7 days. $7,700.00. Hope. Finally.

Dear Friends, we first sent out the link to this blog early in the evening one week ago today. We had no way of knowing what to expect, but we received our first donation very quickly, at 7:02 PM that night. Since then, Steve's story has been shared on many blogs, forums and message boards. We are being followed by people on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites. We have received money from people in almost every state in the US. We got our first donation from Ireland this morning, joining those from our friends in Indonesia, India, Japan, South Africa, Canada and Australia. We were also amazed to receive a handful of donations that were $50.00, $100.00, even $200.00 and more! But the overwhelming number of contributions have been $20.00 or less, so to have reached nearly $8,000.00, in less than a week, is staggering. There is no amount too small to give and we are deeply thankful for every person who takes the time to click that Paypal button. We have also received many personal messages of comfort, encouragement and support, all of which we have shared with Steve.

So, it's working. We have such a long way to go, but we've come so far, it's hard not to have the wildest hope for Steve and Marian, two truly decent and loving people who deserve the attention and care they are finally getting.

In the next few days, we hope to have some very exciting news to share and we will also be posting a message from Steve and Marian along with some photos. We have only just begun these efforts and we need to keep the momentum we have going, so we ask again that you continue to share Steve's story with as many people as you can find. This is how it's done, one person at a time, and we thank each one of you for your kindness and generosity.