Garage Sale Proceeds Will Help Bring Adopted Child Home

His name is Pasha. He lives in the Ukraine and he is 4 years old. But his home is in Minooka and his mother, Nicole Bittermann, cannot wait until the day she can bring him home.

“I feel like he is as much of my kid as the rest of these and there’s all these things standing in my way and I can’t get to my child.

Bittermann made the decision to adopt when she realized what was happening to the children in the Ukraine. She volunteers at Project Hopeful.

“Between the ages of 4 and 6, if children are not adopted, they get put into a mental institution,” she said. “When they’re 16, they age out of the mental institution.

“I can’t look at his face and say, 'I’m cool knowing what your future is.'”

Bittermann has never met Pasha, but she has seen video and photos of the little boy. Since she has friends who have adopted children from the area, she was able to send a stuffed animal to him. In fact, she chose a very special monkey. Bittermann sells Scentsy products, a home fragrance company. Scentsy buddies are stuffed animals that have a zipper pocket to carry a scent. The monkey Pasha received smells like the scents Bittermann has most often in her home.

"I wanted it to be a smell that's familiar," she said.

Pasha has not let go of his stuffed monkey since. She has been chronicling the adoption journey through a blog.

Joining the family

The Bittermanns are not what you would think of when you think of a couple that is adopting. The couple has four children of their own – Audrey, 8; Kyrie, 6; Avery, 4; and Elias, 3. Only one of the parents works full-time, so in order to adopt Pasha, they need to fundraise the $24,000. But, Bittermann said, she knows God wants Pasha to be part of her family and she has seen Him work to help the family.

The Bittermanns attend . Early on in the process, the family was trying to raise the $2,800 needed for a home study – a necessary step for the paperwork needed for adoption. They had collected only a small amount of that money. During the service, there was an announcement about the Bittermanns and a stranger walked up to Nicole’s husband and handed him cash. He did not look at it until he was home.

“That weekend that we needed $2,500, God provided $2,951,” she said. “We have no idea where $24,000 os going to come from, we just know God wants us to adopt this child.

To that end, the Bittermanns, who live in Minooka, are holding a garage sale Thursday, Friday and Saturday, part of a fundraising plan that has helped the family to raise the $24,000 needed to adopt Pasha.

“We’re selling anything and everything,” Nicole said.

The garage sale is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 30, July 1 and July 2.

“I have room in my house and love in my heart and if I can give it to one kid and save him from statistics, that’s what I am going to do,” Bittermann said.

Editor's Note: This article has been edited to remove an exact street address.