More Good News

I just have to mention that when we first relocated here, The Captain opened a local bank account for us. While leaving the bank (located in the middle of a strip mall) he noticed that there was no obvious drive-thru lane (a must-have for a mother of small children!). We called the bank and much to our dismay, found out that there was, in fact, no drive-thru service there. So began the rigmarole of closing that account, finding another bank and opening another account. But today, I am counting my blessings. You might be familiar with the first bank we tried. They've been in the news a bit today.

Let's start with the fact that Baby Girl's cold seems to be improving. The lone spot on her cheek disappeared and seems not to be of the pox-variety!

Then, let's add that Hannah, Beulah and The Captain had a mini-reunion of sorts with Hannah's aunt, uncle, cousin and godmother! I am eagerly awaiting more details and pictures (that goes without saying, I suppose).

Not to mention, that the travelers are less than an hour away from boarding their flight for home! Look for a very important post coming soon about that!

Finally, I just discovered (Thanks, Dawn! Now go have that baby!) that the African Children's Choir is coming to the Chicago area! We saw them a few years ago at Cross Lutheran Church in Yorkville. They'll be there again (as I expect will we) on October 5th. If you'd like to check their Chicago area schedule, click here. They tour in other locations (including Canada) and that schedule is available here. If you've never seen them before. Take a look at them here...

God is good, friends. All the time.

Last Few Days Of Back-to-School With a Purpose!



Just a reminder, if you are participating in our fundraiser to bring school supplies to Ethiopia, that all supplies should be in by this Wednesday, September 17th. Already, I've received so many boxes and bags that our dining room table was covered! And there are several more to come!!! I will make sure to take a picture when all is said and done. Look for the winners of the giveaways to be announced later this week! In the meanwhile, I have to get started on packing...

Looking Forward, Looking Back

We are staring down the final two weeks before departure to bring our darling baby home. And, as is the ever changing face of international adoption, times are a-changin'. Much publicity has been given to this article, written last week which challenges adoption as the best solution to the orphan crisis in Ethiopia.
Speaking for myself, and perhaps other adoptive parents (from Ethiopia or otherwise), let me say this: No adoptive parent in their right mind believes that adoption is a cure-all for the world's plethora of problems. Any adoptive parent worth his or her salt will tell you that adoption is simply a Mickey Mouse band-aid on a massive hemorrhage. And any reputable adoption agency will ask, no, require of its adoptive parents, a commitment to the country and its waiting orphan children. Our agency offers several ways for adoptive families to become invested in the country of their adopted children's birth. One way is through sponsorship programs. From our agency's website:

There are many orphan children in Ethiopia. Years of terrible events, including war, famine and disease – particularly HIV/AIDS – have produced a society where many children have no parents. Often elderly grandparents or other relatives try to raise the children, but many are too old or in such deprived circumstances that they simply cannot provide even basic needs. As a result, there are many children being relinquished to orphanages or fending for themselves in the streets. AAI recognizes that international adoption cannot meet the needs of all the orphaned children in Ethiopia and therefore has developed sponsorship programs to serve those children who are able to live with extended family members or neighbors while they continue their schooling. One program focuses on the older siblings or family members of children adopted through AAI (the Orphan Student Project) and the other is a sponsorship of students in Nazret, Mukatore & Sheshamone (Orphan Student Education Fund).

And its not just the children who are able to be sponsored. In an ongoing effort to provide the best childcare possible and keep staff turnover low, there are sponsorship programs aimed at staff education. In Ethiopia, where higher education is not the norm for women, this is a tremendous blessing to the women who work in the orphanage.
They have an active volunteer program, which allows for Americans over the age of 18, who meet certain criteria, to give of their time and talent as a volunteer working with orphan children in their orphanage, Layla House. This program has even included young adults who once lived, as orphans, at Layla House themselves, who return to volunteer to help.
If these programs don't speak for themselves in AAI's willingness to give back to the country that has shared their children, their most precious resource, with the world, read this:

Dessie is a town of 100,000 people nestled in the hills approximately 200 miles north of Addis Ababa, on the road to Djibouti. It is a town – like many in Ethiopia – which is mired in poverty and has been devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Over the past few years, the town leaders have invested time and money beginning to build a much needed school building. When they ran out of funds, they sought the assistance of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, which recommended that they submit a proposal to AAI for financial support. AAI has agreed to assist in raising funds to finish the school and to help build another school building so that all the children in the town would be able to fulfill their dream of finishing their education. Read more here.

It is difficult in the last few weeks of adoption, no matter how big the blessing, to ruminate on the reality of what is about to happen. What the future holds for our family, for our adopted children and for the orphans in the country of Ethiopia remains to be seen. But we must constantly remind ourselves that there is more to adoption than money. Behind all of the numbers are real people each with a story to tell. And many are in need of something more than donated parcels of food, shelter and clothing. You may have all the riches of the world, but if you have not love...

Back-To-School...With A Purpose!!!

Contact me at patjrsmom at yahoo dot com if you'd like the code for the blog button to help spread the word!

I am simply so excited to finally share with you this project! One major component of our adoption agency's program is the requirement that adoptive families commit not only to the child(ren) they are adopting, but also to those who wait for a forever family. (You can read about our last project here and here.) As part of the Ark's commitment to the waiting children, we invite you now to join with us in an effort to share the many blessings we have.

Beginning today until my mail arrives on September 17th, we will be collecting school supplies to bring to our agency's orphanage. Our family will transport school supplies to Ethiopia during our travel in late September. Any supplies are welcome, but some particularly useful items would be:

- tape: scotch, masking, and clear packing tape, and labels
- pencils
- envelopes
- dry erase markers
- yarn
- crocheting needles & knitting needles
-crayons
-markers
-colored pencils
-water color paints
-clay/play-doh
- a parachute (they finally found the one that was there but it's ripped and unusable)

A missionary sister working in Africa once visited my class of second grade students to talk about her work. When the students asked, “How can we help?” She quickly responded, “Pray---and make sacrifices.” In that order, I might add. We need to remember that prayer should be our first action, not a resigned "All I can do now is pray." We pray. God provides. And if you are so moved to send some school supplies too, well then, all the better!

Our hope is that this project will shine a light into the darkest corners of the blogosphere, illuminating hearts and minds in a call to action!

For additional information about Ethiopian adoption, or to learn about more ways to help Ethiopian orphans; please visit our agency’s website at www.adoptionadvocates.org. You can also donate to them directly, (Although, it takes up less space in the suitcase, I feel a little funny personally collecting money online...)by clicking on the "Donate Now" button in the bottom right corner of their site.

And...

if helping others wasn't motivation enough, I'm throwing in a few goodies as giveaways!

Courtesy of The Catholic Company:

Catholic Classics: Volume VII African American Sacred Songs and Audrey, reviewed here.

So, whether you are praying, donating or both, please leave a comment below (including your name and email) and your name will be entered. If your group (i.e.-scouts, school group, etc...) collects things together, feel free to enter each name for multiple chances!

Please help spread the word, not just about our little project, but to remind others of the many opportunities we have to share what we have been given. Thank you for your generosity in helping the orphan children, who are still waiting for a family.

Facts About Ethiopia

Did You Know? •

• Average family income is $110 US per year •
  
• Life expectancy is 48 years • Adult literacy rate is 42% •
  
• Malnutrition is responsible for more than 50% of all deaths among children under 5 •
  
• 12% of children (10-14) living without their parents in the capital city are domestic workers •
  
• There are approximately 5 million orphan children living in Ethiopia •
  
• Poverty, famine and disease are responsible for most deaths •
  
• Only 43% of children attend school •
  
• There are about 70 million people living in Ethiopia •
  
• Of this number, 58 million live on less than $1 per day
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Source: UNICEF, UNAIDS
  

Something Else to Worry About

We used to have so much in common. Six kids, strong heart for adoption, especially in Africa...Now that we have seven, what ever will we talk about with them?

Back to School...With a Purpose!

I think I've finally gotten a handle on creating those pesky little blog buttons. Too much time on my hands and too little knowledge of html code can be dangerous...and time consuming!

Check back later for details!

Ooooh! I'm so excited about this...

Donations for Auntie Esther

If you don't know who Auntie Esther is, you need to read this first.

Once again, evil attempted to steal our joy. And once again, our God, our bigger-than-the-universe-God met evil head on and with a mighty hand given back our joy like a parent returning a favorite toy that was stolen. Read more about it here at Anita's blog. She is the coordinator for our agency, AAI's, Ghana adoption program, as well as an adoptive mom herself.

Consider making a donation to help Auntie Esther take the first steps toward healing and to show the Devil that it doesn't matter how many blows we take, we'll never go down for the count.

Update

From this Mom in Ethiopia...Here's the latest. Keep praying!

Unspeakable

My good friend and fellow adoptive mom, Teri, gave me a heads up about this today, but Renee's story is the first chance I had to sit alone with my thoughts and pray for the orphans and those who love them in Ghana.

Lord, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Did You?

We did. Watch American Idol Gives Back last night, that is. We watched it last year as well, but since we TiVo'd it, we skipped through any of the images that might have been disturbing for our then home 4 months, Hannah, who had just gone through a year of grief and loss that might disturb even the most stoic of adults.

Last night, though, we watched together. And when the segments appeared of the orphan children in Africa, we held our collective breath and let it play. And together we sat, huddled around one another in our cozy, American family room and watched as the drama of the HIV-AIDS crisis played out in the lives of too many African children (and parents!) on our television.

When it became overwhelming, we drew closer to one another. A little one crept onto Mommy's lap, while Daddy's arm enveloped an emotional pre-teen. It was a moment of shared sadness. And this year we didn't look away because although the pain is still there, something wonderful, something magical, something miraculous has happened in the last almost 18 months. The pain has been lessened because the pain has been shared. Not a one of us looks at the orphan crisis in Africa any more and thinks, "Boy, that is just really sad." We look at it and know that it will take more than our sadness to fix the problem. And the very little bit we've done? It barely scratches the surface. For each orphan child who finds a home--a forever family--hundreds of thousands more like him (or her) wait with no one to help ease the burden of their pain.

The face of the fifteen year old left by his dead mother to raise his three younger siblings is no longer a mirage. He is the flesh and blood eight year old who sits at our table, who took her mother's job when she was too sick to do it herself.

The mother who visits the grave sites of her three children --ALL dead from AIDS--we can't separate from the family in Ethiopia who bestowed their blessing on our family as we promised to raise the children of their second daughter whose life was cut too short.

So, did you watch? We did. But this year as we watched, we really understood and we are poised to do something--to give back. For if we watched, thinking we understood, and didn't make any plans to change our actions, then we really didn't understand at all.

Speaking of recipes

For my birthday this year, in addition to taking me out for our bi-annual birthday coffee, H's godmother gave me this wonderful cookbook:

The author was born two hours north of Addis Ababa and was brought to an orphanage there with his sister when his birth mother died during a tuberculosis outbreak in the early 1970s. He was adopted by a family in Sweden and describes his idyllic, typical Swedish upbringing where he learned his love of cooking from his maternal Swedish grandmother. As he grew older, and began training as a chef, he longed to return to his native land and experience the tastes and aromas of Africa-and specifically, Ethiopia.

This cookbook is the result of his trip back home to discover the cuisine of a continent and a little piece of himself. Featuring beautiful photographs and recipes prefaced by stories of his journey, this cookbook is a must have for anyone who wants to learn more about the delectable and rich history of African cooking.

***It also includes a comprehensive list of resources in the index for ordering spices, foods and supplies to assist in food preparation. We've already placed an order for 30 pieces of injera and are planning an Ethiopian food night coming soon!***

Product (RED)

Just a few weeks ago, Gap joined with a handful of other major retailers to sell Gap(RED) products whose proceeds will go towards the treatment of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. From their website:

In less than four years, the Fund has achieved some substantial results.
By January 2007, Global Fund financing provided:
*770,000 people with treatment for HIV and AIDS
*nearly 9 million people with voluntary HIV testing
*more than 1 million orphans with care and support
*2 million people with treatment for tuberculosis
*more than 22 million people treated for malaria
*nearly 18 million families with insecticide-treated mosquito nets

If that wasn't a good enough reason to support the work they are doing, check out this cute outfit that is offered by Gap(RED)! The bad news is that it is only available up to a 24mos. size... WHICH MEANS...The good news is that Baby T will have to get one soon!

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