gratitude

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled
by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude
of those who have lighted the flame within us.
- Albert Schweitzer

I received a little surprise in the mail today...

Thank you so much, Holly, for donating back the gift card. I could not help but get teary peeling back the activation sticker to see Emerson's sweet face.

This makes two of our raffle winners who have donated the prize back to us. Words cannot express how grateful we are for meeting such amazing spirits on this journey.

The first Serbian word I've learned is hvala. I figured it would come in handy the most. ;)

Hvala. Thank you.

^_^

strike three?

Just a little update that we have not yet heard anything on our third GOA grant review. So perhaps I was wrong about it being the first Wednesday of the month; maybe next week sometime.

However, in my online wanderings last night I ended up at their homepage for the first time since July and I saw something new (at least, I'm pretty positive it's new as I know I would not have applied had it been there initially)... it appears GOA now only awards grants to families adopting from countries under the Hague convention.

Which means, unless by some miracle they still consider us because we began applying before this new rule was posted on the site, we are not eligible. :(

It also means that families adopting from the two countries with the most urgent situation for children with special needs now have pretty much no options for help with funding. That is so unfortunate. :(

I cannot help but hold out a little hope that they will still consider us. If they don't, we will still be short of what we need. Not an enormous amount, but more than we can save on our own in the next few weeks/months.

As much I am disappointed to do so, I will likely hold one more raffle and I'm also going to be holding a Virtual Yard Sale via ebay with the hundreds (I'm not kidding! ^_^) of baby/kids clothes and other items that we did not sell at our yard sale. I will try to start that next Monday afternoon with the auctions ending Saturday afternoon - so you can browse and bid/buy Saturday just as you would a real-life yard sale :)

I still have my fingers stubbornly crossed though about GOA.
We appreciate all the support and prayers you can spare right now, dear readers! ^_^