Ethiopian Cultural Festival

On September 29th, the Ethiopian Cultural Festival took place at Pheonix Park in Eau Claire, thanks to Partners for Ethiopia. And it was great on so many levels. Our very kind friend who organized the festival offered us a table to sell some fundraising goods, and we gladly accepted! (side note: Dean whipped up our display stand in less than 30 minutes with some scrap wood in our garage. #proudwife.)

We sold Apparent Project bracelets from Haiti, Africa Christmas ornaments, and some crafty things too. It was an awesome opportunity for some fundraising and we're so thankful for those who stopped by and purchased some things!

What a salesman!

Yummm

Coffee ceremony

It was good for my heart to experience some of the culture of our future child. I have so much to learn and want to embrace every opportunity to do so! There were so many beautiful families that attended and we met others that share our passion for adoption. A community of support, honesty, and encouragement is such a blessing. God has been so good to place us right where He has in life right now.

Thank you so much to the Partners for Ethiopia folks who made this lovely event happen and for allowing us to be involved. Thanks too to my awesome Mom who helped manage our booth. We hope this becomes an annual event!

Monthly Adoption Update

Well folks, not much to update on over here. Everything has sort of been on hold as we wait to get our homestudy so we can start the next batch of paperwork. So I guess there has been lots of patience going on...

I am glad to have some time to learn and attempt to prepare as much as we can for welcoming a child with a difficult past into our lives. I fully understand that reading books and articles and going to conferences could never fully prepare a person for what is ahead. But it's been good to at least be aware of the kinds of issues we might be dealing with in the future with our children.

Here's a few adoption related books I've read recently:

 
Adopted for Life: This was the first book that we read with our small group last year that really got us thinking about this whole adoption thing.


Orphanology: Another good, practical book that I probably need to re-read every once in a while.


Kisses from Katie: Not really adoption centered, but does involve orphans and Africa. And it is the best book I have ever read. Seriously, it is just so beautiful and I would recommend it to every single soul out there. 


The Connected Child: It was probably a little soon to read this one since it is about parenting techniques, but I figure that the more times I can drill it into my head, the more likely I am to remember some of these methods. This is a book that I can see myself needing to reference a lot. So it's going on the Christmas list.


There is No Me Without You: I love love love this book. Dean smashed a spider with my beloved copy of it the other day and I was really sad, because who wants spider guts on one of their favorite books? Anyway, this book is about Ethiopia and the AIDS crisis. I learned a whole bunch.

So there are the highlights of my fave adoption books so far. I didn't mean to turn the monthly update into a book review, but that's what happens when things are slow I guess. If anyone has any must-read book recommendations, send them my way!

Bracelet Fundraiser

 We'd like to tell you about a fun little fundraiser we are doing for the next month or so. Do you like jewelry or know someone who does? (yep, this covers all of you) Do you want to have a hand in caring for orphans? Then read on.

We are partnering with an awesome non-profit organization called The Apparent Project. They strive to address one of the core problems of the orphan crisis in Haiti: extreme poverty, which leads to child relinquishment or abandonment. Most orphans in Haiti are not placed in orphanages because of the death of their parents, but instead are brought there by loving parents who know that an orphanage can feed their child when they can't afford to. The Apparent Project aims to teach new skills to impoverished Haitian parents which enable them to take care of their own children. These artisans use recycled materials to create beautiful jewelry and other goods. They sell their creations to provide for their families, keeping their children from becoming orphaned.

So where do we fit in with this awesome mission? We have a shipment of 150 handmade bracelets made by Haitian parents from The Apparent Project. For each bracelet that we sell, half of the money goes to the Haitian artisan and half goes towards our adoption fund. Win-win!

These bracelets are beautiful, my pictures cannot do them justice. Each one is unique, and comes with a label explaining the story of the parent who crafted the bracelet. They are so cute, I almost want to keep the whole box for myself...Eleanore was also quite taken with them. Check out their website here to see more pictures of the bracelets and learn about the Apparent Project.

Each of these beauties costs $8. We'll be selling them at the Ethiopian Cultural Festival on September 29th from 12-4pm in Pheonix Park. I would also be happy to personally deliver them, or ship them to you for $3. Not only will you be the proud owner of a gorgeous new bracelet (or maybe a gift for your lady friend), but more importantly, you will be helping families in Haiti raise their own children AND helping bring our child home from Ethiopia.

"Oooo" = Eleanore-approved

I love the creativity and generosity of this organization. And their goal comes down to this: "we are doing this all with the hope that the love of God will be made more APPARENT to those we humbly serve and that He will be known as A PARENT to the parentless." If you want to learn more, check out their website and see what God is doing through them!

I don't think hand-modeling is in my future

We only have 4-6 weeks to sell all we can, so tell all your friends and get yourself a bracelet or two! Just leave a comment, or contact me through email (betsyjane804@hotmail.com) or facebook. YOu can use the "Donate" button on the right side of the blog to pay via Paypal. And THANKS!

Labor Day Camping

After wanting to go camping all summer, we finally just nailed down a day and went. Labor Day weekend it was!  It was Eleanore's first camping experience, and she was having so much fun during the day, that she wanted to stay awake during the night too! Yay! But camping never involves that much sleeping anyway, so I guess I can't complain. We had way too much fun.

I told her to smile and this is the face I get

Dean "Fire Master"

We found a campground in the city of our lovely alma mater, Winona. That city has a special place in my heart. Fun fact: our campground was also the place where Dean proposed to me many moons ago. It was a lot less romantic this time around with a wild toddler to distract.  (-:

Gotta love morning camping faces

Grandpa and Grandma Freerks joined us and brought all of the vital camping gear that we didn't think to bring. They were perfect camping partners and I could have sat around the campfire chatting with them all night.

Hiking to the legendary proposal site

There were 3 playgrounds within walking distance of the campsite, so Eleanore was a happy lady

Deer park!

Grapes = deer bait

Gourmet camping: wine and cheese hors d'oeuvres

We had such a good and refreshing time, I vote to instate Labor Day camping as a new family tradition.