Shoes for our children at Grace Baptist Church Ethiopia

I take for granted my shoes.  My shoes fit properly and are comfortable.   When my kids want to play outside I have more than one pair of shoes to choose from. When Rob and I visited our Children's Hope Chest care-point in May, we saw the needs of the children in a personal way. Oh, how it’s different to see to the needs when you are looking directly into the eyes of a child.

We saw many children who were in need of new shoes. Here are just two pairs of shoes...

Over the last year we have had a fundraising event to purchase shoes for the children. Several sponsors donated to the shoe fund and Sami, a 12 year old girl, raised more than half of the funds needed!! I am delighted to announce we have enough funds to purchase 163 pair of shoes for the children at our Care-point- Grace Baptist Church! Children’s Hope Chest will wire the funds to Ethiopia next month. As soon as we receive pictures of the children receiving shoes I will share the photos with you! Imagine the children's delight when they receive a new pair of shoes.  Thank you to all who played a part- either by praying and/or contributing financially!!

Our next fundraising project - new school uniforms for the children.  Traci at Mommy's Money Saving Madness is spearheading this fundraising project.  Check out her blog for was you may help us reach the goal of $3,255 for new uniforms.

According to the pastor of Grace Baptist Church, there are many needs at our care point but sponsorship is currently the number one need.  If you or someone you know would be interested in sponsoring a child - we have several children who are available for sponsorship! Sponsorship is $34 per month, it provides resources for children to receive at least one meal a day, school supplies, basic medical care and an education! Sponsorship not only offers monthly support, but encouragement through prayer, letter writing, and relationship. E-mail me at mblueberry.madamblueberry@gmail.com for more details.

Cleared for Travel!!!

The US Embassy has clear us for travel!!!  We are should receive our Embassy Appointment confirmation tomorrow!!  We are so excited to know we will be able to pick up our daughter soon.  We also learned that baby girl has the chicken pox!!  Please pray she has a mild case and recovers quickly.

Tonight we had a pancake dinner fundraiser to help bring Merone home.  We raised almost the exact amount of money needed for Merone's air plane ticket home.  Thank you God for providing!!!

Fundraiser, adoption timeline, bear, the boy's room & paintings

Fundraiser:
Last night our church hosted a fundraising dinner for our adoption! It was so sweet to see so many come out to support our adoption. A BIG thanks to Faye for making the event happen and for a wonderful meal.
I made caramel corn for each person to take home as a favor. We also printed up cards with adoption prayer requests and Ethiopian statistics. Here are the statics we shared:
Total population: 77 million

The average income in Ethiopia is US$100 a year. Almost 82% of the population lives on less than $1 a day.

Malnutrition levels are among the highest in the world.

The average life expectancy is 43 years.

Ethiopia is home to 4 million orphans, or 12% of all children. More than half a million of these were orphaned as a result of AIDS.

Literacy rate: 42.7% age 15 and over can read and write.

Only 18 percent of children reach grade five.

Ethiopia's neonatal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world - 49/1000 births with tetanus infection being the second major cause of infant/neonatal death.

Statistics are from the CIA, Save the children, WHO and UNICEF websites



Adoption timeline
Our Family Coordinator and I were able to touch base this week. She was able to clear up our questions that resulted from the conference call. The only restriction we fall under is our Ethiopian child most be 2 years younger than Igor. Duni encouraged us to think outside our age range of 22-48 months since there are fewer children in this age range. She stated the wait is longer for a toddler than an infant. The toddler wait is 7-9 months. Rob and I agree that we will stay with a toddler request for now. We are entering our 6th month of waiting so we have more waiting to do!

Bear & the boy's room
Igor and I found this adorable bear for $2.50. (I LOVE a great sale.) We thought it would be a perfect stuffed animal to send to BOC (Igor's name for his brother) when we receive his referral. We are taking turns sleeping with bear so it will smell like us.


Bear is sitting on the new bedspread purchased for Igor and BOC's bunk beds. Igor did some paintings to help tie the colors of his dresser, walls, curtains and bedspreads together. I need to touch up the wall paint in the boy's room and we'll be done!

Nana and Babushka requested paintings. Babushka's painting (left) is simple and bright. Nana's painting (right) is deep and moody.

A tasty treat

It's official, today is the first day of our new fundraiser- Caramel Corn*!
I made the first batch this morning. While the caramel corn was baking in the oven, two repairmen arrived. They could smell the caramel corn in the oven. One of them said, "I can smell a tasty treat." I almost gave him my sales pitch- we are raising funds for our adoption. Our newest fundraiser is caramel corn. All proceeds will go to the purchase of our son's airplane ticket home. Maybe you would like to sample a few pieces and buy some?
I thought that might be crossing the line so I said I was making caramel corn and left it at that.
I wish you could be here. The house smells wonderful.

To ensure freshness, I make the caramel corn after I receive your order. I guarantee you will love it! You may order and pay through paypal (on the left side of the page). If you have questions e-mail me.
Sample taste (1 cup) $1
Snack Bag (4 cups) $5
1/2 Gallon $10
1 Gallon $15
*Ingredients: White Popcorn, White Syrup, butter/margarine, brown sugar, salt, baking soda
Before and After

Fundraiser idea

As we get close to bringing home our son, I think we need an additional fundraiser. Don't worry, coffee regulars, we'll continue to sell coffee!

For our second fundraiser, what do you think about my home made caramel corn? I gave caramel corn as Christmas gifts again this year and I received so many rave reviews I thought it might be a fun & delicious fundraiser. For those of you who have never tasted my caramel corn, it is my grandmother's recipe and it is sooo yummy. It's similar to the caramel corn sold at Garrett Popcorn Shop in Chicago.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.... what better way to say I love you??
I checked some websites for pricing and came up with the following:
Sample taste (1 cup) $1
Snack Bag (4 cups) $5
1/2 Gallon $10
1 Gallon $15

I need your help!
1) What do you think about caramel corn as a fundraiser? Good idea or not?
2) Are the prices- too low, just right or too high?

I really want your feedback so please look to the left of the screen to give me your opinion! Or if you have comments post them here (anonymously is okay).
thanks for your feedback!