In awe.

The goal of Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree, as I've shared so many times before, is for every child to have $1,000 donated to them.

There were 186 kids on Angel Tree this year. Which means that $186,000 is the full amount that need to be donated collectively for every single baby girl and boy to meet their goal.

wow. That's a lot.

You could find a home that costs less than that. But then again, a home is just a foundation built of wood, steel, bricks, etc. These children... they're priceless.

Even so, none of us are made of money.  So many of us just did not think that all the children could possibly meet their goal... even in a million years.

Last year {I wasn't a warrior last year, but I've heard about it from friends}, every child made their goal because of a giant donation made on New Years eve {a.k.a. last day of angel tree!}. I'm talking $50,000 giant. Personally, I think it was Patricia Heaton, because she advocates for this cause. She's pretty awesome like that, not that we're friends {as if!}.

It was such a big, big, goal. BIG. but our God is able.

On Wednesday, an "anonymous donor" issued what we're calling "the BUMP challenge". There are categories on the Angel Tree page. One category is the $100-$500 category, one is the $500-$1,000 category, and then there are the categories for the kids who have met their goals {$1,000+}.

We don't really know the exacts, but there were about 65 kids in the $100-$500 cateogory on Wednesday.

65. sixty. five.

That's a lot.

and the majority of them weren't even close to $500.  A LOT of them were in the high $200's or the $300's.

The total to bump all of those kids just to $500 was something over $7,000+. wow.

So, back to the bump challenge....every time we bumped a child in the $100-$500 category to $500, the anonymous donor would bump a different child {the child closest to their goal of $1,000} to $1,000. The challenge was to end at midnight on Thursday.

It was only a 1 {and a half} day challenge.

Most of us, including the donors, expected that maybe 5 or 10 kids would get to $500, and therefore 5 or 10 other kids would make their angel tree goals.

No one expected it to go viral.

ALL I did on Thursday was sit on my laptop and refresh Facebook & the angel tree page. Seriously.

and a lot of people did the same thing.

It was i.n.s.a.n.e.

{In an amazing way.}

My little guy, Dmitri, got a $500 boost overnight. He was the lowest kid on the angel tree on Wednesday. Go look now, and you'll see that he met his goal.

and that was us just getting started.

Donations were POURING in. We would pick a child, the child closest to $500, and in 5 minutes they would be at $500. Over $500, actually, because we were going so fast that multiple people would donate at the exact same time.
...and then there were 30 kids left under $500.

We made it a goal to get EVERY SINGLE kid to $500 before midnight. I didn't think it would happen.

Yet, I was convinced to get on Twitter and start tweeting a message about Reece's Rainbow & the bump challenge to all the people from Glee. and Eva Longoria. and Jenny McCarthy.

I'm sure everyone thought I was a total Twitter spammer.

but it was working. We were rallying hard, posting to twitter and Facebook, spreading the word as much as we could.

BIG jumps were being made. BIG. Kids were ending up way over even the goal of $500.

At almost 11pm, there were 6 kids left under $500.

2 minutes later...


EVERYONE WAS AT $500!!! Let the virtual screaming begin.

Us warriors were FREAKING OUT, to say the least.

Because 65 kids, $7,000+, all in a little over 24 hours?

It's so amazing you just have to start praising God, right there and then.

It was such a fun day/night. It was so fun working together as a team and trying to spread the word as fast as we could.

Our warrior Facebook group was going crazy. I don't doubt we had 500 some posts & comments, just in ONE NIGHT.

and today, even though most of us are probably super broke from all that donating, we are SO HAPPY.

so happy. so excited.

We bumped 65{ish} kids to $500, which means 65 kids will be bumped to $1,000. We still have no exacts, but we figure there will only be about 35 kids who are not bumped to $1,000 by our amazing donor {whose internet is out right now, but will bump them all as soon as possible}.

and those 35 will be really close. We want to get them all to their goals by Christmas.

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. Seeing everyone joy when their angel made was bumped over $1000? Priceless.

We are all SO BLESSED by this challenge and our sweet donor. We've kinda bombarded her will thanks on Facebook.

God is doing so much work through all of our hearts with the angel tree this year. Last night was a true Christmas miracle if I've ever seen one, and I'm so blessed to have been a small part of it.

After all, He doesn't want to leave them as orphans {John 14:18}.  

Blessings!

Sydney