Julie Gumm - Author

Book Blitz Giveaway Details

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So this is it! Book pre-sales launch TODAY! (It’s available for pre-order on Amazon.com)

To help spread the word I am having a really super fun contest!!

What you have to do to enter:

Spread the word about the book using THE BOOK WEBSITE – http://www.adoptwithoutdebt.com I’m going to make it SUPER easy for you w/ pre-written twitter messages and everything 🙂 (See below.) Do not link back here. (Well, you can share the contest but you don’t get entries for that.)

You will get ONE entry EACH time you do one of the following between Monday 5/2 at 6 a.m. Eastern and Friday midnight Eastern. Each action MUST include a link to the book website.

BUT, you must leave a separate comment EACH time you complete an action. I will use a random number generator to pick the winner so the more times your name shows up in the comments section, the better. If you post one comment and tell me about 3 things you did, it’s only going to count as 1 entry. Sorry, I know it’s a bit of a pain but it’s the best way for me to manage the process.

  • Tweet about the book (you can tweet 2 times per day for a possible 10 entries – but space them out please and vary the message)
  • Share on Facebook (up to twice a day for a possible 10 entries)
  • Blog about the book and link to the book website (include the URL of your blog entry in your comment)
  • Put a blog badge on your blog (see below)
  • I have a couple bloggers reviewing the book this week. You can FB share and tweet each of their reviews once for 1 entry each. (I’ll post the blog reviews below.)
  • Email your social worker letting her know about the book.
  • Email your case manager or agency contact and let them know about the book as a resource for other adoptive parents.
  • Post on your agency Yahoo group or discussion board
  • Post on other adoption related boards you belong to (as long as it doesn’t violate list rules). (If someone has already posted, just reply to their post with a comment – don’t spam up the board. If several people have already commented, skip it. I don’t want to make any list owners mad 🙂
  • Pre-order a copy of the book from Amazon.com. (If you end up winning a copy in the giveaway I’ll refund your money, or you can give the extra one away.)

The Grand Prize Package

Beautiful silver necklace from Ethiopia. Handcrafted by HIV+ women at the Entoto Outreach program.

Your choice of two window decals from available countries (Ethiopia, China, Haiti, Guatemala, South Korea, Liberia, India & United States)

Two autographed Tom Davis books – “Fields of the Fatherless” and “Red Letters.” (I devoured both of these at the beginning of our adoption process.)

Wood Ethiopian cross

Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” book (LIFE CHANGING)

Deluxe envelope system wallet from DaveRamsey.com (vital to sticking w/ a budget)

A beautiful handcrafted magnet/photo holder from Debi Jenkins Etsy store. (The Jenkins family is featured in the book.)

A $10 Starbucks gift card

A $15 iTunes gift card

One free copy of “Adopt Without Debt” – keep for yourself or give it away.

Pretty fun, huh!

So here’s some helpful messaging for you….

Tweets/Facebook Message ideas (140 characters or less)

Considering adoption but concerned about cost? “Adopt Without Debt: Creative Ways to Cover Cost of Adoption” http://adoptwithoutdebt.com/

Need #adoption #fundraising ideas? $65k of them in this book – plus info on grants and saving money http://adoptwithoutdebt.com/

Every adoptive couple needs this book on creative ways to cover the cost of #adoption http://adoptwithoutdebt.com/

Blog Badges

(Right click and “Save Image As…”)

Financial Freedom Means You Can Do Crazy Stuff!!

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So in November 2007 we did IT. We paid off our mortgage!! Making that last electronic payment caused great excitement.

A couple weeks later we received a letter from Wells Fargo. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I felt like it should have been accompanied by a gold-leafed certificate or have made a kazoo noise and showered confetti on me when I opened the envelope. Just a letter on Wells Fargo letterhead.

Oh well. I still stuck it up on our refrigerator for a couple weeks.

Suddenly there was this influx of “extra” cash. Woohoo!! Mark and I went on a cruise to celebrate.

Alone.

Without the kids.

(Mark wanted me to be sure to tell you that we hadn’t completely lost our minds. We got a heck of a deal on a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise that cost us about $1,000 total include flight to LA, shuttle, etc.)

Guess what I brought on the cruise?

Stacks of adoption agency brochures 🙂

So we had all this extra cash that we could use to finance the adoption. Right?

Well behind the scenes, and for some time before even, Mark had been wrestling with his ministry job. Was it really where God wanted him? Was this the best use of his spiritual gifts? etc. etc. He prayed, and waited, and prayed and waited. Kind of a “Okay God, I will go but WHAT do you want me to do.”

But he just kept hearing “Go”.

Um, who voluntarily quits their job without a new one lined up? Or at least a general direction? Crazy people right?

Or….people who have options.

People who have no house payment, no car payments, no credit card bill.

Of course I like to assume that we would have been obedient even IF we still had that house payment. But it was sure a lot easier this way.

Yet one question remained.

How would we pay for the adoption?

To be continued…

Taking Advantage of The Housing Boom

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The next huge step in our financial journey really came in 2004 when the housing market in Phoenix went absolutely crazy.

The house that we bought for $199,900 over a year earlier was suddenly worth about $350,000. Crazy right? So of course Mark starts talking about selling and I start rolling my eyes at him.

At this point we’ve been married 11 years and moved 7 times. I was tired of moving. Plus I loved our house and our neighborhood.

And, as I was quick to point out, what was the point of moving when everything was hugely over inflated.

So we did some research and began to look at new housing developments that were a little further west (the city of Phoenix just keeps spreading out) and had not yet peaked like the rest of the city.

And I learned something. I shouldn’t look at model homes unless I want to move. Because of course once you look you find something you love.

It didn’t take us too long to decide to make the leap and we signed on the dotted line for the construction of a new home. We downsized a bit (going from 3300 sq ft to 2700 sq ft) and after our construction options I think our final sticker price was $215,000.

They told us construction would take 6-8 months.

It took about 12.

Of course all that time we were praying that the market would hold because we weren’t going to put our current house on the market until we were closer to the move time. The market had been so crazy that houses were literally being bought within hours and I was NOT going to have to deal with a whole temporary move thing.

When it finally came time to sell we listed the house and sold it within a few days for $385,000.

From the proceeds we held back money for movers (my stipulation although we packed all the boxes ourselves), paint, landscaping, window treatments, etc.

But everything else was spent on the down payment which left us with a $65,000 mortgage.

And then we started to do some math. By this time we were making more money and we had continued to keep our budget pretty simple so we moved money around and figured out that by dumping everything extra at it, we could pay off the mortgage in 2 1/2 years.

And so we cheated. We totally skipped baby steps 4 & 5 and went straight to paying off the mortgage. We were so motivated because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel and could almost grasp total financial freedom.

Only later would we realize how important that freedom would be.

…to be continued