)
Table Host (seats 10) $450
Business Patron $1,000
Event Sponsor $2500

Contact Colleen@OrdinaryHero.org to purchase tickets.
Questions about sponsorship? Contact Elizabeth@Ordinaryhero.org

We would not be doing what we do without the support of Ordinary Heroes like you, stepping up to help those in need when we put out the call. We sincerely thank you and hope that you can join us for this inspiring night as we all come together. 

Affiliate News, OH News and a Shout Out

Thank you to all of you affiliates who have signed up for our program. We are still working out some sign up kinks we have been experiencing within the system. When you sign up always email Karson@ordinaryhero.org and tell her you just signed up so we can double check our records and make sure you are in there. This system is brand new so we REALLY appreciate your patience with this. We have gotten many of you up and selling with this program....Yay! Again, if you signed up and have not received an email from Karson, please let her know as she may not have record of your sign up. We are still waiting on confirmation from your agency/organization for a few of you who are signed up. You can email Karson and ask where you stand with that.

Also, when folks make purchases on your behalf they are always encouraged to add your name into the comment box to double back the credit of their purchase. I know when they go into the cart through your link it all looks the same because they enter through a code, but you get the credit through that code. They can enter your name into the comment box as well. It's always a good idea.

I realize as soon as I announced the $300 grant, we realized some sign ups weren't getting through to us....Ugh! :/ We have worked hard to try to get those of you who have contacted us signed up. So....we will offer another grant of some sort again after this one is reached :) For those of you who are selling, we have seen some great progress.
Let me show you how easy this can be.
Currently....
Mary Leigh Brown is in the lead. She is almost half way there at $128.62 with only 4 purchases credited to her.
Angie McCuiston is behind her, having made $91.82 in commissions with two purchases credited to her.
Micah Frey is in third place at $89.86 with just 3 purchases credited to her.
Michelle Munari is in fourth at $79.88 with just 1 purchase. Yes she received that much credit from just one person purchasing on her behalf.

That is how easy this whole thing can be to put money into your account :)  Woo Hoo! Since this is new and we are making sure it is all going as it should, I will also be going through all the purchases that were made and were not credited to an affiliate and contacting those individuals to make sure they didn't mean for it to go toward someone.

If you are not signed up yet but would like to be CLICK HERE to sign up. BUT BE SURE TO EMAIL Karson@OrdinaryHero.org AND LET HER KNOW YOU SIGNED UP. THANKS ;)

Our new Kid's t shirt is in! Makayla won the art contest for the kid's t shirt design and it is in. I will be getting it, along with a new hat on the site early this week. Yay!

Speak Up! We are getting help on our Speak up emails now and trying to get her trained in how to do it. It has been a while since we have sent one out but there will be one coming out this week so be on the look out for it :)  We then hope to get one out every couple of weeks. This email has waiting children listed in it in hopes that you can help advocate for them.

Need your OH Sighting pics! I am creating a new page on the site called OH sightings (like a super (ordinary) Hero was sighted....get it?) of you wearing our OH merch. So if you would like to be featured wearing our stuff on our site, send me your pic and mention where you are from. If you are supporting someones adoption or mission, mention that as well.  Would love to see you in our stuff :)

OH Shout Out! The Miller Family is adopting their second child from South Korea and they are holding a raffle which was supposed to end on Friday but it goes through today now as well. So hop over to their raffle site and see if you would like to help support their adoption.

ATTENTION!! ALL AFFILIATE SIGN UPS......NOTICE!!

If you have signed up for our affiliate program and have not received an email from Karson......PLEASE SIGN UP AGAIN. We have had a glitch today and not sure how long it has been there. We have not been getting notices of new sign ups. UGH!! EEK!!We are sooooo sorry. Pray I don't get an ulcer trying to get this whole new thing launched :-) BUT we think we have it figured out now. So sign up again please and Karson should be in touch with you. WHEN YOU SIGN UP AGAIN, SEND KARSON AN EMAIL AND LET HER KNOW YOU JUST SIGNED UP TO MAKE DOUBLE SURE WE HAVE THIS FIXED. If you have questions as to whether she received your sign up. Please email her at Karson@ordinaryhero.org and ask her if she has you on record or not. She will let you know.
THANK YOU  for your patience as we get the kinks out of this brand new launch. I promise it will be a great thing :-)

Blessings!!

Matching Grant and Some Tips for New Fundraising Affiliates

First, I wanted to say that we are offering a matching grant to the first Affiliate to receive $300 of commissions from the Fundraising program! That means whoever gets to $300 in their account first from raising funds, we will match it and your $300 will become $600! Yay! 

I would also like to put the word out to any individual, organization, or company who would like to donate and offer a matching grant to these fundraising affiliates. I will post your business or spread the word about your organization on my blog and website to announce who is offering the matching grant. Your donation will be tax deductible and you will be helping adoptive families bring their babies home, or a person traveling on a mission trip to serve, be able to fund their trip to get them there to help children in need. It would be a very worthy donation and 100% of it would go to the affiliate who reached the goal to receive the matching grant. I can't explain how much it will be appreciated by them. Please email me at Kelly@OrdinaryHero.org if you are interested in offering a matching grant to these fundraising affiliates. 

I wanted to share a few cool tips for those of you who are signed up with our Fundraising Affiliate Program. Once you go to the site and SIGN UP, you will then be verified. Once accepted then you will receive an email with your own personal link to our cart. Through that link and only through that link is how you will receive credit for each purchase made from your friends and family. You will receive 40% of every purchase made. It is pretty awesome! 

I wanted to show you these cool buttons and banners available to you for you to use on your blog or site.  When you receive your email with your cart link, you will also have a link to your homepage where you will sign in to be able to look at your sales, etc. If you look to the left of that page you will see "Banners" and "Page Peels".  If you click on those buttons you will see the code to be able to copy and paste into your blog to create a quick and easy place for your friends and family to click on to go directly to your cart where you will get the credit. I have put examples in my right side bar today for you. You will see the page peel and also the two banners(buttons) for you to choose from. You will see that when you click on them it takes you directly to the cart. When you copy and paste the code from your homepage, it will take them to the cart for you to get the credit. 

To paste code, copy it from your Affiliate Homepage under banners or page peels, depending on which you want. Go to your design, then scroll down and click on gadgets. Then click on Html/java script and paste your code in there. You can say something in the title like "Click here and I will receive 40% of every purchase." or something like that to let folks know that the link will give you credit. 

That's it! A great way to add a fundraising button to your blog!

If you are fundraising but haven't signed up with our program, 

SIGN UP TODAY!

It's a great, easy way for you to raise the much needed funds for your adoption, mission trip, or even for your own child advocacy, 501c3 organization. 

Ordinary Hero featured in........

First off, I hope everyone has made their way to our NEW SITE and NEW STORE by now. Check it out if you haven't. Also, don't forget we just launched our new FUNDRAISING PROGRAM for any of you needing to raise funds for your adoption or mission trip. We will be adding new items each month :)

OH has been featured on a couple of sites lately.

First we are featured in the Nashville Rescue Mission Newsletter this month.

I think they wrote a great article on OH and the reason behind why I am passionate for helping people which led to me starting Ordinary Hero. You will see it if you receive their newsletter. If not, you can see it on their WEBSITE. I find it a blessing to partner with the Nashville Rescue Mission Family Life Center for women and children.  We have had the opportunity to serve and make relationships with some amazing moms and kids out of the shelter. I am honored that they would feature OH this month.

Second, You will have to go check out the Karen Halbert Photography site.

She has OH featured on her site. She so graciously shot the amazing photos for our new site. She has some new pics of my niece, little Lucy Lane, on there as well. Karen is a great friend and photographer. She did such an amazing job to give us the look and feel of our new site. Thanks, Karen!!

Lastly, I thought you would all get a kick out of our newest OH member. We are all about justice and heroes around here, so it is only appropriate that the JUSTICE LEAGUE has added their newest HERO to help them bring peace and justice in this world. WATCH OUT! This new Ordinary Super Hero stands ready to fight for the least of these and defend the cause of the fatherless with the best of them!

March Is Here And It Is Time To FUNDRAISE!!

OUR NEW WEBSITE AND STORE AND FUNDRAISING AFFILIATE PROGRAM HAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED!!

VISIT WWW.ORDINARYHERO.ORG

CHECK IT ALL OUT!!

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO RAISE FUNDS FOR YOUR ADOPTION OR MISSION TRIP, BE SURE TO SIGN UP AS AN AFFILIATE. YOU GET 40% OF THE PRODUCT PRICE OF EACH ITEM SOLD UNDER YOUR OWN PERSONAL AFFILIATE LINK WHEN YOU SIGN UP. 

SO IN OTHER WORDS.....

YOU SELL THIS FAB-COMFY HOODIE FOR $49.95

                            AND YOU GET $19.98 CREDITED TO YOUR ACCOUNT

 IF YOU SELL THIS AWESOME i HEART AFRICA SHIRT FOR $34.95

YOU GET $13.98 INTO YOUR ACCOUNT!!

AND SO ON.....

WE HAVE ADULTS AND KIDS ITEMS. 

WE WILL BE ADDING NEW PRODUCT EACH MONTH TO KEEP IT EXCITING!

AS AN ADOPTIVE MOM, MYSELF, I KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO FUNDRAISE. THAT IS WHY ORDINARY HERO IS NOW TRYING TO GIVE YOU A GREAT OPTION THAT IS EASY. YOU SIGN UP FOR FREE. GET YOUR OWN LINK TO CART SENT TO YOU. YOU SEND IT OUT TO FRIENDS AND FAM. THEY PURCHASE. YOU GET THE CREDIT. THAT IS IT! WE SEND THE CHECK TO YOUR ADOPTION AGENCY, CHURCH OR NONPROFIT AFFILIATED WITH YOUR MISSION IN ORDER FOR YOU TO RECEIVE THAT CREDIT TO YOUR ACCOUNT. 

WE ARE SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS BRAND NEW PROGRAM! 

CHECK IT OUT AND SIGN UP TODAY!!