With apologies for the late update….last week’s Ten Ten party went smashingly well. I loved talking Africa. I loved having pictures of beautiful orphans hanging all over my house. But what I loved most…
was raising $1201 in 2 hours.
2 hours sipping wine, tasting African food, shopping, & chatting with girlfriends.
With my employer’s fund-matching program, this $1201 will turn in to $2402.
…and these precious, starving, orphans, who when asked to write down what they want most…
…said “education”…
…will receive help.
That $2402 will transform lives, as it will provide an annual salary for one of the teachers at Otuboi school in Uganda, where teachers aren’t just teachers, they’re parents to these hurting children.
2 hours, what an amazing impact.
Read more about Otuboi school on Amy Savage’s blog. Amy returned from Uganda a few weeks ago.
**Also, sorry for the small images, if you go to Amy’s blog (where I stole most of them from), you can see them in their full glory & she has many more letters from the kids, if you happen to be retaining excess water and want to shed some it.
12M, 18M, 2T
3T, 4T
We’ll also be selling greeting cards and gift tags as well. Again, these feed orphans. Here are some of the design samples. What’s awesome about these cards is that they’re “backless”. Sexy, right? You write your note right on the front of the card – who needs all that paper waste? The environment loves these cards. It really does.
$2 ea.
Here’s a sample gift tag design. Don’t you want these for your Christmas presents? These feed an orphan a meal. Yup, smart little suckers, aren’t they? I am personally not accepting any gifts this year that do not have a Poverty Gift Tag on them. That’s just how I roll.
$ .40 each
We had to laugh at ourselves yesterday because our whole vernacular has changed over the last few days. We say things like, “I’ll send you the designs to proof”, and “What do you think of this graphic?”. We feel very artsy and cool. Of course, next week we’ll be back to our regular dialog, “did you hear the croup is going around at daycare?”, and “your daughter told me she had a spider crawling up her butt crack”.
If you can’t make it to our 10/10 party, but still want to get in on the t-shirts, gift tags, or cards. Drop us a comment and we’ll get you in the info. OR, if you are a designer and are interested in donating your talents to create future designs, drop us a comment. OR, if you are happy and you know it, clap your hands – and then drop us a comment (letting us know you did so).
You must read this post:
http://familyrootedinlove.blogspot.com/2009/09/adoption-parenting.html
If you’ve been following our journey, you know that we’re planning another trip to Ethiopia. Well, we have to confess, there hasn’t been a lot of clarity about this trip. We knew we wanted to go, we spread the word and found others who wanted to go, but we really didn’t have a solid game plan for when we were going, and we weren’t sure exactly what we were going to do there. Initially our hope was to build a library at Hope for the Hopeless, but that idea fell apart for reasons that would require a really boring run-on sentence.
I’ve been talking to Ginia at Children’s Hopechest about many of the needs at various orphanages and carepoints in Ethiopia; trying to nail down a plan or a theme for our trip – something that we could run with…or at least answer the question, “What are you going to do in Ethiopia?”.
Ginia just returned from Ethiopia and is on fire about Educational needs. I spoke with her on Friday and we tossed around a few ideas: gardening (too complex), building a kitchen (too expensive), buying bedding (too boring), and we just kept coming back to Education. “They need everything”, she would repeat. Hmm…Education.
Last week, Wendy and I were invited to share our Ethiopia story with a local teacher’s sorority. We shared the horrors of the orphan epidemic in Ethiopia, and the amazing spirit of the Ethiopian children we met, who were filled with hope, even in the midst of the most dire of circumstances. I could see the concern in the eyes of many of these women, who have dedicated their own lives to educating children. Hmmm….Education.
Wendy and I got together last night and came up with a great idea, “how about if we focus on meeting Educational needs while we’re in Ethiopia?”. Then we high-fived and toasted “to brillant minds”. Okay, so that’s not exactly how it went down. The truth is that we were inspired from our time spent with the teacher’s seriority, and coupled with Ginia’s prompting on the educational needs, we just connected the dots.
We decided to push back the tentative trip date from April to October to give everyone a full year to plan and prepare. Then we made a list of the needs that we would work towards meeting over the next year. At the end of the night, our list looked something like this: (only it was much messier)
Ethiopia: 10/10/10 (it’s really the perfect date to do almost anything, isn’t it?)
Approx trip cost: $2000 ($1200 Airfare, $800 in-country)
Day 1: Kechene School (220 kids in 4 classes: 2 Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd). Needs: Desks ($450), Textbooks ($1100), Misc School Supplies: Flashcards, Paper, Pencils, Recess items, Teacher Supplies. Kechene is located in one of the poorest parts of Ethiopia. They offer free schooling and they feed the kids two meals per day. Recently, with Children’s Hopechest’s help, they have been able to upgrade the menu to provide the kids with meat 2x per week and an egg 2x per week. The only food these children eat is at school. So instead of spending their money on educational equipment, textbooks, workbooks, and supplies, they spend it on meeting the children’s most basic need: food.
Day 2: Kolfe (Older boys orphanage - 115ish young men). Needs: Library items – books, posters, games, supplies, laptop (?). Tables and chairs for lunchroom ($TBD). Need to get additional info. Would like to plan a labor project to employ some of the older Kolfe boys for a few days.
Day 3: Sightseeing
Day 4 & 5: Hope For The Hopeless Orphanage (Suluta). 32 children. Needs: Backpacks, Books, Games, Hygiene items, Medical Supplies for nurse station, Seeds for garden. Would like to plan a “bedtime story time” so we can put the children to bed. Ideas for activities: Hygiene clinic, crafts, beading, gardening.
Day 6: TBD or Hope For The Hopeless (Addis).
So much can change in a year, these ideas are completely open to change. Who knows how the details of this trip will evolve? The final details will largely depend on the needs in Ethiopia next October, what the travel team is passionate about, and how we can best utilize the funding we raise.
If you’re into “signs”, I walked into Target this morning and saw that all of the teachers supplies were on sale for $.25 each. Yes, you read correctly, a quarter. So I was able to clear the shelves for $16:
Hmmm….Education.
Then, because I had a few quarters on the bottom of my purse that were weighing me down I decided to check another Target….and well-ah, cleared the shelves for $20:
Education it is!
We’re planning a little get together and we want you to come. If you are in the Maine/NH Seacoast area drop us a comment so we can send you the details.
It’s going to be a night of Africa.
Come, learn, experience.
Taste, listen, enjoy.
Shop.
Returning from a trip to Ethiopia takes time to “surface” – to come back to where the air has always felt normal from a place so foreign and vast. You can’t come up too fast or else you lose the experience. It has to be savored, thought out, processed and reflected upon. So now, after four months of our return back to “reality”, we are ready to think about heading back.
I don’t think Erin or myself ever thought of this as a “once in a lifetime” experience. To me it would feel cheap to go there once. I didn’t make the journey to see what true poverty looks like or hold a beautiful orphan’s hand only to say, “well I can cross that off my list.” You don’t cross orphans off your list. And so, the wheels are spinning. Erin thought of a great idea – to build a library/rec room at Hope for the Hopeless. HFTH is an orphanage we visited twice in April. You can read more about HFTH in some of the earlier pages of this blog - it’s a magnificent place that houses some amazing children. When I say “magnificent” it’s the children that make it so – otherwise they have very little there in the way of material things (they don’t even have electricity).
Building a library/rec center would be such a wonderful thing to give the kids! Construction in Ethiopia is pretty basic – concrete, cinder blocks and a metal roof should pretty much complete it. We would go in and paint it, fill it full of books, board games, puzzles, coloring books, etc.. and perhaps try to buy some chairs/tables.
Erin is currently looking into the logistics, but we feel optimistic. We’d like to try and get a group of women to go over with us sometime next spring/early summer (men are welcome as well!) and complete this.
Who’s in?
Today my son Avery and I spent some time assembling “hygiene packs” for friends who are going to visit a destitute community in Guatemala. Hygiene packs, in this case, are made up of soap, a toothpaste, toothbrush, and a wash cloth.
A lot of this stuff I had on hand. Not only do I collect this sort of thing when I see it on sale, but I was given a bunch of soap items from my company’s CEO, who frequently travels. You know those little hotel soaps and shampoos? Why not scoop those into your suitcase and collect them for someone who hasn’t had soap or shampoo in a long, long time (if ever). Patrick was kind enough to send these to me before I went to Africa. Since I was short on suitcase space, I put them aside, knowing I would eventually have an opportunity to send them to someone who needs them.
Ordinary act of kindness…Extraordinary benefit.
You’ve probably heard the saying, ”one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”; this is so true, particularly in the context of the world’s poorest. Recently, a co-worker was telling me about her daughter’s soccer league, she was fussing because they don’t re-use their soccer jerseys, and she quite frankly, had no use for yet another soccer jersey. So Monica and her 7 year old daughter distributed fliers to collect these shirts at the end of the soccer season. Monica put a collection box out at the last game, and offered to wash the shirts and get them to orphans in Africa. The result: 30 orphans will take pride in wearing soccer jerseys.
Ordinary act of kindness…extraordinary benefit.
Shoes. These may not look like much. They’re used chucks. They belong to my 3 year old and she recently outgrew them. They will go to an orphan in Africa. You may not think much of sending used shoes off to an orphan…
until you meet a child who is wearing these.
What other ideas do you have that are simple, ordinary acts of kindness, but could be extraordinarily beneficial to others?
Yesterday I had two exciting phone calls. One was from my pastor, who told me that our church is a full-throttle-green-light-go-ahead (and excited) to launch the Children’s Hopechest sponsorship program in September for Hope for The Hopeless.
[pause for a "yahoo"]
The 2nd call was from Ginia at Children’s Hopechest, who confirmed that there are 26 children available for sponsorship at Hope for the Hopeless. They are going to send me the development plan (plan detailing what Children’s Hopechest plans to accomplish at Hope for the Hopeless over the next three years) AND sponsorship packets for each of the children with the child’s photo and short bio.
Ginia explained that Hope for the Hopeless was a bit unique because it was founded by an Ethiopian pastor who lives in AZ, and 6 of the kids living at HFTH are already sponsored through his church. That leaves 26 kids available for sponsorship.
I wondered if “my boy” (Bereket) was going to be one of the kids eligible for sponsorship….I was so nervous about asking because I would’ve been heartbroken if he wasn’t on the list. So I just kind of mentioned that I had met someone when I was there….and luckily, Ginia picked right up on my cue and sifted through lists to find him. “Oh, he’s such a cutie” she said (that’s when I knew she had the right child). “Yup, he’s eligible for sponsorship. It says here that he’s in 5th grade and he likes cake”. “Good then we have something in common”, I giggled, unable to contain my joy.
1 down, 25 left to go! I am 100% confident that these precious children will be sponsored when we launch the program in September. …that’s if I don’t sponsor them all myself before then! 
Oh my gosh, these kids are amazing, I can’t wait to go visit them again! …we’ll probably be heading there next March.
Who’s coming?
It’s logical to think that maybe we’re exaggerating. I can almost read your mind; Sure the kids you guys met were amazing, but aren’t all kids, in their own way?
No. Not like this.
Since we’ve been back I have been cooresponding with a woman who found me through the internet. She sponsors a boy at Kolfe who she refers to as her son. When she learned that we had been to Kolfe she sought me out to see if we met her son, Getahun, and could report back on how he was doing and if perhaps, by chance, we might have photographs or even video of her sweet son who lives half a world away.
She has been kind enough to share some of his letters with me; he addresses them “Dear Mom”. He also shares how he lays in bed at night dreaming of a day when he’ll get to see her again [heart = melting]. He is 18, so unadoptable. Plus, truth be told, this sweet woman has already adopted 2 of her children (which at $20K per adoption, tends to drain the financial reserves). However, her greatest hope is to find a way to bring Getahun over to the US for schooling. He would live with her family and for the first time since the age of seven, he would live in a home with a mom and dad. If only she could figure out how to finance his airplane ticket and visa costs.
Her e-mails burst with pride in this far away son of hers. She tells me how smart and incredible he is and I politely smile as I read her notes, as though she is standing in front of me watching for my reaction. But today, I came across a story about this boy that left me in awe. It was written by another woman who visited Kolfe and had the good fortune of meeting this incredible young man. Her story is here.
See, I told you they were incredible.
Remember him?
He is my son. Not my real son, and it’s not official yet. But we’re one step closer to being his “American family”. Okay, truth be told, the cart is way ahead of the horse on this announcement, but I’m just a little bit excited about a conversation that I had today with Tom Davis, President of Children’s Hopechest, and my pastor. We are one step closer to my church sponsoring Bereket’s entire orphanage in Ethiopia.
The next step is for my pastor to bring this before our Board for final approval. This should take place within the next couple of weeks, and Tom has agreed to hold this orphanage for us until then.
[fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed]
Then the final step would be launch the program. People will have an opportunity to sponsor these amazing children, what a privilege! Then these beautiful orphans will have “American families”. I’m brimming with excitement over this!
It’s one thing to go to Africa and hug orphans for a week (which is great, don’t get me wrong). But for me, that was never meant to be the end of the story. Coming back home and doing something to better the circumstances of those amazing children, that’s what thrills me.
..and as for Bereket, he is mine and I am his. I have already written to him and have envelopes ready to be mailed as soon as things become “official”. His photo is hanging on our refrigerator and the kids are excited about having an Ethiopian “brother”.
