Welcome back!

Hello there!

If you're here to walk this journey with us again; welcome back!  But, in case you are unfamiliar with who we are and what we're doing, here is a brief recap of the last year in the Theisen family:

    We are Rich and Meg Theisen.  We have 6 sons, ages 19 - 5.    By God's prompting and encouragement, we began a journey to adopt a special needs little boy from Lithuania (our 5 year old).  It took 13 months from beginning to end; relatively short, in terms of International adoption.  (But a long time when you're waiting...)   Our little guy's name is John-Patrik, he has Down's Syndrome and Autism and is pretty amazing.  His adoption was final on Dec. 4th, 2014; 9 days after arriving in Lithuania and meeting him for the first time.

    You are now up to speed! 

    Little did we know that when we arrived there, nearly one year ago this November, that we'd actually be starting a second adoption journey.  It was literally the furthest thing from our minds.  As we visited the orphanage we quickly got to know the other children.  They were all very friendly and clung to us for attention.  There was one little girl in particular, however, that completely stole our hearts.  Everyday we'd leave and be in tears on the way back to our apartment thinking about this little girl's state; racking our brain trying to figure out what we could do for her.  It took a few days before we finally looked the obvious in the face: We would be coming back to Lithuania to get little Miss Milanija (Milan-ee-ya) as soon as we could.   She also has special needs though the opposite of John-Patrik's.  She has Spina Bifida and Hip Dysplasia, but cognitively she is as sharp as a tack.  She has a wheelchair (finally!), hence our recent purchase of a huge 15 passenger van named Moby.  As you could imagine, it was very hard to leave her behind when we came back home with John-Patrik.

    Apparently, an immediate second adoption takes significantly less time than the initial adoption.  It is estimated that, barring any unforeseen difficulties, we are due to travel just after the beginning of the new year.  WOW.  That would be an 8 - 9 month international adoption. WHATEVER!   We still haven't quite wrapped our heads around it, and here it is September already!

   We have kept much quieter about this adoption in comparison to John-Patrik's because there are currently 3 other international adoptions going on in our church and we didn't want to over-tax our already generous church members or "steal anyone's thunder" so to speak.  However, Milanija's adoption, we realized, will be completed before the other 3 will be traveling and we need to raise our funds NOW.  God is faithful, just as He was with providing for John-Patrik's adoption costs through many unexpected resources, including many of you; He will be faithful for this adoption as well.  

So... we need help!  We are now, officially, in a bind for fundraising.  We've got to raise $4000 within the next 3 WEEKS or less.  ...Unlike our first adoption, we have a Nov. 9th deadline to get our dossier on the Lithuanian Central Authority's desk. (We just learned of this deadline last week)   We thought we had the funding all planned out but then some things ended up being different than last time, our plans got turned upside down, and now here we are. 
...I heard a funny saying last night on a show that perfectly summarized our position:
"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."  UGH.

We need your help as soon as possible.  We're setting up a link to AdoptTogether (A fundraising website) that will enable any donation to be tax deductible. It will be up and running directly.