Brick Walls

“Brick walls are there for a reason; they let us prove how badly we want something . . . because the brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough.”  Randy Pausch

This week I had the wind knocked out of me for a day.  I had just received emails letting me know that we aren't being funded for an interest free adoption loan and that we aren't receiving an adoption grant that we had recently applied for.  I had hopes for both of these and would have been so relieved if only one had come through for us.  I felt even worse about the grant because I had messed up by not sending in our tax returns on time.  Even though I had originally turned in our application over a month before, we were only given a week to have our facilitator send some info in and to get our three references to write and send their letters in.  In all of my hustle to get make sure they all got their items turned in on time, I completely forgot about the tax returns until two days after the deadline.  In a panic, I emailed them in, but was told that it was too late.  I was really kicking myself. 

I am reminded of what Randy Pausch said in his book, The Last Lecture, about brick walls being there to stop people who don't want something badly enough.  I had certainly ran up against a brick wall.  This isn't the first one we have hit.  For a fleeting moment after coming up against a wall I just want to stop all of this and go back to my easy simple and somewhat selfish life.  But when I think of our three girls in the orphanage and how much they want to come here to live, I want it badly enough for them to keep going.  We love the girls.  Because we spent last summer with them and were able to bond, we love Lyuba and Snezhana like they are our own children.  We love Diana too.  We are determined to get them out of the orphanage.  So, the next day after having the wind knocked out of me, I got up and got going again.  We are going to get through the "money" brick wall.  We still have an adoption grant application out for a smaller grant. All of these are from private Christian charities.  We have several fundraisers in the works also.  And we are accepting donations.

If you can help us get through this brick wall, we'd be very grateful.  Any size donation helps.  I wouldn't have believed this before our adoption experience, but even $5 really helps!  Lots of small donations can add up.

 

We love these girls!



 

This picture was taken the first day the girls were here.  Snezhana right away showed us how cute and spunky she is.  Her cute personality comes through in this picture.  She loved that dog costume and wore it several times throughout the summer - in 90 degree weather!  Lyuba was so sweet and outgoing.  She sat Leah down and started doing Leah's hair.  Next thing I know, Leah's hair looked like this:

 

Lyuba amazed people all summer long with what she could do with hair.  She even made my hair up like she did Leah's and my hair is short, as you can see in our family picture below!

 

 

We have to bring these girls home!