15 Miles From Nowhere

"Are you sure you can help her?" We were asked. The meaning was clear: this child is beyond help. There are others who can be helped. "Yes, absolutely!" I answered, with more assurance than I felt. Truthfully, I had no idea how we would help her. I knew where we would start, and I knew we had a lot of knowledge, but frankly, I was unsure what she was capable of. I was unsure of what I was capable of. I knew she was ours, so I HAD TO help her. There HAD TO be a way. So I answered with more enthusiasm than I felt.  I felt a lot of fear that day, after we met the wild little girl who was clearly locked very deeply in her own world. I don't know what I imagined her to be like, but this wasn't it. I wasn't disappointed - I learned long ago to let go of my expectations of what my children would be like & free myself to enjoy who God made them to be. I knew in my heart the moment we committed, before we knew anything about her, that her

Whew! The last few months have been crazy busy with fundraisers! Last weekend we just wrapped up the second huge garage sale, and we are exhausted! I crunched numbers today and our financial need is down to $10,500! That is a huge number, but it is less than 1/3 of the total cost, so that is awesome!! Our first trip should be the end of July, so we are nearing the home stretch of fundraising as well as the adoption process. That is so encouraging! We are so thankful for all of the love and support thus far. Our local community has been especially amazing! Everything we have done has turned out well! Our long distance friends & family probably wonder why we're never fundraising, but we've done so much local stuff that we haven't done as much online.  That is awesome! :-) We have also been blessed with 2 matching grants and some super generous donations, which helped us meet both! That made a huge dent! (& to be clear - any size donation is super generous in my bo