not to us

Alright, ladies and gentlemen...I've got a challenge for you!  :)  This weekend is going to be pretty busy for our family, so I'm not planning to post on the blog again until Monday.  (Except for the losers, I'll be posting your encouragement throughout the weekend.)  However,  I think we can still do some good this weekend, even though I won't really "be here."  So, this is the deal:

On my blog-friend Beth's blog, I read that one of her blog-friends is doing this thing where she's going to donate money in exchange for blog comments.  And I thought, "What a neat idea!"  So I devised my own plan to help boost Zach and Sarah's adoption fund.  It's called, "Make Us Pay!"

Make Us Pay

For every original comment left on this post, Mike and I will donate $5 to Zach and Sarah's adoption fund.  If you also make a donation (of any size...$1 to $1000), we will donate another $5 to Zach and Sarah's adoption fund.  So, if you leave a comment here* and donate to the Chip In**, you will "make us pay" $10 to Zach and Sarah's adoption fund***.

In addition to that, you have a chance to "make us pay" YOU!  Mike and I will be hosting the first-ever Not2Us giveaway.  If you comment on this post, you will be entered into the giveaway.  If you make a donation to Zach and Sarah's Adoption Fund, then you will be entered a second time.  If you pass along this challenge (on your own blog, on Twitter, or on a message board), then you have the opportunity to be entered two more times!  You must come and post an additional comment with the permalink to your blog post, message board post, and/or the link to your twitter account.  You can follow Mike at http://www.twitter.com/mikegoodwin, and you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/not2lindsay.

What are we giving away?  Well, you get to choose!!  (Kind of.)  :)  Mike and I will be giving away a $100 giftcard (or two $50 gift cards or four $25 gift cards) to the place (or places) of the winner's choosing.  We have a large list of options!

Disclaimers:

This challenge/giveaway is open to all U.S. and Canadian residents and will remain open until the maximum donation is reached or midnight on Friday, March 6th, 2009...whichever comes first.  The winning comment will be chosen by Random.org's True Random Number Generator.  (That's why you need to leave an additonal/separate comment for your blog posts, message board posts, and tweets.)

* The matching is only applicable to original and unique comments.  In order to assure that no comments are being generated by an automatic program, anonymous comments will not be included in this challenge.  Not to mention, we need some form of contact information to alert you, if you win!

** If you have already donated to Zach and Sarah's Chip In, we will still donate $5 in honor of your gift!  You don't have to give again, unless you really want to.  :)  However, if you want to "make us pay" another $5 and be entered into the giveaway, you will need to comment on this post.

*** Maximum Donation of $3000.