What About Now?

Happy July to you! Happy July to you! Happy July to everyone! Happy July to you! I cannot believe that it is July already. Half of the year is already gone. Do you remember when you were a kid and the school year seemed like it would never end and the summer holiday lasted forever? For that reason alone I miss being a kid. Now that I have kids the days just seem to fly by and I can't even keep up with what grade my oldest is in because it all just seems to run together. My goodness, school has already been out for almost a month and it feels like we have done a lot of nothing. It doesn't help that all last week we were sick. Stinkin' colds and infections! Hopefully we're on the mend and we can enjoy the hot weather and enjoy this upcoming holiday. Parades, fireworks, picnics, pool, bring it on! It's fun to think that this time next year, Susan will be celebrating with us. Very soon she will be able to enjoy all of the holidays that we enjoy! I really hope that she will never have to celebrate a birthday alone. If all of the stars align she will celebrate her first with us!

We have made lots of progress with our adoption. At the moment all of our paperwork including our dossier is on it's way to her country. Usually you don't send your dossier until you have your "golden ticket" from the US but we were told to go ahead and send it now. That way when we do get our approval letter our dossier will be finished with translation and it will be ready for submission. Once our dossier is submitted and we get approved, we will get a travel date. We may travel as soon as September. Did you hear that? September?  If that is correct then we have a lot of fundraising to do and we cannot do it alone. We need your help even more than ever! If we get a travel date in September and we are not fully funded, I don't even know what will happen. I've said this before and I'll say it again, we have the best friends, family, community and co-workers and with their friends, family, communities and co-workers we can reach our goal and be fully funded by September. Please, please help us make it happen. Please, please share our story with your peeps. Please, please share our blog link. Please, please do what you can to help us bring Susan home.

I am usually one who doesn't care what other people think but over the past couple of weeks I have wondered if people think to themselves "Here she goes again!" when I post a new blog post on Facebook. I also wonder if there are people who feel that if we don't have enough money to adopt, then why are we? Everyone's situation is a little different so let me share ours. We don't have $30K just sitting in a savings account for a "Maybe We'll Adopt Some Day" fund. Adopting Susan was not a decision that we had made years ago, to even allow us the time to save money. We felt the need to do it now and there is no reason why Susan has to to wait years until we can afford to do it. She shouldn't have to sit in an orphanage any longer than she needs to. She is one of the lucky ones who only has to lie in a crib for not even a year hopefully while others lie in cribs for the rest of their lives. We have found her at an early age where we can help her now and get her started in the early intervention programs that are offered. Even though I have felt in my heart for years that I could adopt and love another child as my own, I never imagined that she would be a little girl who has Down syndrome who waits in an orphanage because she wasn't "normal", a baby who needs our love now! It took a while for my husband to feel the same way and now that we have committed, we don't have years to decide what to do, we have made the decision to act and there is no time to waste. We are saving a child from a life that she should never have to know and offering her the love and gift of a family. It is the hardest thing to ask for donations but I really hope that more people will begin to understand and become aware that these children are worth friends, family, communities and co-workers coming together to raise thousands of dollars so they can feel valued and loved. It takes a village to raise a child and that same village can raise money for that child I just know it. I'm just about to come off of my soap box but before I do I just want to ask, "What about now?" What about today? We have to do today what we can do now! So if that means that maybe you can brown bag your lunch this week and apply what you would have spent for lunches and donate it to a good cause then do it! If it means that instead of just ignoring my latest blog post you acutally take the time to read it then share it with a friend then do it! If it means that you only have $5 and you think what difference will $5 make, just do it! Donate $5 and know that you are making a difference. If you have thought about donating but just haven't had the time to figure out how to do it, just do it! Or if you are kneeling at your bedside saying your prayers and you think "Who can I pray for today?" please pray for Susan and our family. We need prayers as much as we do the money! If we can be touched as we watch a commercial about mistreated animals while Sarah McLaughlan sings "Be the Answer", then surely we can be touched when we see and hear about children who are rejected because they were born with an extra chromosome and help those families who have decided to rescue one of these children. Look at these faces and tell me you're not touched.

Alexander

Artem

Daria

Hope

Megan

Michael

Morgan

Vasilisa

Some of these chidren have waited years, Susan doesn't have to. The families that are coming forward to rescue these children are "The Answer" for them to not have to endure life in an institution. These children and families need you now! Susan needs us and we need your help to bring her home possibly in the next 2 months. We need your help today! Thank you for taking the time to read my post! Together we can make a difference! I will post very soon a few of our fundraising ideas for the upcoming months. One of them will be a yard sale on July 14th. If you have items/furniture that you were going to get rid of please hold onto them and we will gladly take them off of your hands. You can drop them off to our home on Friday the 13th. Also we will be having an upcoming Online Auction and are looking for donated items for that too. New crafts, clothing, giftcards, home decor, art, jewelry, you name it, we want it! Thanks again! God Bless!