Heading toward the finish line

Three and a half years.

When we started this journey to adopt, I couldn't imagine we would still be at it three and a half years later.  I thought I was impatient waiting nine months when Julie was pregnant with our older two!  That was a cakewalk (At least for me - she may have different opinions on the matter) compared with three and a half years.  But finally, after all the paper work, all the praying, and all the anxiety of pursuing two beautiful girls from the other side of the world…we can see the finish line!

We expect that sometime in the next month, we will receive court approval in India (fingers crossed and crossed again!!!) and around a month later, we will be traveling to bring Abigail and Autumn home!  To put this in more traditional terms, we are beyond expecting, we are getting ready to head to the hospital.  To say that we are excited is the understatement of the year! Well, the understatement of three and a half years to be precise.  Hopefully, before the first quarter of 2015 is over, we will be traveling to India for ten days and returning with the daughters that God had planned for us before we ever knew it.  How exciting…and stressful…and crazy…and every other emotion rolled into one!  The bottom line is - we can’t wait!

This imminent arrival means a couple of things for us.  The first is that once we pass court, we can publicly share photos of our girls.  So many people have helped us without ever being able to see what you were giving toward.  We can’t wait to introduce you a little better!  As soon as we are allowed, expect some great pics of our new princesses.  The second is that we need to fundraise a little more.  We hate to ask for more from our friends and family but we still have traveling needs.  It is expensive to travel to and from India as well as food, hotel, medical and government expenses.  We have saved and scrimped over the past year, but we have also incurred many expenses and fees due to the dragging out of this process.  Therefore we are still short of crossing the finish line.  So we are looking for some help.  Again.  

In the next couple of weeks, we will be doing two fundraisers.  One is the opportunity to buy a cool t-shirt that will help fund our trip.  The second is through a company that sells knives and kitchen utensils.  Sounds exciting, right?  Of course it is!  Regardless, your help gets you  something cool and helps us to do something life changing.  I’m hoping you will consider doing some shopping for a good cause.  

We will be posting info on Facebook and Twitter over the next few weeks.  My apologies if your feed gets blown up with requests.  If it gets on your nerves too much, feel free to block us till the spring.  We won’t be offended (I’ll simply cry myself to sleep every night on my huge pillow).  But if possible, please consider giving toward this final push.  We will also be posting a link to give directly to an adoption account if your would rather do that.  I cannot thank everyone enough for the generosity that we have already experienced and for the gifts that are sure to come. The finish line is looming…help us cross it!

With gratitude,

Aaron and Julie