BUY THE BEARD tank--Waarvik Adoption Fundraiser

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. -- Ralph WaldoEmerson

This quote has become our family motto, a motto that reminds us to be brave, that life isn't as scary as it may seem. When we made the first momentous decision to leave behind our lives in Tennessee and survive sub arctic temps living in the Alaskan Bush, Emerson's quote to grab life by the beard was with us. In 2011, we moved to a small village of 40 people on the Yukon River, where we lived for 2 years before our home was flooded with sewage and we had to move to the big city of Fort Yukon, population 500. Fort Yukon is only accessible by boat, plane, or snow machine, and is 8 miles above the Arctic Circle. Temperatures in the winter get down to -60F degrees every year. Life in the Alaskan Bush is almost never easy, but it has been an adventure! Besides giving us the opportunity to play in the snow 8 months a year and witness the Northern Lights, living in the Alaskan Bush has opened up for us another opportunity: international adoption.

Much like living in the Alaskan Bush, the process of international adoption seems intimidating at first: you have to survive the home study, federal forms with names like i600a's and I-171h's, USCIS fingerprinting, visas, embassies, foreign courts of law... but, remembering our motto, we stepped boldly out in faith and went for it.

We got our referral for Jonas in November of 2012. InMarch 2013, we braved a late winter drive down the ALCAN to Chicago, where we flew to Kampala, Uganda, to bring Jonas home. The process was not smooth, but after spending 89 days in Africa, we arrived home with Jonas on July 5.

The plan has always been to adopt 2 children, but something happened in Uganda that made our desire for one more even stronger. In country, we began the process of adopting little T. from a remote orphanage. Sadly, the adoption fell apart only a week from our court date. When we left Uganda in July with Jonas, we left part of our hearts in Uganda with T. This left a very real hole in our hearts and an empty place in our family.

Now we are braving the process again but we need your help. Fundraising isn't something we normally enjoy, but we took our family's motto, Emerson's quote, and combined it with our love of beards to come up with a pretty awesome fundraising idea. We call it, "Buy the Beard."This tank topreminds us (and you!) to be brave, step up to the world, and grab life by the beard!