There is an elephant in the room and his name is Charley!

There has been this elephant following us for months.  He's in our house, our car, in our minds and literally is sitting on us 24 hours a day.  I've tried laying a trail of peanuts to get him to leave.  Our zoo in Seattle no longer has elephants, thought that might be a nice place to drop him off.  We went on Tuesday and he followed us home.  He's still here and I decided to let him stay, his name is Charley.

Sometimes Charley makes me uncomfortable, he has made me jump out of my comfort zone.  Charley is the elephant in the room some people are questioning.  So I need to introduce you all to him so it's not awkward, he's really a cool and well loved little fellow!  In fact this elephant has been by my side for over 35 yrs.

I've had a few inquiries as to why we're fundraising.  It's a fair question.  It's also something I see pop up on adoption sites quite a bit.  There are a lot of differing opinions on it, even from people within the adoption community.   I think some of our friends and family are surprised that we are asking for help, especially at the finish line.  It wasn't an easy decision and wasn't something we considered before.   Questions fundraising families typically get:

-Why are you adopting if you can't afford to bring them home?
-If you can't afford to adopt them how can you provide for them once home?
-This was your choice, you shouldn't be asking people for money.
-You can afford a nice house and things but you're asking for money???

I normally don't like to talk money but adoption expenses are high.  A single adoption can be over 30K, imagine two!!  It's not quite double but it's still high.  Now I just don't have that laying around.  We do have a nice house but we have no car payments.  We are both driving over 10 yr old cars and they get us around!  We are fortunate.  We were able to save and pay for Potato bugs adoption.  We immediately started saving again after his adoption because we knew we were going to adopt one more.....just one.  A girl this time.  But then we met Scholar.  Scholar is so deserving of a family.  All these kids are.  He will be 13 on November 2.  When a child in China turns 14 they can no longer be adopted, that's it for them.  If they are lucky they will be allowed to stay in the orphanage.  If not they are released into the world with no money, education, or family.  Could you imagine how your 16-18 yr old child would survive that?  Unfathomable.   He needed us and we needed him, he truly was meant to be our son.  We were fully funded for one more adoption at this point so all was good.  We really didn't think a daughter was in the cards and had made peace with it.  We had a narrow crack of a chance to get matched with a daughter in time to be able to travel only once.  When it happened we were so excited and then freaked because we didn't have much time to come up with the funds.  I got a job, it was short lived and it became more than just earning money. (http://ourscatteredbutterflies.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html

It is our choice to bring them home.  We can afford to provide for them.  We can give them love, a home, a family, and a chance to live a life that they choose to pursue with the support of a family.   What frustrates me is is that there is not more help to bring these kids home.  There are grants but because we were too late in applying for them we didn't qualify.  Other than fundraising and grants there is no help.  Fundraising sucks!!!  Nobody likes asking for help but these kids are worth it and I will swallow my pride to do anything for them.  I would crawl over broken glass, allow 10 million spiders to crawl all over me, and welcome the elephant into my home or whatever else it took to bring these kids home.  My pride is at the bottom and if I've offended people I can live with it because my kids come before my pride.  It's not a fair world we live in.  My kids have experienced that first hand.  They were born into circumstances that they had no control over.  When people decide to grow a family they do a "little ba-da-boom-ba-da-bing" and they have a baby.  Most have insurance to cover the cost of birth.  People who choose to adopt don't have that help.  Could you imagine having to pay 30K for a birth?  I wish there was more help for orphans, there would be less of them if there was.  There should be.  There are a lot of people who could be wonderful parents to these kids but are stopped by the cost of bringing them home.  There are so many kids who need families and I will advocate for every single one of them.  Over the years I've boughten quite a few auction items, t-shirts, and just given money to help bring kids home.  It's where my heart is.

With that said I am so appreciative of all the donations we have received!!  Everyone (even the ones asking why?) have been incredibly supportive!  We all have causes that are near and dear to us. We can't support every cause that comes our way.  We all get touched by an experience that leads us to advocate and support.   For some it's cancer, for some it's special needs, for some it's adoption, for some it's providing scholarships, for some it's helping a family that has suffered a devastation.  Whatever your cause is is you are making a difference to someone and that's what matters.  Nobody can support every cause, I know I can't.  I see requests for fundraising all the time, I can't support them all.  I wish I could but I can't.  We feel the love from all our friends and family.  I want you all to love our elephant Charley and to not feel awkward with him in the room.  There is enough room for us all.  Much love to you all!