10 Days till Esty's 10th Birthday!!

In 10 days, Esty will celebrate her 10th birthday.
Or, what she knows as "celebrate."
Every single one of her birthdays she has been without a family.
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
And now this year she turns "double digits."
Around here, we make a big deal about that. I wonder, will they do that for her?
My heart absolutely aches for my daughter half a world away.
As you may know, Esty has been waiting for a family for over 9 years. She was abandoned at 9 months of age...probably when she should have begun to crawl or walk and it was discovered that she could not.
Studies have proven that in the 9-11 month range, babies begin to develop their fears of being left. Separation anxiety. Have you dropped off a clingy, tear-filled 9 month old baby at the church nursery? It's a developmental stage. They are attached to you. They don't want you to vanish from their sight. They fear you leaving.
And that's what happened to our Esty. For real.
No one came back for her.
Alone.
Without anyone to tuck her in at night. To calm her fears, to celebrate her successes. To encourage her that she will be chosen for adoption...one day.

This is the first picture in her file. She is 5 years old. This means that no one prepared her file for adoption for years...they didn't think anyone would choose her with her specific needs. She waited in the orphanage for 4 years and 3 months before they deemed her worthy of being adopted.
{Oh. My heart.}
Well my friends, November 8th is going to be her FINAL birthday in an orphanage!!! It may be her double digit day, but it's going to be an exciting one...because we are going to get her OUT OF THERE!!!!
I want to share this video of our sweet girl here, and you don't have to watch all of it, but I want you to see how special she is. How focused, careful, intelligent and gentle she is. Notice how well she works with her hands. And if you do choose to finish the video, you will see her sweet smile over her success in creating her origami boat! (they turn the camera right side up at the :22 mark!)

Now, I have an idea. (A momma who wants to bring her daughter home gets ideas in the middle of the night!) :)
There are TEN DAYS until Esty's TENTH birthday. 
As you can see, she cannot walk, but loves to work with her hands. We have asked the nannies and they have told us her favorite animal is a bunny rabbit.
I bought my girl a bunny puzzle. It looks like this:

I think she is going to LOVE working on putting it together after she comes home!
How cool would it be if people who HELPED HER COME HOME had their names on the backs of those 300 pieces that she will work with her sweet hands? Do you think this might be meaningful to her?
I do.
So here's my challenge: for the next TEN DAYS, I'd like to find people who will celebrate Esty's 10th birthday by donating $10 to help bring her home from that orphanage.
Each $10 gift will be celebrated by your name on the back of a piece of her bunny puzzle. If you choose to give more, you can just have your name on several pieces!
We are hoping to close the gap on our remaining $19,000 we need to go and get her!  We are currently waiting on our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) that will begin our time clock of 3 months till we travel to bring her home! (We currently estimate going in February!)
If you choose to celebrate with us, you can use the donate button below or click here to give to our Adopt Together account. (Adopt Together donations will receive a tax deductible receipt.) Either place is wonderful!
Let's let Esty know how much we want her home and how much we want her to have a HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY!!!!