Three cheers for Laura!
Now, we've got some fundraising to do. As it stands now, we've paid about $8,500 of the $31,000 we expect this process to cost. The wonderful people at Holt have agreed to reduce their fee by about $3,500 in order to move us along. They sometimes do that to help facilitate the adoption of older children or those with medical issues.
Because they know about Tommy's medical condition, the amazing folks at Brittany's Hope Foundation, a charity focused on waiting children with "special needs," have offered to cover $5,000. That will be a huge help. In return, we're going to do two fundraising events for them; one right away and another next spring. As long as nothing goes wrong, we expect Tommy will be able to participate in that one with us.
We'll be paying another almost $8,000 over the next 60 to 90 days before we travel to Ethiopia. So, for those of you not keeping score, that means we'll need another $6,000 to close the gap before our second trip. That shouldn't be too, too hard, depending on when they schedule us. We hope there's enough time to save up, but not too much time; so Tommy won't have to wait any longer than absolutely necessary.
In the meantime, we're putting together a "Meet the Romano's" photobook that we'll take with us and give to Tommy when we pass court in Ethiopia. Last week, we put together a beautiful "Look at America" photobook we'll be sending over in a couple weeks. That one is just to give Tommy something from us to let him know he's special. Of course, at this point, he has no idea who we are. In fact, we're not even sure he knows he's being adopted yet. Over the next couple weeks, we'll be asking some questions about what he knows and trying to get more familiar with him and his situation. For now, we simply wait...and continue to pray.
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