-We are LOA! This means we are approved to adopt Elise. We are now allowed to send her a care package to let her know that we want her to be our daughter, along with gifts, pictures and some questions.
-Being LOA means we are also about 3 months from travel! Oh my word!! 3 months! It seems so long but it's not when you have a room to get ready and more funds to raise. Speaking of funds...
-We held a silent auction last week and through the body of Christ, we raised $5500!! How incredible is that?! God is so good!
-We have about $11,000 more to raise. What does all this money go to? For three of us to travel to China and bring Elise home, it will cost around $20,000. We have flights, in country and to the country, hotel costs, food, (snacks that we take and food there) fees that cover the final paperwork, translator fees, transportation fees in country, orphanage fees, plus additional fees for our travel companion, Abi. :-) There are more but you get the idea. Travel is the most expensive part of the adoption. Speaking of travel...
Traveling to adopt is not a vacation. Oh yes, we do some fun things while we are there to break up the time but it's more about the bonding. We will get Elise the night that we land or the very next morning. That's 12 days of being in a foreign country, but it's the last days of being in your child's home country. While the smells, sights, language and tastes are foreign to us, they are the last times Elise will have them. Elise does not know us. At all. We are white strangers coming to take her to a place she's only heard of and most of what she has heard could be fantasies or lies. She will have so many emotions and will not have any idea how to communicate that to us. We will do our best to bond but bonding will take place more when we get home. There are some families who never leave the hotel room because the child is too scared or the child is a holy terror in public. ;-) Can you imagine being 10 years old and this happening to you? The adoption process is best summed up as painfully beautiful.
Know that your funding is going to building a family and giving a little girl a wonderful last two weeks in her home country. We try to make it a 'vacation' for the child, try to buy reminders of their home, and new toys and clothes because they've been told 'no' for so long. (We do not spoil or indulge them. We show them love by buying them a few things.)
If you want to help bring Elise to her forever family, we have a few ways you can help out. We are selling t-shirts, having a garage sale, Abi is having a bike-a-thon, and we are tagging her bag!
For Tag the Bag, you donate any amount and you can write a small message to Elise on her luggage which we will take with us to China.
Garage Sale-We will be holding a garage sale on Thursday October 2nd-Friday October 3rd. You can donate items, help one of those days, or donate baked goods which Abi will sell. We will even pick your items up the day before.
Abi's bike-a-thon will take place at Lois Jackson on October 25th. You can support any of the bikers or participate yourself!
We cannot thank you enough for your help and most especially your prayers! You all mean more to us than you will ever know!