Almost There!

On the Reece's Rainbow website families who are adopting are grouped into categories.  There are "New Commitments" all the way up to "Traveling Now."  Well the page right before "Traveling Now" is the "Almost There" page, and that is where we have landed!

It is both an exhilarating and a frightening thing to be on that page.  On the one hand, you are crazy excited!  Being listed there means that you have completed one of the hardest parts of adoption.... your dossier.  It has been sent into the hands of the Powers That Be to be processed for your adoption, and the only thing left to do now is to wait until you get the call to travel!  On the other hand, it means you are in the home stretch and traveling for your child is not far off!  Exciting yet nerve wracking, thrilling yet scary.

Well folks, that is where we are, in the home stretch.  It is an amazing feeling to be here knowing that our child is eagerly anticipating our arrival and that we are sooooo close to bringing him home where he belongs.

We are soooooo close financially too!  Mere hundreds lie between us and being fully funded.  $224.00 to be exact!! We have had an amazing cheerleader in our friend Julia Nalle who for the past few weeks has highlighted us on her blog and included our family in her fundraiser.  Her SEPTEMBER SYMPHONY has raised THOUSANDS of dollars for families like us, already committed to children, and for children yet unchosen in hopes of getting the families funded for their adoptions and the other children seen so that they might have families coming soon for them as well.

And you know what made my heart just soar today???  What reminded me of the goodness in the world??  That today, knowing we are getting down to the wire with our fundraising, finding out that a teenage boy of 18 donated all the money he had set aside for himself...... to us.  To our teenage boy.  To get him home.  Because this certain young man has been to Ukraine, he has seen these boys who have aged out, he has seen their plight and their desperation.  And his heart was moved to help.  What a blessing to us!  This boy knows what our son will face on his own, because he has seen it with his own eyes.  He traveled with my son Evan and with Tim this summer when they went on their mission trip.  And he wants to help.  God bless him and every person who has helped us on our journey through prayers and donations.  It means so much to us!

Today is the LAST DAY of the fundraiser and giveaway.  It is the LAST DAY for us to get funds donated so that we can meet our matching grant.  A $3700 matching grant!  No small drop in the bucket that is for sure, and the difference between us being fully funded for our son, and struggling to bring him home.

He has waited a long time.  And we are ALMOST THERE.  Can you please help us cross the finish line today???