So, I haven't blogged for two months. There are many reasons behind that...a lull in activity, discouragement along the way as families adopting from the region we are lost their children to death, bio families who came back, or other situations, and then the hustle of the new school year starting for Carter and I. Oh, and training to run a half-marathon....yep, that takes A LOT of time and energy for a non-runner (me!).
Two months of blogs....I think I'll give you cut & dry bullets.
• We leave on Sept. 14th for Mo$cow for our first of three required trips. We have an appointment with the Ministry of Education (their version of DHS) on the 17th to accept the official referral. Our Visas will arrive tomorrow. We were lucky to get 6 weeks notice of our appointment date so that we could save money on airfare and visas! This means, depending on how long it takes to get a court date, our girl will come home with us sometime between Christmas and Valentine's Day.
• We have three different options for staying while in-country that we are working on checking the details of...two include staying with people living in the country. We are so excited that another family adopting from the same orphanage will have an overlapping visit with us! We have been in contact with them from the beginning of this journey and are excited to meet them - if even only for one day.
• I'm training to run a half-marathon on Oct. 6th. You can visit http://www.oneheartforjustice.com/ to find out about this amazing event benefitting two local organizations that provide adoption grants and fight human trafficking. I'm going to write a whole post about this - why I'm doing it and how you can help, right after I finish this one.
• We need to raise $15,000 more to be fully funded. The half-marathon is a fundraiser for us (more in the next post), we are having a garage sale, the word is still out on one grant, and we plan to have a dinner, dance and auction in the beginning of Nov. We are also still selling Qdoba coupon sheets. You can read more about these on the fundraisers tab.
I think that's all for a cut and dry update. Stay tuned to find out more about the half-marathon. Did I mention I am NOT a runner?
Kendra
I am just amazed at your fundraising abilities. I'd love to see her home before Christmas! As would your tax guy, no? We're still working on the hotel situation. We've employed our in-country aids to get us the best possible deal. I'll let you know how it plays out. So so so close!
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