Half Crazy

Dear Asher and Annalise,

Your Dad is amazing.  He loves you and your brother and sister.  He loves me.  He loves His Savior.

His love for you has caused him to do something crazy.  Technically, only half crazy.

He has signed-up to run The Rock and Roll Half Marathon.  He is going to run the race for YOU!  He is going to get sponsors- with the proceeds going to bringing you HOME!

There is a ticker on the side of this blog where people can sponsor your Dad as he runs this race.  There are different values of donations- all with the people getting something.  It may be their name added to a book we are creating for you, it may be an adoption shirt, it may be a postcard from Lithuania!  There are lots of different things we are doing to encourage people to support your Dad as he runs 13.1 miles.

13.1 miles!  That's crazy!!  And it's all for you.  He loves you THAT much!

We can't wait to have you both HOME!

Love Always,
Mom (and the rest of your family, too)

Happy Birthday!

At this point, we hope we know who you are.  We have submitted our letter of intent to Lithuania.  And we wait for our homestudy to make it's way through the three levels of review.  While we wait, you get older- and this week, you celebrated birthday.

It pained my heart to not have your sweet little chubby faces to kiss and watch you blow out candles.  Instead, your oh-so-generous brother and sister, Alden and Adeline, did just that for you.  We picked out a cake for you, put candles in it, sang to you and then blew out the candles.  We did talk about the HUGE party we will have for you next year- when you ARE here and can be fully celebrated!!

For now, our prayer is that you both felt extra-special on your birthday- and that you even knew it was your birthday.

We love you two!  We hope that your fourth year ends up being the best year of your life!!

What Love Looks Like

Love looks like lots of different things to different people at different times.  

Right now, for us, love looks like a house full of other people's treasures and memories.  Lots of treasures and memories.  So many in fact, that there wasn't much room for US!  Why did we have so much "stuff" in our house?  If you remember, we announced we would have a yard sale to help raise money to help bring you, Asher and Annalise, home. Our friends, whom already love you, acted.  They put their love for you into action full-force!  They cleaned out their attics, friends chose treasured toys to donate, they got their friends to clean out their sheds and attics!  We had SO many donations that we ran out of room to store it all!  What an amazing "problem" to have!!  The solution?  Have TWO yard sales!!  This weekend, Memorial Day, was the perfect time to have this.  Your Dad and I woke-up at 4:45 am and started setting up tables down our driveway.  Friends had donated tons of tables for us to use!  Mr. M came by at 6 and helped.  By 7:15am- yes, it took 2 hours- we had the tables full and our first customer.  By 1pm, we had sold over $1,000 worth of donated treasures.  We sold about 1/2 of the treasures donated.  At least we could walk in our living room and use the playroom.  The sunroom and garage are packed- organized and ready to go for the originally scheduled yard sale!

It was been so neat to see how excited people are to be a part of your lives- how much you are both loved and so greatly anticipated!

Here are the pictures of love- and once you get to know me, your proud Momma, you will understand how much love I have for you.  I do NOT like clutter, I like everything in it's place, I love everything organized.  Having our house look like this should have been hard for me- but I was thrilled to have our house so physically FULL of Love!

Look at all those treasures!!

A tradition in my family was Dunkin Donuts on the mornings of yard sales- and our good friends the W's helped keep that alive!  You are going to love A and H- they are super fun and spunky girls.

DONUTS!

This is only one step- but we are so excited to take it- it is one step closer to you two!!

T-Shirts!!

We are super excited to announce our adoption shirt design!  Please email me, Lisa (lperreca76@yahoo.com), to place your order!  We will be taking preorders until May 28 and then it will be first come first served!  

Colors:  Adults- Gray and Light Blue,  Children's- Pink and Blue

Sizes:  Adults- XS-3XL, Children's- 4-12

Costs: Adults- $20, Children's- $15, $3 extra for 1-3XL

Payment: Mail a check, hand us cash, or we can swipe your credit card- we can also mail you your shirts for $2.50 extra

Text on Shirt:

Brother  Family  Grandma  Acceptance  Sister  Caring  Laughter  Hugs  Memories  Father  Faith  Mother  Dreams   Chosen Adoption  Love  Aunt  Joyful  Forgiveness  Grandpa  Kind  Uncle  Giving  Cousin  Hope  Patience

Stats Update

Yesterday we finally got updated information on you!  I can't post your pictures, but man you are ADORABLE!!  It was so encouraging to read about you- to read about how much you have grown, what you can do now that you couldn't before, and seeing your sweet, sweet faces!  It was so neat to see how you are clearly a good fit for our family- Annalise you love arts and crafts, love to smile and laugh, and you look a LOT like me, your Mommy.  Asher- you love Legos and balls, love snuggles and you look a LOT like Alden!

Even if you don't end up being our Asher and Annalise, you are such neat munchkins!  I will be praying extra hard that the paperwork needed to get you home to us gets done quickly!

Published!

A few days ago I received an email asking if I would be willing to be interviewed about our adoption journey.  Sure!  Here is the article about us and our journey to grow our family of four!

Mom of two has more to give

By Melissa Wilfong | May 08, 2013

Lisa and Al Perreca and their two children, Adeline and Alden, are waiting to find out if they can adopt a special needs sister and brother from Lithuania.She’s a mom of two — yet she’s still a mom in waiting. As this Mother’s Day approaches mom Lisa Perreca hopes to have two new little ones in the coming year.

Perreca and her family feel this Mother’s Day, and possibly next Mother’s Day, will be two of the most memorable for their family because they are waiting to find out if they can adopt a special needs sister and brother pair from Lithuania.

Just last summer the Perrecas — Lisa and Al—were contemplating their family. Lisa is a teacher at Davis Middle School in the Enon/Chester area and Al is a program manager for a construction firm. They have the two children — one girl and one boy that are the American dream. Their daughter and son, Adeline and Alden, are both in elementary school in the Chester area.

They were contemplating whether they wanted another child. “We felt it was a question not of whether we had enough,” Lisa said. “Our faith tells us that it’s about serving those that need the most.”

Once they decided that they wanted to enlarge their family they looked to adoption, wanting to help those most in need. They looked for children locally and they were all much older than their two children. They wanted them to grow up together and have time to bond.

Al looked into the idea of foreign adoption and found there was a great need to place special-needs children from other countries. Lisa said, “Two hundred million orphans in the world will never be adopted.” These special-needs children are almost never adopted. Instead they spend all their years out in an orphanage.

The couple knew this was what they needed and wanted to do.  “We knew we didn’t want to birth anymore children,” Al shared. “But we still wanted to grow our family.” Al took on the research of the special needs children and they began working with Bethany Christian Services, an international adoption agency in Michigan.

“Internationally, there were 400 sibling pairs on the waiting child list under the age of seven in Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe,” said Lisa. So, the search began and applications and funds began to flow earlier this year.

The family decided on a sister and brother pair from Lithuania. They are hopeful that the two will be living in their home by the fall of this year. The sister and brother twins are four years old and both have learning disabilities and one has cerebral palsy. Lisa shared, “Four children will be very busy.” She said it’s a lot, she knows this.

“We could have a convenient life or a life serving others — we are called to serve others and we are blessed to do so,” said Al. “We know that the first year is going to be very chaotic but we’re ready for the tests and we have lots of resources.” They have a network of friends they know will help.

Lisa said that she, as a teacher, has worked with many of the special needs children in school and hopes this will help her be prepared for the days ahead. “My experience as a teacher, is a plus and I know the system and how to ask for the help they are going to need.”

The brother and sister duo will be added to the A-name scheme the Perrecas have started with the names Analise and Asher and retain their Lithuanian names as their middle names. “I already feel they are a part of our family,” said Lisa. “We can’t wait to meet them and it will be neat to figure out who they are as people.”

For now the family is in the middle of the home studies (four of those) and then there will be a dossier of paperwork sent to Lithuania to setup the next steps. Al estimates the cost may be nearly $40,000 before all is done.

Lisa said, “We want them to know that even before they were here we were those people that were so excited to bring them home and we don’t even know them yet.” They have tried to involve the community in their efforts through a blog. “They will live in this community, so we’ve been getting the word out.” Al said.

They are getting their home ready, even learning the language as they can. “Those first six months or so they will not even speak our language,” said Lisa. “So we’ve been doing the things we can to be ready to bring them home.” She mentioned she can’t record their births as the couple did with their first two children, but she can record these memories. “We are going to keep track of things we did for them and turn them into a scrapbook, create new memories.”

Lisa wants the twins to be welcome here and the Lithuanian word for Welcome “labos” is her way of letting them know they can’t wait for them to be a part of their family. She knows this Mother’s Day will be the last one like this.

“I think this Mother’s Day is going to be special as I get to enjoy my two amazing kids,” Lisa said. “I also get to look forward to how my heart is going to grow once our two children who happen to now live in Lithuania, come home.  Next Mother’s Day is most certainly going to be exponentially more amazing!”

On June 8 the Pereccas will sponsor a community yard sale at The Goddard School at 13036 Rivers Bend Blvd. from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. to offset the costs to bring Analise and Asher to the U.S.A. They’d appreciate any donations of clothing or other items. Lisa can be reached at lisa_perreca@ccpsnet.net.

Fundraising...

There are many opinions about raising funds for adoptions...  We belong soundly in the camp of "these kids are not just ours, so we will allow and encourage others to participate in helping us bring them home- we can't do it alone."  There is a less technical name, but that's it in a nutshell.

Asher and Annalise- you are SO loved!  I mentioned our desire for a yard sale to Miss Sarah (you will adore her when you meet her).  She runs the front office for the school age kids at Goddard.  It was her suggestion to ask about using the Goddard School parking lot- which they were happy to let us use!  She designed this amazing flyer- which has been already used in mighty ways!  She is even going to help us organize and run the yard sale!  Teachers at my school have brought in tons of cool "stuff" for the yard sale once they read this snazzy flyer that I put in everyones school mailbox.  Another adoptive family donated all their left-overs from their adoption yard sale to us.  Our house is literally full to bursting with donations all helping to bring you home!

Back to Miss Sarah- she helped us design this super t-shirt!  Your Dad came up with the idea and Miss Sarah helped it come to fruition!  We hope to start selling them soon. {stay turned for details- they will be coming soon!} 

We were even interviewed for a small local newspaper- the reporter saw the yard sale flyer!  The purpose- to talk about how much we love you and what an amazing Mother's Day it will be next year with you HERE!  Once the article is published, it will be put here as this is going to be your "baby book."

You are loved and we hope that all of these community connections will help not only bring you home, but also be a way for you both to see how much you are loved by people who don't even know you yet!