And yes, that is a photo of her at the top of the page. :) Isn’t she beautiful?!?!
How in the world did this happen you may ask? Well, for
starters, we had been “kind of starting” to think about growing our family again. Someday! Not right away of course! Maybe in a year or two. And definitely not by adding a teenager! BUT, while reading the blog of an adoptive
parent and missionary who has spent several months with kids in Eastern
European orphanages, one young girl’s description grabbed our hearts - we just knew
that “Loveday” belonged in our family. “Loveday”
is the name given to our girl to protect her identity until the adoption is
final. Even though we cannot share her
birth name publicly yet, we can tell you that it means “God’s gift!”
Grant’s words as soon as he listened to the narrative
that I read to him that afternoon were “We should go get her.” Here are some of the missionary’s words about
“Loveday” that stuck in our hearts:
She is 14, and is an
amazingly beautiful young lady inside and out.
She has such a
strong desire for family that on our last trip out to see our children she had
tears in her eyes as she watched me with my children.
She is very shy but
she was brave enough to ask for help to find her a family.
She has 3 older
brothers whom are all aged out so she is alone.
Kind, funny, has
character, responsible, smart, and has a great memory.
She is known for
being one of the best students in class and is working on learning
English.
She loves cats and
dogs, but really loves cats.
Her 3 wishes are to
have a family, do well in school and be in a home with a family and not an
orphanage.
And the best words that are now
written on the missionary’s blog regarding “Loveday”: HER FOREVER FAMILY FOUND
HER!!!
Yep, that’s us – her forever
family :)
We are excited to be working as
fast as possible to get her home. And
Gerry is ready to “go now to get our girl” – his big sister. :)
Not only are we excited to be
working on all of the mounds of paperwork and to be jumping through the many
adoption hoops (woo hoo – sooo super excited – ha ha!), we are also anxious to
get there as soon as possible. As the
days go by, Loveday gets closer and closer to the age when she ages out of the
orphanage system and is either:
a) sent to a trade school of the government’s choosing
(horrific places for a young girl, not anything like a college dorm here), or
b) put out on the streets and forced to
survive on her own (60% of young girls have to become a prostitute to survive,
and 10% of kids commit suicide within the first year of being on the street).
We are also fundraising to help
us get there and get her home as soon as possible – we weren’t exactly planning
on adopting again so soon but when you’re called, you’re called. (A breakdown
of costs is listed to the right) We have
an AdoptTogether.org/ourgirl fundraiser (where donations are tax
deductible – woo hoo!) and a YouCaring.com/ourgirl fundraiser. Links to both of these sites are listed on
the right side of the blog. We are also
working out the details of a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in Ohio, and
brainstorming for more ideas. Guess what
I’ll be doing this fall and winter :)
So now you know a little bit
more about what we’ve been up to recently.
Welcome back to our wild and wonderful world of adoption!!!
