June | 2014 | Roll You Home

Jun 23 2014 0 Commentby writekara@gmail.com

It’s Wing Week!

We are excited to hold our Buffalo Wild Wings fundraisers this week!

First up is our local Mason event, which is TONIGHT! We’ll be there with friends and family for an extended dinner. Come hungry and bring your crew! If you still need a flier, let us know. They are also available in the sidebar. Just remember you select the correct location.

On Friday of this week (June 27), we’ll be down in Frankfort (my hometown!) to celebrate with friends and family there. We’d love to see you if you can make it out. If not, you can help by spreading the word. People can dine at anytime for both events-lunch, dinner, or in between!

See you tonight for some wings and fun!

Don’t forget your flier! Mason’s flier—–>BW3sMasonFundraiser

Frankfort’s flier——>FrankfortBWWFundraiser

Jun 16 2014 0 Commentby writekara@gmail.com

We have TRAVEL APPROVAL!

Posted in Adoption, Travel

Just got the call and we have TRAVEL APPROVAL (TA)! The letter from China saying we can come pick up Eli arrived to our agency this afternoon! They’re confirming our Consulate Appointment (CA) now and we should have that by tomorrow! The CA just tells us our last appointment in China so that determines when we can come home. We’ll need that information to book our flights but we’re fairly certain that we’ll meet Eli on July 21.<——It doesn’t yet feel real to type that sentence!

There are round abouts 1.7 million details to work out now that we finally KNOW the dates-there are flights, hotels, and care for Hannah while we are gone. I’ll also be making calls (again) to all the grants we are still awaiting word from to see if we can get their final decision asap. We need to be fully funded well before we depart because our fees have to be wired there in advance. We’re hoping that our BW3 fundraiser nights are successful and now they’ll be even more fun as a send-off of sorts for China!

More updates coming this week but for now-time to celebrate! we’re coming soon Eli!

Jun 16 2014 0 Commentby writekara@gmail.com

That Sister, That Dad, That Family

Posted in Adoption, Family

It’s been a big week for our family-big emotions and big milestones.

We’ve celebrated Hannah’s 4th birthday.

We’ve laid to rest my Aunt Anne.

And today-we celebrate Father’s Day.

And through everything, there’s the waiting….waiting to be released from this nearly year-long wait to go pick up Eli and bring him home.

In good times, it’s sometimes hard to accept that Eli’s missed another moment with our family. His sister’s birthday party was so much fun. It was a turtle-tastic, cousin/friend-filled day of bouncing, mutagen-making in misting rain, and a 4-year-old who is already so proud to be Eli’s sister. As we’ve prepared his room, Hannah helped to carefully set up his toys. She’ll occasionally borrow something but it’s almost always right back where she found it. She’s excited for him to sit next to her in the van and she talks with such pride about her brother in China. Eli’s got quite a sister waiting!

And today-we celebrate the father Eli has waiting. I always knew Adam would be an amazing father but he’s exceeded even this idealist’s greatest hopes. Our house laughs alot. Plays alot. And works hard. Adam never backs down to a challenge-whether it be Hannah’s birds’ nest of a hair most mornings before he takes her to school or her more dramatic not-so-pleasant moments that require all hands on deck. I’m so thankful to share this adventure with my best friend. I can’t wait to see him in his element with Eli.

And then there’s the family Eli has waiting. We are so fortunate to be so loved. Eli’s cousins sometimes bring up where he’ll fall in their ages and what it will be like to have him join their fun. His aunts and uncles ask about our progress and his updates. His grandparents have been learning about China and are ready to expand their grandkid fleet. His Mamaw and Papaw will even be joining us on the journey to bring Eli home!

From across the world, he’s loved by many. And one of those many was my Aunt Anne. She was so excited about our new addition. I last saw her at my family’s adoption shower this spring. She didn’t feel well but she was there. At our sometimes loud, boistrous family gatherings, my Aunt Anne has always found a moment to talk with just me. As a little one sometimes in casts, I remember our chats when most of the kids in my family were outside or downstairs (which is the equivalent to the top of Mt. Everest when you’re in a cast). She kept up with my school, my swimming, what I was reading…and just me. She was a thoughtful, strong, and loving woman. We’ll all miss her. I’m sorry she won’t get to meet Eli but he’ll know the love she’s cultivated in our family.

We’re hoping for a slightly less eventful week with just ONE major milestone-travel approval!

Jun 09 2014 0 Commentby writekara@gmail.com

Fundraising update and an invitation to join us for wings!

Posted in Adoption

We’re in the final stages of this long, long wait. Any day now-we’ll receive travel approval, or TA, from China. With that approval, our last chunk of funds will be due and we’ll be free to go to China and *bring Eli home*. I usually consider myself a relatively patient person but this waiting game is a tough one! We’re not only waiting for TA but also to hear final word from more than TWELVE grants! Many of the granting organization prefer to wait until you are very, very close to traveling. I’m guessing they strategize a bit to see if they can wait out some people who will find funds elsewhere. It’s not necessarily a negative thing-with the end result being more children brought home to families-but nonetheless, it’s stressful! Like so many families, we can afford to welcome another child into our home but the upfront costs for adoption are a major challenge. Still, we’re compelled by a belief that adoption IS possible for diverse families. We’ve applied to grants who also support this belief and understanding that the upfront costs are often the barrier between a child who needs a home and a family who wants to welcome them. We’ve learned a great deal from the grant process and I intend to reflect on that for other adoptive families in a future post. Last week, we received one rejection and one approval! Just twelve more answers to go!

While we wait, we’ll be making one, final fundraising push. We are so very thankful to our friends and family who have helped us beyond measure. It has been difficult to ask for help but it’s also been an incredible feeling to experience the support, generosity, and love shown by so many. If you’ve donated, shared our story, or wished us luck-thank-you. We’ve got a few things up our sleeves in these last few weeks. We’ll share them here and via Facebook. We hope you’ll help us make this final push a success. If you’ve supported us from the beginning, feel free to help us by sharing our story and more importantly-Eli’s story-with your networks. We’ve made so many new connections through this journey and hope to make even more before our plane lifts off for China.

So…here’s a preview of two fun events before we leave!

Buffalo Wild Wings is one of our family’s favorite restaurants. The servers and staff at our local Mason BWW’s have always been so friendly. They know Hannah’s name and even her favorite ninja turtle:) The management staff has agreed to host a fundraising night for our family Monday, June 23rd. 10% of all dine-in tickets will be donated to our Adopt Together account. All you need is THIS FLYER—-> (BW3sMasonFundraiser) to have your ticket included in our total. Our family will be there in the evening but lunch, snacks, dinner, and in-between are included in the event! We still feel somewhat new to the Mason community so please help us spread the news by sharing the flyer with friends and family.

If that’s not awesome enough, there’s more wing fun to be had! We’re also in negotiations with the Frankfort Buffalo Wild Wings to have a China send-off night in my hometown. I am so excited about this opportunity and will share the date and that flyer as soon as it’s available.

Jun 04 2014 2 Commentsby writekara@gmail.com

The most difficult letter I’ve ever written…

Posted in Adoption

Almost 4 years ago, I jumped on the mom blogger bandwagon to write a few letters to my then-baby Hannah. I revisited this one and this one today and smiled as I recounted our nighttime routines and how much I worried about leaving tiny Hannah when I returned to work. I remember these letters flowing easily. I imagined Hannah reading them as a teenager and rolling her eyes and then-maybe…with some luck-reading them as an adult with amusement. The letters weren’t an introduction. I write as if I’m actively getting to know Hannah, which I was.

Last week, Adam and I sat together to write another sort of letter. We wrote a letter to our son, an introduction of our family, and an announcement to Eli that he has a family and we’re coming-SOON-to bring him home. It’s safe to say, I’ve written A-L-O-T. Over ten years of college papers, a dissertation, and several years as a freelance writer. Still, I can say with certainty that this was the most challenging letter I’ve ever written.

How do you introduce yourself to someone you love so dearly but have never met?

How would you describe your family….to someone who will join it!?

How do you tell a little boy from a million miles away that you know it will be scary and sad for him to leave everything he’s known…but you will help him in any way that you can?

We had 600 words and 10 pictures to answer these and so many other questions.

In addition to the lofty questions, there are the practical ones! We don’t want to scare him or think that if we mention we love to swim and he hates it that he’ll have to swim! We wanted to use this opportunity to prepare him for this monumental transition but it was also a maddening battle of second-guessing. What if Obie’s bat-like ears and always-showing teeth terrify him? What was the best caption to describe our wheelchairs? Is having your own room a good thing if you’ve always slept in a room with other children?

So many questions and so many answers that we won’t learn until we get to know our sweet boy. In the end, we tried to capture a few bits of information about our family that might help begin to build his bridge to a new world. We shared how he has a little sister who cannot wait to meet him. We shared that he’ll go to school, can play games/sports if he likes, and is already loved by so many. Our letter was translated late last week and we’ve been told, today is the day. Eli will receive our letter and see our pictures. He will finally know that he has a family. He is so loved and we’re coming very soon to bring him home.

Since Eli can’t yet read, we know he’ll learn a great deal about us by looking at the picture book we included with our letter. Here are a few (not all) of the pictures, we chose to send. We also included a few pictures of family members and our home.: