Ethiopian Orphan Relief's Blog

I’ve spent most of the day today putting the finishing touches on the check in/out files, making tags, and doing various other things to get ready for Art for Ethiopia tomorrow. I’m a little nervous and a lot excited.

Really I just hope we raise a lot of money for our various projects, mainly the well. Today I read an article in 5280 magazine about a girl from Ethiopia who has been granted asylum here in the United States after spending years in an Ethiopian prison (enduring rape and horrific abuse) and then escaping and journeying through numerous countries to get here. It makes me sad to think about how she has no idea if her family is alive, in prison, or wandering around Africa like she did for so long. I constantly wonder what Lidya’s life would have been like had she stayed with her birth mother, and hope that her birth mother somehow knows that Lidya is safe and loved.

Deep thoughts for a Friday…sorry. If you are reading this PLEASE come out tomorrow night and support EOR at Art for Ethiopia. Ignore the 6-12″ of snow that are predicted (ugh)…it will be well worth it I promise!

Shawn

I’m off to Denver early tomorrow morning for EOR’s second annual “Art for Ethiopia” silent art auction at the Flash Gallery in the Belmar shopping area, and I couldn’t be more excited. Time with the EOR ladies? Check. Time away from the stress of unpacking after our cross country move (which happened last week)? Check. Awesome art for my new house? Check. Raising money to build a well for orphans in Ethiopia? Check.

I’m looking forward to seeing many of our amazing supporters at the event–early in the day on Saturday, we have family photo shoots with professional photographer, adoptive parent to the beautiful Ethiopian-born Ezra and husband to Board Member Jane, Greg Cradick. As our guests arrive, Greg will also be taking red carpet style photos–because, really, who doesn’t want to be photographed when they’re looking all shiny and fabulous in their cocktail party attire? Guests will sip Barefoot Wine & Bubbly thanks to an incredibly generous in kind donation from the company (secured by rock star Board Member Shawn) & eat fantastic food from Aspen Catering & Specialty Foods & Door to Door Organics thanks to in kind donations from the companies and a cash donation from Acupuncture Denver. Adoptive mama Angie Lee of Grindstone Graphics donated her graphic design skills to incorporate all of the children’s art work submitted for EOR’s art contest this year into awesome posters for the gallery. Our organizing committee even got together for a team building retreat at the Artonomy Studio in Evergreen with the amazing Maggie Smiley to create some art, and get excited about the event (I’m totally buying one of the pieces we created, it’s great!). We have beautiful art donated from artists all over the world–many of it collected by esteemed art museums–and the silent auction bids on all of it will start at $1. Excited yet?

I hope you’re running right now to dust off your highest heels and take your prettiest cocktail dress out of the dry cleaning bag, because Art for Ethiopia is not to be missed! If you haven’t already RSVPed for the event, there is still some space available. Email us at info at ethiopianorphanrelief dot org and we’ll get you the information you need to be added to the guest list (you must be on the guest list to be admitted, so seriously, email us right this minute!). Our family photo shoots are currently full, so we unfortunately are not still accepting reservations for those.

See you Saturday!

Danielle

My daughter started preschool a couple weeks ago, and her teacher asked if I’d come in and talk to the class about adoption, because they’re working on a unit about “family.” I wasn’t really sure what to say, so I did some research and brought along my daughter’s Life Book. Here was the gist of my talk:

1. Adopted kids are born the same way as everyone else.

2. Adopted kids grew inside another woman, but that woman wasn’t able to be a mommy to any baby at that time.

3. Adoptive parents want to be parents very much.

4. Once adoptive parents adopt a child, the child belongs to that family forever and ever, just like if the child had grown inside the mommy.

After I went through this general outline, we flipped through my daughter’s Life Book and showed the kids pictures of Ethiopia. They LOVED looking at pictures of “Baby Amelie” and were really into it. My daughter was really proud to show them where she came from, and she felt very special when she was the only kid who could identify the continent of Africa, the country of Ethiopia and the city of Harar on a map.

At the end we had a Q&A session, and the kids only had questions about the plane we took to Ethiopia–which seems about right for 3 & 4 year olds. When I was trying to explain that it took 2 days to get to Ethiopia on the plane, one little boy raised his hand and said,

“Yea, that’s far. But have you ever been to Michigan? THAT’s far.”

-Danielle

I met this young man at the annual Rocky Mountain Ethiopian Adoption picnic this past weekend, and without knowing his story, I thought he was sweet and handsome, and I noticed he was blind. Then I read this and spent the rest of the evening crying, because no matter how frustrating running a non-profit for free when I have 2 other jobs and 2 young kids can be, this is why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Thank you for joining us.

-Danielle

It’s that time of year….Ethiopian Orphan Relief  is accepting children’s art submissions for our 2009 art contest. We have partnered with Paper Rabbit Designs of Portland, Oregon to print our notecards. Barbra at Paper Rabbit Designs has once again graciously given EOR a discount on printing and design layout! The submissions for the 2008 series were turned into 3 beautiful sets of note cards (sold in the EOR online store and at our events), framed and matted for sale at Art for Ethiopia in Denver and used as decor at our Lights of Hope auction in Portland.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

1. Art must be original artwork created by children adopted from Ethiopia.

2. Contest is open to all ages.

3. All submissions must include a bio of the artist-child (ie…Johnny is 2 years old and was adopted from Ethiopia in 2008. He      enjoys running, playing music and dancing…).

4. All submissions become property of Ethiopian Orphan Relief and will not be returned.

5. Mail submissions and bios to: Kim Pasion, 3020 SW Christy Ave. Beaverton, OR 97005. Deadline is Monday, August 3rd, 2009.

The EOR board of directors will be choosing the finalists. We will have two top winners, boy and girl who will receive a EOR tee-shirt!

If you have a blog, or belong to a regional ethiopian adoption group, we would welcome additional press about this event.  Please feel free to link this to your blog,  or send a message to your yahoo group(s).

We’ve received many terrific submissions, but would  love to see some more.  Anything postmarked in the next 2 days should arrive in Oregon on time.

Paige

Please join me in welcoming super-mom to 6 (3 from Ethiopia), Katie Bell to our EOR Board of Directors! Katie has been a standout volunteer from the beginning, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have her join our Board of Directors. Katie will be in charge of grants. Welcome, Katie!

We are thrilled to announce that Ethiopian Orphan Relief has partnered with the Union College chapter of Engineers Without Borders to build a well in Boru, Ethiopia (a small village outside of Dessie)! An Ethiopian student at Union chose the project as her senior project, and it will be completed in December 2009. Stay tuned for more information regarding a fundraising event to raise the money for this important project that will impact the lives of orphaned children for years to come!