A Gift + A Hope: Giveaway Winner, Fundraiser Totals, + Updates

First, to all involved...

{thank you}

Our little family has been so blessed by the generosity of family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers near + far. As this little project of mine began to blossom I was floored by the response at each interval. First the amazing sponsors who donated from their shops, many of their items handmade. Please be sure to visit them. Then the 26+ who shared about our fundraiser through twitter, facebook, blog posts and other social media. Many more shared and did not take part in the giveaway portion. Last, to the 12 donors who contributed generously of their own hard earned money to help our family in a time of need. We rejoiced at each donation and have seen God's provision come forth through your giving.

Of the free entries and donations combined there were 132 total entries, and today I announce the one winner. I hope those of you who do not get the fantastic prize aren't disappointed, but are blessed to have been a blessing. Each of your entries received a number based on the order your comment or donation was received. The winner was chosen by plugging the numbers in at random.org just like any of my other giveaways so as to make things fair.

The winner of my biggest giveaway yet will receive items from the 11 sponsors. A total of over $300 in prizes! Without further delay, congratulations to...

Britt!

I will email you directly. Please respond in 48 hours to claim the prize package. 

Now, on to the fundraiser updates. The final total of financial contributions towards Malakai's Surgery fund is...

We continue to be overwhelmed by this number. Partly because of it's generous size but also because of it's meaning. You see, beyond this fundraiser there is a God at work who put the little details into place to provide for our family. I knew that before and I know it even more now because of how these details revealed themselves. 

Here's a little history. Back in April, before I launched this fundraiser and before Kai even had his surgery I applied for a financial assistance program through the hospital where his procedure would take place. As I mentioned in the original post, our insurance has an extremely high deductible that we'd have to meet to even get partial coverage, leaving us on our own to cover the expense of his surgery, just 5 short months before adding another little boy to our household. You can see how the dollar signs begin to add up. The assistance program I applied for was very detailed and lengthy, but I was willing to put in the work if there was even a slight chance we could receive some help. Another helpful part about applying was that while our application was under review, all our bills would be on hold with no penalties. At the very least this would allow us time to save + raise money before our first payment would be due.

On Monday we received a letter about our financial assistance application. As Ben + I opened the letter I   lifted up a prayer in my head for God's will to take place. We both skimmed over the details silently and then my eyes came across "100%" and I clasped my hand over my mouth and gasped as I pointed it out to Ben. We weren't sure exactly what that meant, but we knew it would be significant. Yesterday I called the hospital for details and found out that anything that was done by professionals in the group that we applied for assistance through would be covered completely. I made about 6 more phone calls that morning to find out what was covered and what wasn't.

After 90 minutes on the phone and mounds of notes + paperwork spread out before me I had learned that all but 2 of our bills would be covered. With the surgery there were 6 different bills between the visits before + after his procedure, the surgery itself including the hospital, surgeon, anesthesia... Before any coverage the bills would amount to nearly $10,000. After assistance kicked in we are left with an amount almost identical to the funds raised here by all of you.

To us, this is evidence of our God at work. While we want to give all of you credit for your contributions and we are so thankful for each and every one of you, we give the glory to God for bringing this diverse community together and meeting a need that seemed out of reach. 

Please accept our humble gratitude and be blessed to have taken part in something truly amazing. This is also why we are no longer accepting donations. I had mentioned keeping the Deposit a Gift page open as well as adding a donate button here through paypal, but with everything covered we are no longer in need!