Tuesday, March 22, 2011

FUNDRAISING

Pull up a chair-I've got LOADS to share!

Fundraising is a necessary, but exhausting portion of adoption. But, let's face it: adoption is expensive. We've tried really hard to offer a bunch of stuff that I think everyone will like...hopefully! I happen to have a super creative husband & took full advantage of his design skills in designing our t-shirt. They are screen printed on the front and back, with the writing on the back translated to "family" in Amharic. The shirts are all American Apparel, men, women & kiddo sizes (starting at 2T). Women & kid sized shirts are printed on baby blue cotton while men shirts are printed on army green cotton (see below). Adult sizes are $25 & kiddo sized shirts are $20.


We're also thinking of offering the image screen printed on heavy weight, good quality card stock suitable for framing. Anyone interested?

My mom has also designed some beautiful Ethiopian dolls for purchase. She created her own pattern for the dolls & many of them wear dresses made from my late grandmother's sewing supplies. Each doll is 14" and completely unique. The dolls feature hand-stitched faces and cute little dreads! You will not believe the quality of these dolls & I know that any little lady in your life would love to have one! Cost $28



We also have Zorazon cards available for purchase. These cards feature old photographs from Peter's family. The text on the front is all original, Peter's brain came up with those too! The cards are blank on the inside (suitable for any occasion).


Last, but not least, Hy-Vee coupon books are available for anyone in the Quincy area. The cost is $5-but you'll quickly see the great value in the book & ask for another one!


One last thought, we're also having a garage sale in early May. If you have anything you'd like to donate to the sale, that would be awesome! We're accepting donations of (almost) any kind.

To order any of these wonderful (and original) items, email me at erinrcraig@hotmail.com and we'll take it from there. Be sure to include shirt size, quantities, etc.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

PRAY

Serious things are happening in Ethiopia. Read the article here, but this is the short version:

The Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) has recently announced that as of March 10, it will now see only 5 cases a day-they currently see as many as 50 cases a day. What this means is that the people who give you a "green light" on your adoption have reduced adoptions down 90%. This is tragic. This might mean upwards of a 7 year wait for a child to come home. It means that instead of close to 4,000 children being adopted each year, 500 are going to be given homes. In the meantime, wonderful & loving parents wait eagerly to take their children home only to wait 7 years! Children who are in desperate need of nutrition and a forever home are now part of the system for 7 years! Can the children even survive 7 years?!? We are so saddened by this news, to say the least. We are praying and hoping that MOWA listens to the objections and the cries from people all around the world calling for a reversal of this...will you join us in praying?

What you can do to help. Also, pray, pray, PRAY for a reversal of this decision-it is supposed to take place in 2 days.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Spring Cleaning?

Anybody out there feeling the urge to purge? I know with the temperatures warming up a bit, spring cleaning fever is going to hit all of you. Don't toss your stuff-yet!

Peter and I are planning a HUGE fundraising garage sale in the first part of May. We've got a bunch of stuff, but we're also looking for stuff that people want to donate to the garage sale. If you've got some bigger items, furniture, etc or just the usual household/kids/toy clutter-we want it! Anything you donate will be appreciated and all of the money raised goes directly to our adoption. I read online of one couple in our agency that had a garage sale this past fall-it was 3 days long, they slept in the bed of their truck to prevent stealing (!) but made $5000 to fund their adoption. That's awesome and encouraging. So, think of us as you're doing your cleaning-early May is our approximate date and we can start taking the donations probably a week ahead or so. SPREAD THE WORD!