ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

Resources

Adoption Fundraising

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Ask ten couples who have adopted about what they think of fundraising for an adoption and you will most likely get very different opinions from one extreme to another. Some will tell you that they would have never dreamed of raising money to help finance their adoption. Others will tell you that they simply could not have gone on the adoption journey without outside help. Regardless of their stance on fundraising, all will agree: Adopting a child is expensive. Really expensive.

When Mandy and I decided to adopt a little girl we considered the financial consequences of our decision along with the impact adding another little one would have our lives and, especially, our three boys. Initially, we decided that we would pay for all of the adoption expenses out of either our income or our savings and would tap in to our home equity loan if we needed to. We decided not to do any fundraising, not because we were against it, but because we felt that God had blessed us in such a way as to allow us to pay for our adoption out of our own means. But God had other plans.

First, our church family at Harpeth Hills stared an adoption fund where families could give money to specifically help those that were adopting. Then, our dear friends and owners of Katy’s Gifts in Nashville offered to host a shopping event where 100% of the profits from the event would be donated to us. Finally, we borrowed an idea from another family that had adopted a little boy from Ethiopia and held an adoption garage sale. In the end, we were able to raise about a third of the total cost of our adoption, which gave us the flexibility to save our home equity loan for the surgeries that Molly Kate needed.

Below is a list of ideas for fundraising that is not intended to be exhaustive but includes commentary where I have personal experience or directly no someone that does.

Clothing. Several friends of ours sold clothing from organizations like 147 Million Orphans where the organization split the proceeds of the sales with the adopting family or simply allowed the families to purchase the merchandise at wholesale prices to then resell for profit. We also had friends that had custom shirts printed specifically for their adoption, which they then resold. Two drawbacks to this type of fundraising is that it will most likely raise small dollar amounts and you have to pay for the merchandise upfront, which may be an issue for some families.

Churches & Foundations. As mentioned above, our church started an adoption fund specifically for people to be able to give to who wanted to support families on their adoption journey even if they were not going to go on the same journey themselves. Additionally, there are many foundations and non-profits such as Show Hope that have grant programs to help off-set the cost of an adoption.

Garage Sales. We live in a large neighborhood in Franklin, Tennessee, which holds two community garage sales annually. With over 2,000 homes in our neighborhood, the garage sales draw people from a large geographic area and provides plenty of traffic to raise money for an adoption. We quietly asked a handful of friends for any donations of items they no longer wanted to sell in our garage sale and had five or six respond very generously, including our friends from Katy’s. We then advertised the garage sale as benefiting an adoption, posted it on Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist, and ended up having a really successful event.

Private Dinners. Whether it is a well-known local chef or just someone who is an extraordinary cook, we have had a couple of friends who invited select family and friends to a private dinner at a high cost-per-plate. This is a private twist on an old non-profit fundraising tactic that offers much more than the basic rubber chicken dinner.

Restaurant Events. We did not personally avail ourselves of an event at a restaurant but we have known several families that worked with an organization such as 1 Seed to host a fundraiser at a local restaurant. The basic premise is that that adopting family purchases the food upfront (or has it donated) and then hosts a lunch (or dinner) where family and friends volunteer as the wait staff and diners pay higher-than-average prices for their meals and also have an opportunity to make an additional donation at check out.

Retail Store Events. We have friends that run a local gift shop and Hallmark store who asked us if they could host a fundraising event on our behalf. The owners of Katy’s Gifts covered the labor cost for the night and then donated all of the proceeds from sales to our family. Additionally, several family members and friends offered to bake goods, which we then sold on the sidewalk outside the store. This bake-sale also served as a great distraction for our three boys as they manned the table outside, which meant that they were not inside running wild.

Sporting Events. This is another type of fundraising event that we did not personally experience but we had friends who did. Our alma mater, Lipscomb University, began hosting Adoption Rallies where the proceeds from all tickets sold to a given game would be donated to the adopting family. That adopting family would then do their best to get as many of their family, friends, co-workers and anyone else they know (or barely know) to come to the game.

Baseball Coaching Resources

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I have written before about my experiences coaching my son’s baseball team. Things got really interesting this past spring when I volunteered to coach both Carter’s 8U team and Seth’s 6U team in the Grassland Baseball League. In addition to the fact that I spent three to four nights a week at the baseball fields as well as three to hour hours each Saturday, I had a great time spending time with my kids.

As I get ready to take on coaching both teams again this fall, I have been readying several resources that I have collected or developed over the past few years. I have spent quite a bit of time scouring the Internet to little avail so I decided to share several resources here.

Documents

  1. Lineup Card (Word) – I keep a score book for each team but this is a lineup card that I give to the opposing coach as well as to my volunteer dugout parent to keep the lineup straight. The league in which we sons play require players to switch positions every two to three innings, which is the reason for the additional columns. This is a common set-up for younger teams.
  2. Lineup Card – Substitutes (Excel) – As players age, it becomes common for leagues to move to a 9-player format resembling MLB. This lineup card allows for 9 batter and fielders as well as several substitutes.
  3. Lineup Card – No Substitutes (Excel) – Some leagues allow for all players to bat while limiting the number of fielders to 9. This lineup card allows for up to 11 batters but the additional batters would be listed as “EH” (extra hitters).
  4. Position Tracker (Excel) – I track each player’s starting position from game-to-game so that I can do my best to equalize playing time in the infield and outfield. As children get older, some simply will not be able to play in the infield but, especially at younger ages, I believe in giving all players the chance to play in the infield at least some of the time.
  5. Season-Starting Email (Word) – Once our player draft is over, I try to get an email out to my parents as quickly as possible. This is especially important when you only have a few weeks before the start of your regular season and you need to have your first practice a few days later. I have noted the sections of the email you could customize to fit your team and league information.
  6. Team Hitting Stats (Excel) – I have not yet started tracking many defensive stats for my 8U team because we still rotate players a lot but I have starting tracking hitting stats. This basic spreadsheet tracks hits, at-bats, runs, wins and losses for each player, game and the overall season. The most recent version I used was for an 11-player team and 13-game season but you can add columns and rows to fit the size of your team and length of your season.
  7. Team Hitting Stats – Advanced (Excel) – As I prepare to take my 8U team to the 10U division (which is kid-pitch with steals) I decided to create a more advanced offensive stat tracker for this season. This spreadsheet tracks games, hits, at-bats, doubles, triples, home runs, strike outs, walks, hit-by-pitch, runs, total bases, times on base, total plate appearances, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage (OBP), and on-base percentage plus slugging (OPS). UPDATE: I have expanded the spreadsheet to 15 games and added a column to track RBI.
  8. Baseball Score Cards – Some seasons my league provides a score book but not always. I found this resource that provides free, public-domain score cards in multiple formats. My favorite is the Enhanced Vertical Scorecard.
  9. Player Evaluation Form (PDF) – A good, concise evaluation form for players based on the fundamental skills needed to play baseball.
  10. Depth Chart (PDF) – An editable, visual depth chart.
  11. Pitch Count Tracker (Excel) – Most leagues have mandatory rest rules based on the total number of pitches thrown in a game as well as a maximum number of pitches, typically on a per-game or per-week limit. I created this tracker based on a per-game maximum of 75 pitches, but it could easily be customized to your league rules. There is also a key that leverages conditional formatting in Excel to change colors based on the pitch count range.
  12. Team Pitching Stats – Advanced (Excel) – This spreadsheet tracks games, innings, pitches, hits, strike outs, walks, hit batsmen, runs, hits per 9 innings, strike outs per 9 innings, walks per 9 innings, and earned run average.

Books, Blogs, Practice Plans, Web Sites, etc.

  1. Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way – I stumbled upon this book online and have found it to be a great resource. The first several chapters layout a philosophical framework for how to coach youth baseball and the later chapters provide many drills and comprehensive practice plans you can use. All of the drills and plans are rated by age and cover batting, defense and pitching.
  2. Coachdeck Baseball Training Drill Cards – Packaged as a deck of cards, this is a great quick-reference for baseball drills for players of all ages. Covering multiple topics (defense, batting, pitching, etc.), these can help you jump-start your practices with multiple drills and stations that keep your players moving.
  3. TeamSnap – TeamSnap provides web-based software to manage teams and leagues but their blog also provides some great real-world content on topics such as being the coaches child and tips for getting parents on board for a successful season.
  4. All Pro Dad – Family First is the non-profit organization that created this site, which focuses on being a great father with sports references galore. Many of the ideas for dads can be easily translated to apply to coaches.
  5. CoachUp – While I have never personally used CoachUp (I think it’s a little early to have my 7 and 5 year old sons working with a private coach), this is a good resource to help find a private coach for multiple sports.
  6. Little League® Bat Rules – They change every year so I always recommend that parents check out the current restrictions and bans on bats on the official Little League® web site.
  7. The Baseball Drill Book – This is the latest book that I have purchased that includes a number of drills for all ages and positions. It is a compilation of drills from the American Baseball Coaches Association.
  8. Ripken Baseball YouTube Channel – This public video channel contains videos covering batting, fielding, throwing and more.
  9. Drills for Catchers – List basic and advanced of drills specifically for catchers of all ages.
  10. Positive Coaching Alliance – national non-profit developing “Better Athletes, Better People” by working to provide youth and high school athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience.

China Packing List

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Both Mandy and I are organized and prepared people. She is more organized than I am (which really is saying something) but I enjoy a useful checklist and feel more confident when I know that I have done my research on an upcoming trip. Based on this, it is not surprising that I found myself researching packing lists online as we prepared for our trip to China to pick up Molly Kate. After reviewing several that I found, I created a consolidated list that Mandy and I used to shop for the things that we did not already have and organize those that we did (Here are links to two versions: Excel and PDF).

I purposefully left off of our list things like clothing and electronics because those are specific to each individual person that will be traveling. I also left off what we packed for Molly Kate because you may be adopting a little boy or a child that is significantly older or younger that she was when we traveled (22 months). Regardless, it was a packing list that helped keep us straight in the last few days before we left. Here are also some more detailed thoughts on topics or items that stuck out in my mind.

Must-haves and -knows:

  1. Invest in a good backpack. Both Mandy and I used backpacks as our carry-on bag and then used them on a daily basis around Hong Kong and Guangzho. Mandy did not take a purse with her to China so my backpack was used as a combination shopping bag, purse, diaper bag and general carry-all. I bought the Marmot Ledge and, while it could have been just a bit bigger, I really had a great experience with it. I also purchased some ditty sacks from REI that I used to keep things organized.
  2. Invest in good water bottle. If you have not been told  yet, you cannot drink the water anywhere in China (or in Hong Kong for that matter). We braved the ice but that was it. Most hotels will give you two bottles of water a day for free but we also bought a six pack at a 7-Eleven (yes, those are all over China) and went through two to three bottles a day. I bought both Mandy and I an insulated water bottle from Camelbak and they were well worth the money. We also bought three boxes of the single serving mixes from Crystal Light and used almost all of them. Our Camelbak bottles were a fixture in our backpack every day.
  3. Pack smart but not necessarily light. We were lucky in that we did not have an in-country flight so the limit on baggage imposed on domestic flights did not apply to us. I am confident that we could have packed a bit smarter (did I really need three sets of work-out clothes?) but not much lighter. We took three medium-sized suit cases with us on our trip and still ended up sending out laundry twice over the 15-day trip. We traveled in July, which is one of the hottest months in China and stayed in sub-tropical areas our entire trip. Often we would go through two changes of clothes a day because you would sweat through your shirt just walking around outside. Less clothes = more laundry = more expense but less baggage. I am OK with the trade-offs we made.
  4. Check all of your power cords. China (and Hong Kong) run on 220v, which is double the 110v that is used in America. Most modern electronics have a built-in power transform in their cord that allows you to plug in to either, however (it is the “box” in the middle of your cord that you have always wondered about its use). Check all of your cords before you leave to see if you even need to worry about a transformer. Of everything that we brought (MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, two cameras, a video camera, razor, etc.) only two could not handle the 220v: Mandy’s curling iron and my electric toothbrush (both hotels we stayed in provided a blow dryer, another common item that cannot handle the higher voltage). We were told that our hotel could provide us with a transformer, which they eventually did but not until we had three false-starts. If I had to do it all over again I would probably bring my own.
  5. Bring food from home. In case no one has told you yet, the food is REALLY different in China. You will not find a Pei Wei anywhere and even the westernized food is just off enough to make you second guess venturing out too much. You cannot expect to be able to pack all of your food for your trip but bringing a few select comfort items will go a long way. We brought mostly snack items but also packed a box of granola bars and quite a few protein bars (for when you miss a meal waiting in line for yet another piece of paperwork). We also bought some cookies at Walmart when we made our supply run. The Oreos were great but the Chips Ahoy Cookies definitely tasted different.
  6. Invest in an e-reader. One way Mandy and I did pack smart was that we minimized the amount of books we each brought on the trip (me: zero; Mandy: two). We are both avid readers but did not want to weigh-down our bags with a bunch of relatively heavy books. I loaded up on a few free and discounted e-Books on my iPad and Mandy loaded a few on her Kindle Fire (a multi-purpose Mother’s Day gift from me). E-readers take a bit of time to get used to but once you do they are much more convenient than lugging multiple books half-way around the world.

Leave it at home:

  1. Odds and ends. Several of the packing lists that I found online while doing my research had a quite a few odds and ends on them that we packed but never even came close to using. One was plastic zip ties (which I already had at home) and one was metal d-rings (which I had to purchase). Now, I can certainly imagine circumstances in which both of these items would come in handy but I also know that you simply cannot pack for every event you may encounter. Mandy bet me that I would not use a single zip tie (I do not remember the terms of the bet) and she was right. They never even came out of the package. And the d-rings? I guess they will make good toys for the boys when we get home. You do need to plan for some circumstances (see the medicine section of my packing list) but leave as many odds and ends at home as  you can.
  2. Electric adapters. Electric outlets overseas are different configurations from those in the states, and those in Asia are different than those in Europe. Our adoption agency recommended that we bring electric adapters with us (we actually borrowed two from my father-in-law who has traveled overseas extensively for his career) but the reality is that both hotels we stayed in had them available from the concierge desk. Granted, electric adapters are small but you can feel pretty confident in leaving yours at home or, worst case scenario, you can purchase them once you arrive at your destination for a fraction of what you would pay in America.
  3. Travel books and journals. We had an Internet connection in each hotel that we visited so Google was only a few clicks away, which rendered travel books all but irrelevant. Additionally, most travel books that I have purchased in the past are OK but it often feels like you need an instruction manual on how to use it properly. We stayed in nicer hotels that had very knowledgeable concierge staffs that were able to give us all of the information we needed and also protected us from going places we ought not go simply based on a review in a travel book. Finally, both Mandy and I bought journals from home to write in on our trip. I know that she wrote in hers some but mine was never opened. My guess is that if you do not journal at home, you will not journal on your trip so save the space and weight and try to pick up that discipline once you have returned home.

My guess is that if you have traveled internationally for an extended period of time (especially on an adoption trip) you have a similar list of thoughts on what was critical or unnecessary to pack. I would love to read your thoughts and comments below.