Tuesday, May 22, 2018
To God be the Glory
What a day, oh my what a day Sunday was. Words cannot contain or express Neil's and my gratitude for all the lovely, beautiful people that came out to support our fundraiser. We have just the best friends anyone could ever have, and they would not like to be named here, because not only are they spectacularly generous, they are incredibly humble. But I will mention that they put this whole affair together. The crafts were lovingly made over many months, the baked goods tediously baked and assembled into the wee hours of Sunday morning before the sale. Everything was made to a high standard, all this for our daughter's orphanage. Our dear friend and pastor not only helped get this thing up and running, he blessed our fundraiser with prayer early Sunday with those of us setting up. We had an army of friends and their kids help run the whole affair, you could hear some cheeky upwelling happening! "Ok, that will be $6 out of $20...would you like your change?" It was all very sweet and in good humor. Everyone was smiling and laughing, the room was filled with joy, pure joy. Joy only felt when doing God's work, taking care of the orphan. And then the good and faithful, the loving people who came out to support, who came to eat Kaiserschmarrn, even though they didn't know what it was ( it was a huge success! Way to go Neil, your Grandma Elsie would be so proud!). People stayed long and just enjoyed the music and food and conversation. It was remarkable. And my new friends I now can claim, the adoptive families that came to give us words of encouragement on this hard road, sharing their own stories, cheering us on. Humbling. Such a gift. I'm welling up with tears of joy as I write. May I never stop working for God, may all my deeds, mundane and all be to His Glory!
Thank you everyone. Thank you.
The latest development in our adoption is my conversation with our agency. They believe that our dossier will move from *in review* to *in matching* this Saturday or next Monday, and since we have already been matched, we should get, at long last, our Letter Of Acceptance....this will be amazing. From the day we receive the LOA it is 10 weeks of finishing up the paperwork and we will get our Travel Call! This works out to be the first half of August if we get LOA next week. So that leads me to our....
Prayer request: please pray that China moves our dossier to *in matching* at the end of this week. Please continue to pray that Elsie's heart is prepared for all the changes coming for her.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Fundraiser!!!
So it's just 3 days until our fundraiser, whew have we been busy. Who knew these things just don't happen! So much work, my friends and family have helped so much. this literally could not be done without them. 




This is just a small sampling of what will be available, note cards (look closely and you'll see Zinnia's contribution), handmade, locally sourced beeswax candles, tons of flowers lovingly started in the winter and tenderly cared for just for this fundraiser! And this is just a small sample of all the amazing gifts and goodies people have donated, it is truly humbling! In addition to the craft/plant/bake sale (wait till you see the fancy baked goods people are donating) Neil will be heading up the Kaiserschmarrn feed. Oh it's going to be so delicious, I feel pretty sorry for all of you out-of-towners! German scrambled pancakes with all the fun toppings! And a cool glass of organic lemonade finish it off. I will be posting all the post fundraiser photos next week. Remember, all you out-of-towners need not miss out altogether, we are taking donations and can mail anything to you excluding the plants and baked goods....And the Kaiserschmarrn!
The donations from this fundraiser are going to our mandatory Orphanage Donation. Every adopting family is required to make a donation in the amount $5,500- 6,000, depending on exchange rate. This is part of the total $35,000 cost of adopting from China. And frankly, it's the most useful part in my opinion. This money goes directly to the orphanage where it can actually help the orphan, whereas a big chunk of the cost goes to bureaucracy,ugh. The lions share goes to our own government and the adoption agencies. China really gets just a small fraction. Here's another fun fact: adopting families have to carry that donation in cash, in crisp brand new bills....good times. I'm getting a money belt for my birthday!
I will leave you with this story that just unfolded as I was writing this post. I'm in a lot of fb adoption grouos. One is a private group for our particular orphanage. Tonight someone posted an older photo of Elsie and some other kids around an ayi (a care worker). I posted "that's my girl!" and another woman posted that one of the boys was her son, home last October. She said that her son recognized Elsie and was very happy to see her picture and he kept singing a little Chinese song. I asked her to ask him what he remembered about Elsie and he said. .. "she wake up, she no sleep." Oh boy.....
I'm going to bed...while I still can!
Donations can be sent to
Opitz Family
2522 N 66th Ave
Omaha ME 68104
Prayer request: We are STILL waiting for that golden ticket, the LOA. Prayers for it to come soon. Please pray for the fundraiser to run smoothly. And please pray that Elsie likes sleep very much...!
Good bless you all!






Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Waiting with good cheer
Great news. We have a new computer and it's up and running. The men in the family are so relieved, they missed a week of the baseball season! I am relieved as we head into the final weeks of our orphanage donation fundraiser. Very dear friends of ours are hosting a fundraiser for us to raise money for Elsie's orphanage. 100% of the proceeds will be donated directly to the Lanzhou Orphanage in China. We will donate $6000, and this fundraiser will help meet that goal. Orphanage donations directly impact an orphanage's ability to prepare orphans' files for adoption, in addition to their medical and physical needs. It is because of previous adoptive families' donations that allowed Elsie's file to be prepared. To these families we are forever grateful, and we will do what we can for the hundreds of children left behind.
See below some of the work being one to prepare for the fundraiser! So much hard work is being done by so many lovely people!

My dear friend has also generously put together 2 darling quilts to donate! They are absolutely charming. We will have flowers for the garden, handmade note card sets, homemade beeswax candles, wonderful baked goodies, and so much more! Neil and his friends are also running a Kaiserschmarrn-fest. This is his grandmother's (whom Elsie is named after!) famous Austrian recipe for a scrambled pancake delicacy. Neil makes this for Zinnia every Saturday morning. We are putting the *fun* in fundraiser, har har. I will post pictures for all of you out-of-towners. And if you happen to BE an out-of-towner, please don't think you cannot be a part of our donation! 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the orphanage. We are all called to care for the widow and orphan, and this is an easy way to do that. If you wish to donate you can mail your donation to the address listed at the bottom of this post. And for those of you who wish to donate with a tax deduction, please contact us as we do have a tax deductible option. Asking for money is not easy, but asking on behalf of orphans is an honor!
In other news, we are still in our wait for our *golden ticket* Letter Of Acceptance from China. I don't think there are too many remaining ahead of us in line for LOA, but China doesn't always work in a logical way. There seems very little rhyme or reason to the way they hand out LOA's,some people get them in as little as 17 days, and some wait more than 70! So we truly do not know when we could get it. We are on day 36 right now. The best we can go by is the average right now is running 45 days, so we are hopeful to get it in the next few weeks. After that our paperwork chase is back on as we rush to our travel call which we are hopeful will be in July. So travel would be late July at best. Prayers concerning this are welcomed!!
Prayer request: For our paperwork to move swiftly and smoothly. That our preparations for our fundraiser are fruitful. And continued prayers for Elsie, that she is well and that her heart is being prepared for a family.
Blessings to you all!
Opitz Family
2522 N 66th Ave
Omaha NE 68104



Opitz Family
2522 N 66th Ave
Omaha NE 68104
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)