Can you help a little?

This post is from our friends, the Moreno family. They are trying to get their precious daughter home from Russia (and the same region Charlie is from). Their wait has been as long as ours was and they are about $5,000 short of being able to travel in hopefully about 22 days (we all know how *special* the hoops to jump through are over there, so that is not yet set in stone....) If we all chip in a few dollars HERE in honor of Baby Moreno's 5th birthday today, she will be thaaaat much closer to home. I think about all the ways so many people funded our way to Russia, and it still brings tears to my eyes. And not only is this helping a family and a precious orphan, but it's really kingdom work! Let's chip in! Here is their story. If you click the link HERE (just in case you missed it before.....) it will take you to their Reece's Rainbow account.


We are awaiting news of our court date. Our judge is on vacation this entire month, but our in-country facilitator is planning on asking her to give us a date as soon as she returns. We just sent additional paperwork, and we aren’t entirely sure whether they need the translated documents in their hands in order to ask for our court date. If so, it might take a little longer.
But there is a very real possibility that we could be traveling as soon as….
…drumroll please…

MID TO LATE AUGUST!!!

In case you don’t have a calendar handy, that is less than 30 days away. Now, it could be longer, but our agency feels pretty certain that it won’t be much further out.
So now the crazed and chaotic chase to prepare, assemble, copy, notarize, apostille, and FedEx paperwork has given way to the crazed and chaotic chase to finish our court speeches, assemble, copy, notarize, apostille, and translate a mound of documentation to support our ability to give J a better life here than she has in the institution, pack, and prepare our household for our absence—including arrangements for who will be staying with our children, which is still somewhat up in the air.
Oh, and we have to come up with another $4,000-$5,000 before we travel.
Yes, you read that right. Although we are very close to being fully funded, we’re not quite all the way there.  Through the generosity of friends and family (thank you, Lord, for putting so many pie-loving people in my life), God has thrown us a bunch of cows.  We held two really fun events, and I baked hundreds of Key Lime Pies, and our adoption fund grew.
I had plans to host one more really fabulous fundraising event, but it was impossible to schedule a date when we sat in travel limbo, knowing that we could get our travel orders “any day now” for nine months. But that was okay. We figured that as soon as we got home from our first trip, we’d schedule our event, knowing that we’d have a few months until court.
Only, what we didn’t know is that the time between your first trip and going back for court is filled with an all-consuming paper chase, leaving no time to wipe the drool from your chin, let alone plan a major fundraising event.
I did hike up my big-girl-panties (which are a couple of sizes bigger thanks to months and months of adoption-related stress eating) and pull off two good pie sales right after we came back, but that’s all I had time for.
And now that our court documents are done and sent off, I have a new project: gathering mounds of documentation to take into court with us to prove that Baby J is better off here than she is in the institution. And once it’s gathered, it has to be notarized, apostilled, and translated.
And we could be leaving in less that 30 days. Actually, I just redid the math. Mid-August is 22 days away.
During this process, I’ve tried to stay away from asking for outright donations. Don’t get me wrong: a good portion of our funds came from outright donations, and I am ever so grateful. And I don’t begrudge families who ask for outright donations. After all, they are scrimping and saving to save up the ransom for this child, and they are committing to parent that child forever. That’s a big thing. I certainly don’t mind being asked to stand with them and be a part of God’s work through them. I just decided early on that I always wanted to try to offer something of value.
Today is Baby J’s birthday. She has spent the first five years of her life as an orphan. Last year at this time, I wouldn’t have dreamed that we still wouldn’t have her home by now. And yet, another year has passed, and now she’s been transferred from the baby house to an institution for older children with “neurological defects”.
That makes me so sad.
So in honor of Baby J’s birthday, I am asking for a favor. I am asking for you to help us get her home. I think it’s the very best birthday present she could ever get.
I don’t want anyone to feel any pressure. I don’t consider anyone less of a friend if they can’t or choose not to donate. But I know that God will multiply the gifts of those who do, no matter how small or how large the donation. I trust Him to provide.
After all, I have an Ebenezer stone the size of  small island nation that tells me He will….
Won’t you please help wish Baby J a happy 5th birthday by being a part of this bigness? You can make a tax deductible contribution to our adoption fund through Reece’s Rainbow. Please designate “MORENO FAMILY/BABY J” in the PayPal comments section. Click HERE to donate.
Thank you, friends. I love you all.