Countdown to China!

The to do list is a mile long, empty suitcases are spread across the basement floor, and the excitement is obvious in our household.... Why?  We are only 8 days away from going to China to get our little boy!  As you can imagine, we are experiencing a variety of emotions as we prepare for the big day.  

In a way, it is the same feeling we had when we were a week away from having our three biological children. There were nerves...excitement...joy and adventure.  In this case, it's a bit different.  We're traveling halfway around the world during the Christmas season to get a little boy that has experienced more grief than we will ever understand.   We are going to bring him back to America to be a part of our family.  Just that thought alone, leaves us speechless.  

We want to express gratitude to all of you that donated money for this adoption.   We raised 90% of the money needed! Praise the Lord!   We still will have some expenses when we return home, but we are trusting the Lord to provide just as He has done this entire year.  

You can continue to follow adopttogether.org/thefailes and pray for us during the next couple of months.   We honestly could not have done this without your help.  It's been such a humbling experience raising funds for this adoption as well as opening up our lives to the government through the piles of paperwork that they required us to fill out. Having the right perspective pushed us to continue.  THANK YOU so much for coming on this adventure with us.  We have been blessed beyond measure.

At the beginning of this process, we purchased a 200 piece puzzle with Toby's picture on it. As a fundraising idea, we asked you if you would be willing to "buy" a puzzle piece to support our adoption.  Each piece represents $50 or more.  What a blessing to write down the names of all the people that sacrificially gave to our fund.   Below is a picture of the completed puzzle.  We will forever remember all of you and when Toby can read one day, we will show him all the names of the people that gave to bring him home.   Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of the big picture.  

In the coming days, we will be updating you on our trip.  Please stay tuned to this blog especially during the entire month of December.  (:  We are looking forward to our first picture we take as a family.  We will share it with you as soon as we can! 

God bless you all.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!