how Anna & Kristoff are helping us get to Peru

A few months ago, a friend from my home church where my dad is the pastor told me that she and a few friends wanted to do a little fundraiser for us. She sells Thirty-One products, a friend sells DoTERRA... they'd have a party and sell their products and give us the profits to put toward our adoption fund. David and I were touched.

The next thing I know... there's talk of a new Kindle Fire being donated, and fabulous raffle baskets, and tickets to a water park, and the newspaper is calling to write a story about us, and Anna and Kristoff from Frozen are showing up for a photo shoot!

 

 

 

That's my friend Jan holding the child who appears to be terrified of Kristoff's reindeer. She is amazing. I know she had help from a lot of people to pull off this fundraising event, and I don't even know all the people to thank. I hope they're reading this and I hope they know how deeply it touched us. Throughout the day of the event, I just kept thinking about all these people who were giving up their Saturday to help us and being excited with us about the kids coming. In the moments when we feel scared about this crazy adventure, it's such a boost of encouragement to know there are people cheering us on.

Late afternoon the day of the fundraiser, I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I was walking along the sidewalk loaded down with groceries, but for some reason I answered it. It was the Super Six women who were behind the event. They had me on speaker phone and wanted me to guess how much money the fundraiser had brought in.

Oh geeze... I have no idea.

Come on, just take a wild guess. 

I didn't want to guess too high and take the wind out of their sails, and I didn't want to guess too low and insult them. I tried my best to get out of it, but they insisted.

I don't know... $1,500? 

Did you say $1,500? 

Shoot. Had I guessed too high? I thought about pretending my cell coverage was breaking up.

How about $7,500?

Are you KIDDING ME?!

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and put down my bags.

I still can't believe it. So the fundraiser itself brought in around $5,000, and a couple weeks before the event we had been awarded a $2,500 matching grant, which brought the total to $7,500! These funds will help immensely with our travel expenses when we go to Peru as a couple ... and come back a family of six! Moreover, I just can't believe all the people who care about us and the kids and are getting behind us. It's so, so touching.

Speaking of going to Peru...

A few days ago we got this email that, in just a few words, says a whole lot:

Dear Pat & Anne,
DGA confirmed me the four children were assigned to this family, and probably today or tomorrow I'll get the official letter.
Maria Elena

*Pat & Anne: from our Alabama-based adoption agency.
*DGA: the government entity in Peru that makes the decisions about adoption assignments.
*The four children: the kids who are constantly on our minds these days!
*This family: that would be us. (yikes!)
*Maria Elena: the attorney in Peru who is facilitating our adoption process over there

So this is a pretty big deal. It means Peru has officially said that we, David and Karen, can adopt these four children and bring them home with us! Yikes. There's no turning back now...

Now our last major step before we travel is to get permission from U.S. Customs & Immigration to bring these four little people into the States on an immigrant visa so we can adopt them. So now we're in the midst of another flurry of paperwork, and we expect to get the green light to go to Peru sometime in the next 4-8 weeks!