I'm not against the lottery in theory, but I wish I heard more stories of people putting their winnings to good use, rather than squandering all the money on mansions, expensive cars, and who knows what else that puts their bank accounts back at ZERO. I don't know if there's a winner, and I don't know how they'll spend their money. What I do know is that I didn't buy a ticket.
What I've said I'd do with the money I won in the lottery has evolved over time. When I bought my first lottery ticket at 18, I wanted the mansion, a personal chef, and to hire my hair stylist to fix my hair every day. (I have very thick hair, so I have a love/hate relationship with my blow dryer.)
I know what I would do with the money IF I won now. As in, very specifically, I know where I would begin to sow in such a way that the money would continue to benefit many people, long after the initial money was spent. And I do still dream of having my hair done every day.
But there were other places I needed to sow that money. Take a look at any of the adoptive families on Reece's Rainbow and you'll see people who fundraise again and again, raising the ransom for their children who wait. You'll see the Spitz family, whose story I just cannot do justice to in a quick blurb. Please go read their beautiful story. You'll meet the Rhodes family, a godly family so dear to us, especially since our stories have been woven together over these past several months. You'll read about the Jenks family, who have been paper-chasing for so long, and are getting so close to their two children. You'll find the Morton family, another local (to me) family finding themselves unexpectedly in the middle of an adoption of two boys, both 15 years old and near aging out of eligibility to be adopted.
Okay, I realize that it's just $5 for a ticket full of a potential $600 million. But that's $5 that I know will benefit one of these families, versus $5 that was probably just eaten up in taxes off the top of someone's winnings. Don't think that $1 or $5 is a big deal? Yesterday morning, the lottery was at $540 million and by the time the numbers were announced, that number had jumped up another $100 million.
If you'd like to put your $5 somewhere you can guarantee it's going to be well spent, follow any of those links above. You'll even find some giveaways, where your odds will be a LOT better than 175 million to 1. (Check back next week for a BIG giveaway here, to raise money for our foreign agency fees for Cullen!)
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