June's Recap

Well, guys, the first month of our Beard-A-Thon has come to a close and what a month it has been! Here are some highlights from the month of June:

• Our Growth Tracker has been updated! Head on over to the Growth Tracker page to see June's Beard Growth.  Asher Pirtle's picture is the Hofmann favorite. Please note that he is on the toilet.
• The Beard with the most votes was Justin Wendorf! This lucky guy gets his picture as our Twitter avatar for the next month. 
• We have 31 Beard Growers and each guy is working hard to raise funds for our adoption! What a joy it has been to have them on our team. 
• A Beard For A Baby is being followed on a global scale! People are logging in from 5 different continents (that we know of) and in 6 short weeks we have had over 16,000 hits. It is beyond crazy to see what the Lord is doing and we pray He is stirring hearts through beards and babies.
• We have added an Instagram feed to our website! Want to post pictures for our cause? Simple. Just hashtag #abeardforababy on your Instagram photos and watch your pictures appear. 
• We are still working on t-shirts. Details soon to come!

 Last but not least... the Beard Bank! The Lord has been faithful to provide $10,426.69 through the fundraiser so far (including pledges)! We cannot even believe it and are praising His name for His abundant and faithful provision through you guys.  We still have approximately $14,000 left to raise. If all 31 of our Beard Growers get their 10 sponsors in, we will come close to meeting our goal so please be praying towards that end!

Thank you all for your love + support.
<3 the Hofmanns

Beard of The Week | Matt Tonne

It's Beard Of The Week day! And this week's BOTW guy is (drum roll, please)... Matt Tonne!

DJ and I first knew of Matt because we all attended church together. I am sure at some point we were just acquaintances with mutual friends, but in the past six years we have grown much closer since we now all work together at The Village Church. He lives here in Lewisville and is the Associate Children's Minister at our Flower Mound Campus. He has been married to his wonderful wife, Kristen, for 7 years (their anniversary was this week... holla!) and they have three beautiful children: Katie, almost 4, and twins Becker and Rebecca, aged 15 months.  Let's face it... the Tonne's rock and all five of them were in support of facial hair before A Beard For A Baby was even a thing.

 

Matt loves the Lord and is marked by humility, wisdom and patience (he works with a staff of all women for goodness sakes and yet somehow he puts up with all our emotions and craziness on a never ending basis). He loves and shepherds the children, families and volunteers of our ministry and is a great asset to our church body. He likes You Tube videos, internet memes, and is pretty consistently rocking out to the most recent pop hits while cranking out Children's curriculum from his office. He speaks in moderate language and has a bandwidth that is unreal. 

 

When asked why he wants to participate in our fundraiser he said, "I'm supporting A Beard For A Baby for a number of reasons. I love adoption and think it's a beautiful picture of the gospel. I love DJ and Courtney and want them to experience the joys of raising children. Finally, everyone in my family loves my beard... and that's a win."

Matt was one of our first Beard Growers and is already sporting some pretty great growth. Here are some ways that you can support Matt:

• Help him and Kristen celebrate their 7th anniversary by supporting him here. Okay, I know, that isn't really celebrating their anniversary at all, but it does bless us in honor of their anniversary, which is pretty much the same thing. 
• Vote for him our our poll! 
• Sponsor him! When Matt gets his ten sponsors in, he is letting them dictate his beard style. His sponsors get to vote from the below chart called The Beards of Ministry, and let's face it, who wouldn't want to take part in that?! I'm pretty sure you guys should make him sport the Anabaptist. Sponsor him today and get your say on his looks for the next 5 months! 

Beard Of The Week | Justin Wendorf

Happy Wednesday!

It is my joy to introduce to you our Beard Of The Week.... Justin "The Beard" Wendorf! Justin lives here in Flower Mound and is a Behavior Intervention Teacher for Lewisville School District. I first met him because he serves in our Children's Ministry at The Village Church. He is a faithful volunteer who loves the Lord, shepherds the hearts of both our kids and volunteers, and goes above and beyond in His service to the church body. He's pretty rad. He is married to his equally rad wife, Elise, and they just had their first daughter, Elliot Jane. There's no denying it... the Wendorfs are really great.

When we first started throwing around the idea for A Beard For A Baby, I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure if it would be something people cared about, or if it would be a big flop. Justin was one of the first guys I talked to about it, and he was in from the start. I'm pretty sure he went home that day and started calling and emailing potential sponsors just because he was that excited. Really, Justin is a huge reason why this fundraiser exists, because without his excitement over it, we might not have had the nerve to launch it!

Justin has done an awesome job at recruiting sponsors, simply by getting the word out online (see below!) and by collecting donations for his birthday. He has been excited from the get-go and said he wants to {keep on} growing his {already ginormous} beard for us because He knows that God is working in our lives through the miracle of adoption.

We're excited to have him growing. Vote for his beard or sponsor him today!

June's Incentive!

We get it... 6 months is a long time for a fundraiser to last. It's also a long time to let a beard grow. And so, what better way to keep it exciting and engaging than to set up fun incentives and prizes to keep our Beard Growers growing? That said, we are happy to reveal June's incentive! When our Beard Growers get their tenth sponsor, we will be sending them this free shirt, designed by our very own Beard Grower, Ryan Jarrell! Our hope is that in wearing these shirts, our guys would not only look pretty rad, but would also be able to advertise and spread the word about A Beard For A Baby in hopes of gaining more awareness and funding.

So, how can you help? Sponsor a Beard Grower today and help them reach their goal of 10 sponsors! Just a reminder that if you desire to be a monthly sponsor, to go ahead and activate your sponsorship now so that your account will be drafted for the entirety of the fundraiser. It is also an option to make a one time sponsorship payment of $60 (or a one time donation of any amount for that matter), but for those who want to donate at $10 per month, be sure to sign up by the end of June. You can do so here.

Word on the street is that we may be selling these shirts soon too. We'll keep you posted!

Stay bearded,
The Hofmanns

Beard Of The Week | Tim McKnight

When Bearded Gospel Men posted about our fundraiser, we had men from all over the country sign up to grow beards for us. At the time I jokingly called these men "The Stranger Beards", but despite never meeting them, we have grown to love them. We have connected with them via email and have been humbled, encouraged, and blessed by their genuine desire to be involved with our fundraiser and their eager willingness to forfeit their faces for our cause. These are godly men who love Jesus and take seriously His call to care for the orphaned. What a blessing it has been to be connected with them.

We now have 32 beards on board and want you to know them and love them as much as we do. I now pronounce Wednesdays to be Beard Of The Week day where we will, in no particular order, introduce each and every one of our fabulous Beard Growers to you.

For today, it is my pleasure to announce to you Tim McKnight! Tim lives in Anderson, South Carolina and is an Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Anderson University. Tim found all ten of his sponsors after practically .20 seconds of signing up to be a Beard Grower and with great trust, he gave them free reign over his face. He let them choose how to grow his beard and when the votes came in, it was decided: He's growing "The Crowder"! When asked why he wanted to grow a beard for A Beard For A Baby, he said, "I'm growing my beard because I believe Christ-followers should care for orphans and the fatherless. Helping DJ and Courtney adopt is a small way I can show compassion to at least one child in need of parents." To learn more about his heart for our fundraiser, you can check out his blog post here.

Simply put, he's pretty awesome! Vote for his beard or sponsor him today!

The Beard Bank

DJ and I have been so blown away by the generosity of all those who have been involved in this fundraiser so far. From the men who have signed up to grow beards, to those who have helped us with fun incentives and ideas, and last but not least to the many of you who have given either through one time donations or monthly sponsorships, we simply cannot believe it. Thank you, thank you! We already have 49 people who have signed up to sponsor our Beard Growers and several others who have made one time donations, and our hearts could not be more grateful.

Because so many people are giving so generously, we thought it would be helpful to give an honest account of where things stand on the money front. As I am sure you can imagine, international adoption is very expensive. We want to assure you that we are doing all that we can to put our own money towards the required fees and processes. Thanks to the Lord's generous and unexpected provision, DJ and I started off this journey with $13,000 and are continuing to save as much as we can each month. We redid our budget a few months ago to ensure that we could put as much as possible towards the adoption costs. Additionally, we have applied for one adoption grant so far and plan on applying for several more. If necessary, we will have other fundraisers as well.Through it all, we are praying and trusting the Lord to provide every step of the way.

A Beard For A Baby launched on Saturday and has already brought forth nearly $5000! Every donation that comes in through A Beard For A Baby will be applied to our adoption costs. Here is a run down of where things stand to date:

• Total anticipated cost (including travel): $41,691.89
• Total spent thus far: $9,826.89
• Total Hofmann funds remaining: $7,071.40
• Total anticipated funds through A Beard For A Baby:  $4,756.44
• Total amount still needed: $20, 037.17

As you can see, we are half way there! What a huge praise this is and we give all glory and honor to the Lord.

Just a reminder, that if you want to be a monthly sponsor to please sign up this month, that way your account gets drafted for the entirety of the fundraiser. You can do so here.

We love you guys and are beyond grateful for you.

Stay Bearded,
Court + DJ