44 days.

I leave for India in 44 days. FORTY-FOUR DAYS. That is so incredibly soon and I can’t wait! I took my last final today and finished my semester! I am officially done with school until January and I can now focus even more of my time on preparing to foster my amazing girls in India.

My girls are all on summer break from school right now. By the time I get there in June, their break will be over and they will be back on their normal school schedule! Their current foster mom, Marla, has a ton of really awesome things planned for them during their break! Naomi learned to make pancakes last week and all of the girls went to the beach today! 

Ongole sits right on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and I will be able to take my girls to the beach every once and awhile! Here are some awesome pictures from their trip with Marla today! 

Chelsea loved the ocean!

Aren't Stephanie and Paula just beautiful?

Naomi loved the water too!

Heidi wasn't too excited about the water, but she really enjoyed blowing bubbles on the beach!

And Angel had a great time in the water with her ayah.

I've had a lot of questions of what my living situation in Ongole will be like. Will I be completely by myself? Not exactly. I will have two ayahs who live in our apartment and help take care of my kids. Ayahs are employees of SCH. They are usually (but not always) widows who come to work and help take care of our kids. While the ayahs will be a HUGE help to me, I will still be the primary caregiver for my girls. 

Our foster family is known as Grace Purple at SCH. I'll be living in a building called Grace Home. There are six foster apartments in Grace. My girls live on the first floor in a two bedroom apartment. My bedroom is a small room upstairs with my own small bathroom. I'll be able to keep all my stuff locked up in there and have a place for some alone time when I need it. I can choose to sleep in there or sleep downstairs with my girls. 

I got to Skype with my girls last week! Marla told them I was coming to be their new mommy! Heidi was in Hyderabad during this time, but I got to Skype her too! Marla sent Heidi to get a sleep study because she suspected she might have sleep apnea. Turns out her airways were 75% blocked by her swollen tonsils and adenoids. She had surgery to have those removed last Monday and has recovered great! They also found that Heidi might have some possible hearing loss. She now has ear tubes to hopefully correct this! She'll have some audiology tests over the next few weeks to find out if they were effective. 

I have received a few donations towards things for my girls which I am incredibly thankful! So far I have been able to purchase the guide canes for Stephanie and two other girls at SCH (Promise and Jasmine). They came in yesterday and look great! Stephanie's and Promise's are too big to fit into my suitcase so I am looking into having them shipped over to India. Starting tomorrow I will be shadowing Lynn Shubin who works with children who are blind in Knox County. She will be teaching me some Braille, how to teach Steph to use her guide cane, as well as several other things to help Steph become more independent. I am so excited to be shadowing Lynn and am so thankful she is so supportive of the time I will be spending in India! 

With the rest of the donations I have received, I have been able to start purchasing clothes for my girls! So far I've bought one outfit for each of my girls as well as some underwear and bathing suits for the little ones. I am still collecting donations as there are several more items I need to get for my girls! I will be bringing three new outfits for each of my girls as well as underwear, rain jackets, and a pair of shoes for each. I would prefer money to buy clothes rather than donations because India has vastly different modesty rules than we do here. I would much rather buy things I know my girls can wear instead of receiving donations I might not be able to take with me! I also will be purchasing a large blow up kiddie pool and plastic dinner plate sets for my girls.

I know several people might want to purchase an item or two instead of giving money and that is great too! Here is a list of items I am collecting that you can buy!

20-25 piece puzzles

Little people sets

Plastic baby dolls

Regular sized legos

Paint-by-number and other more "difficult" art projects

I am so thankful for everyone's support of my trip to India. I cannot wait to be there fostering them. In just forty-five days my life will change drastically when at 20 years old, I will board a plane to India to become a mom to six girls who have disabilities. I am so in awe that God has called me to this and I cannot wait to see everything He has in store. 

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders."

Fundraising

A few months ago I began praying about how I would get to India financially. I knew God wanted me to go, but I didn’t know where a few thousand dollars was going to come from. 

God led me to Matthew 19:16-20 - the story of the rich man and the Kingdom of God. In this story, a wealthy man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus responds by telling him to keep the commandments. When the man says “All of these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 

Jesus answers “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow me.”

I am wealthy. No, I don’t have an extra $5000 in my bank account to fund my trip to India. But I am wealthy. I have never gone a day without access to food. I have never lived without a roof over my head. I have always had access to clean water. I am educated. I have my own bedroom, my own bed, my own desk, my own everything. I have a car. If there is something I need, I drive to the store and pick it up. I am wealthy.

The more I prayed about going back to India, the more God began to lay this story on my heart. He made it clear to me that I needed to get rid of some of my own material possessions in order to fund my trip to India. So I am selling my car. I’ll make more than enough to support myself, so I don’t have to fundraise for any of my personal expenses.(If you know of anyone who might be interested in a 2010 light blue Bug send them my way!)

Everything I fundraise will go directly to my girls and some of the other kids at SCH. I have a long list of items to buy here in the States as well as things I need to buy in India. 

Please pray about giving any amount for my girls. $5, $20, $50, anything. SCH is funded completely from donations which cover surgeries, healthcare, food, rent, water, school, and several other basic needs. Any toys or extra clothes kids at SCH have are usually brought over or purchased by volunteers like me. I want my girls and all the other kids at SCH to have the childhood they deserve. I want them to have toys, games, nice clothes, and everything else a child deserves.

I’m going to be purchasing several items before I leave, but I also have a limit to how much I can take with me. I can only take two suitcases 50 pounds each. I might end up paying for a third bag if I need to, but that still puts a pretty large limit on the amount I can physically take.

Marla (my girls’ current foster mom) has helped me come up with a list of things my girls and some other kids at SCH need.

I will be purchasing a guide cane for Stephanie and two other SCH kids who are blind - Promise and Jasmine. (You can read about them on their two foster moms’ (Nikki and Tori) blogs). The canes average at about $40 a piece. This is incredibly exciting because these three girls will be able to explore the world on their own! 

I will be purchasing universal cuffs for Aloe and Jackie. Both of these girls have some hand differences and universal cuffs will help them to become more independent. 

I also want to get special watches for Stephanie and three other girls I met last summer, Phoebe, Victoria, and Jeanette. These four girls are blind and I want to get them watches that speak the time for them to hear.

I’ll be getting a large blow up kiddie pool for sensory water play, as well as several toys, puzzles, crafts, legos, and games. 

I want to get a few new outfits for each of my girls as well. I am planning on buying a few outfits here, but I want to buy most of my kids’ clothes in India. All of my girls need rain jackets as well! (The monsoon season will be hitting Ongole after I arrive).

If you would like to purchase some actual items instead of giving money - that’s great! Just email me at carrienicolehopper@gmail.com or message me on Facebook. I’ll let you know specifically what I’m collecting! As far as clothes go, I want to buy my girls new clothes instead of taking old worn out donations. But if you have something that has only been worn a couple times and is in really good condition I will definitely take it!

If you want to donate you can write me a check or send me cash. I don’t really have a goal to how much I need to collect. The more money I collect, the more things I can buy for my kids and others at SCH once I am in India. SCH has several other needs as well. They constantly have kids in the hospital and kids are in and out of surgery all the time. SCH is also raising money to get several of their children their own supportive wheelchairs. Any extra money I raise will go to countless important needs that SCH has.

Thank you so much for considering donating! But more importantly, thank you for praying for me and my girls.

Naomi and Chelsea had birthdays this week! A very happy birthday to Naomi who turned 9 on Tuesday and to Chelsea who turned 3 today (Wednesday)!