Ethiopian Orphan Relief's Blog

Today is the day that Christmas (genna) is celebrated in Ethiopia, and the Epiphany is celebrated on January 19th.  Unfortunately, I know very little about how Ethiopians celebrate either of these holidays, and have made it my mission to learn more so that I can properly celebrate next year.  For now, I plan to cook an Ethiopian feast of doro wat, kik wat and injera (no, I am not making the injera) tomorrow and celebrate with some fellow Ethiopian adopters.  We’ll have baked ziti as a backup in case my wat is not up to par.  If I can figure out how, I will post some pictures of our girls all dressed up in their Ethiopian outfits.  On the 18th we are meeting other adoptive families at our local Ethiopian restaurant.  I am hoping to use that as an opportunity to expose our children to the traditions of the Ethiopian holiday.

If you have come across any good resources on the subject of these Ethiopian holidays, please leave a comment here.  I’d also love to hear what others are doing to celebrate.

Thanks – and Merry Genna!

Shawn

Once back in Addis-fresh off the plane from Dire Dawa, we once again resumed our negotiations with Ethiopian customs. This time we split up–Lauren worked on getting her medicine released, and Kim and I worked on the shoes. Four hours later, we were no closer to either, and again left the airport empty handed.

The only donations that had actually made it through customs were the medical equipment for SOS EE and all of the school and art supplies for AHOPE. With renewed frustration for customs, we went back to the hotel. Once there, I once again asked for the package we were expecting–donations of underwear set to arrive by courier from a donor in the UK. Nothing. I couldn’t even track the package because I didn’t have the tracking information, and I couldn’t reach the donor via email because the internet was down. Again.

Since I was already at the concierge desk to check on the package, I asked him about taking some kids from AHOPE swimming the next day. There were 3 of us, and we were hoping to take 12 kids swimming. Despite the fact that we were guests, he was still planning to charge us per kid! I’d had enough at this point, and really couldn’t handle anymore of people in power in Ethiopia taking advantage of orphans. The concierge got an earful. As did his manager. And the manager’s manager. Not cool, Sheraton. Not cool. Everyone else at that hotel had been amazing on both our adoption trip and this trip, up until this point. But, come on. 4 kids per guest! That was all we were asking. I was really, really disappointed.

Dejection fully renewed, we met some staff from SOS EE for a traditional Ethiopian dinner and dance show. Lauren and I really just wanted to stay home, but Kim is personal friends with these people (they stay with her while in Portland for Dove), so we rallied. I wasn’t the happiest camper in the campsite, but I tried to put on a smile. I’m sure it was pretty obvious that we’d had a really, really crappy day-it was clearly written all over my face. But then the food came (awesome!) and the dancers started doing their thing (amazing!!), and we had a really nice time.

We were up super early the next morning to get moving for our last day in Addis. It was especially important to be efficient, because we’d wasted SO much time dealing with customs on our other Addis days. We started by heading to Merkato to pick up a traditional Harari style mesob for Lauren and some spices for the rest of us. I hadn’t been to Merkato on our last trip, and really wished we could have stayed longer. It was wild and awesome. Our driver and translator from Village Ethiopia were amazing and, once again, Felekech came through with sending us to the perfect vendors for what we were looking for. Fair price, high quality goods–good stuff all around.

From Merkato, we headed to AHOPE. When we drove into the compound, the kids were all over the playground EOR provided. I have to be honest, at first, we were all like, “OK, this is very cute, but it was obviously staged.” They knew we were coming, we obviously funded this playground (and another at their other facility) and we’d had a horrible week (they received the rundown over the phone).

But then we got out of the car and this little boy just leapt into my arms and started talking a mile a minute about how he was going to be my “photograph assistant” and asking me “Have you seen our playground? LOOK! We play! We play!!” and we all really quickly realized that this wasn’t staged. The kids were actually this happy. And that felt really, really, really awesome.

We played with the kids on the playground for a little while (did I mention how awesome this was?) and my little friend climbed all the way to the top of the jungle gym, then said “DOWN NOW!” He was the cutest kid in the universe and I’m so happy he has a family waiting to come get him. I mentioned a little friend I have from AHOPE and how I had some photos of him and his family on my phone–the kids mobbed me and COULD NOT wait to see them! They were hysterical and so happy for this child. Me too. He has an awesome family. And clearly some awesome friends back in Ethiopia. When we were done, they dragged me into the main facility to see pics of him when he was there-and to tell me to make sure he writes them a letter.

We gave the kids each a piece of sidewalk chalk to play with while we toured the facility and unloaded our donations. They got right to work, writing their names and drawing us pictures on the driveway. A little girl who was a toddler jumped into Lauren’s arms when we entered the baby room and would not let go. Lauren (AKA I Can’t Get Close To Any of These Kids) was putty in this little girl’s hands. Very cute. I picked up a baby who reminded me of the baby of a friend who just came home and we snuggled for the rest of the tour. More tears, from both of us, when I had to put him back down. Ugh.

We went through the donations with the staff and talked with them about what they needed. We still had a little bit of money left from what we’d saved for the field trip (which we were no longer doing because the Sheraton was going to charge us too much), so we donated that towards Christmas gifts for the children they work with in their outreach program. The gifts were alarm clocks to help them remember when to take their HIV meds–cool, right?! We’re hoping to fund all of the clocks they needed to purchase at a later date. We also identified a need for new mattresses, sheets and comforters for the children’s beds, as well as medicines for both the children in care and those in the outreach program. Again, we’ll be funding these things at a later date.

From AHOPE, we went back to Toukoul to drop off the medical equipment donations. It was a quick visit, but they were happy to see what we’d brought and it was really nice to meet again with the manager–he runs a tight ship and I appreciate that.

After AHOPE we reluctantly stopped for lunch (our poor driver and translator were starving), then headed over to Children’s Heaven. When we arrived at the office, a staff member jumped in the van and directed us to the new facility funded by EOR!!! The girls had just been brought there by Hanna, and had just toured it themselves. We were there for a “ribbon cutting” ceremony of sorts. When we got out of the van, we were all stunned. This was a pretty large home, with a big driveway, an awesome side yard and a back yard. I think we were all taken aback by what EOR had been able to provide for this wonderful organization. The day before, they’d operated under tarps in the driveway of the director’s home. And now we’d not only prepaid rent for 4 years, but provided funding for all of the furniture at this beautiful new facility. It was very emotional.

When we walked into the room where most of the 75 girls were, they stood up and clapped, and we clearly all started crying. They went on to sing and drum for us, and tell us about themselves. We did the same, then we showed them all of the soccer jerseys and equipment we’d brought them from our wonderful donors. They were very reserved, but when Hanna (the director) asked who wanted to put on a jersey and go play, the girls went nuts! It was really cute.

We all sat down for their one nutritious meal per week provided by Children’s Heaven (a piece of bread they baked and a cup of milk), and told Hanna we were going to work to do better. Surely these girls deserve 7 meals per week. Surely we can all work together to provide that for them! I also spoke with Hanna about setting up a small pilot program for microloan funding for the girls–many of them are skilled hair braiders and embroiderers, and we feel this could be a great program to get them on the road to self-sufficiency.

After everyone was done eating, we headed outside to play some soccer. It was great. I recognized one of the girls from when Hanna did her plea for the “dumpster girls” at last year’s Art for Ethiopia event in Denver. This girl–and all the other dumpster girls–are all now enrolled at Children’s Heaven. It felt good to see them smiling, kicking the soccer balls around like nobody’s business, knowing they were being taken care of.

When we were leaving, one of the girls walked up to me and asked for a hug. I gave her one, then she grabbed my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said, “God bless you for helping us.” I started sobbing for like the 10,000th time this trip. I know that what we’re doing is a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but I also know that we helped that girl. And that means something to me. Even if 99% of our donations are still stuck in customs.

So, we’ve learned a lot. We won’t be attempting to bring any donations into Ethiopia again–regardless of the method or the assurances. We’ll continue to do what we originally planned to do, and purchase things in country. Lesson learned. And learned. And learned again. We’ll keep working with our existing partners to ascertain specific needs, and we’ll in turn ask you, our donors, to help us fund those specific needs. We’ll go back regularly and check on progress. And we’ll keep helping orphans–together.

Thanks for your support and Happy New Year!

Danielle

While walking through the walled city in Harar, our guide asked if we’d like to see the Catholic orphanage. All having been raised Catholic, and working with other orphanages in Ethiopia, of course we were intrigued. When we entered the compound, we were a bit overwhelmed–it was amazing. The Church was gorgeous, the grounds meticulous, the views insane. And this is in a walled city where each home is teeny tiny–it was really overwhelming anyway, but considering where we were, even more so.

We walked down into this courtyard, where the view to the countryside was a total “money shot”–just beautiful. Our guide told us this area was where the school was, and because I’m nosy, I said, “Can we go check it out?” Abdul said, “Sure. But you may want to introduce yourself to the Priest first.” So we did and he was really nice, and we walked into a classroom. The kids were all wearing bright yellow shirts and blue pants and it was the cutest thing ever. They all yelled, “WELCOME!” and were so happy to get their pictures taken. We learned that the kids at the school weren’t all orphans, although all the orphans were enrolled there. There aren’t very many Catholics in Ethiopia–this Church was either the only Catholic Church in the country, or one of two–and the walled city is all Muslim folks (Harar itself is about half Muslim, half Christian). I have no idea whether the other kids that were attending school there were Catholic or not, but the school was awesome. It rivaled a nice private school here in the US. It was amazing that it was part of an orphanage–truly. By far the nicest school we saw in Ethiopia.

The orphanage itself was equally wonderful–the children had a garden they tended to and grew healthy food in, there was an elaborate water storage and filtration system (rainwater was collected through gutters and pipes, then channeled to a large holding tank, where it was filtered), the dorms were clean and sunny, the kids even had a dog and cat that lived with them! The cat was sleeping in somebody’s (neatly made) bed when we took our tour. The kids were, in general, much more like our own kids than at any other orphanage we visited. What I mean by that is, they were extremely happy and talkative and full of life, the way my daughter and all of the other Ethiopian kids I know are like once they are happy and settled into families. Normally in the orphanages, the kids are quite quiet and reserved and shy–and I’ve yet to meet an Ethiopian kiddo like that who is happily living in a family! It’s a very vibrant country full of vibrant people, but it’s hard to see that in the faces of kids without parents, for obvious reasons.

Whatever they’re doing at the Catholic orphanage, it’s working. We thought that a big part of this was that the orphans were integrated into a school with non-orphaned kids who were happy and vibrant, and that this likely “wore off” on them in a really good way. I think of how beneficial it can be for special needs kids to be integrated into “regular” schools here in the US, and think maybe this is why things were going so well. The Priest here mentioned that he could really use new sheets for all of the beds, which can easily be purchased locally. This would be a great way to support an organization that’s already doing a really wonderful job, so we’ll be exploring a possible partnership with them in the future.

After we visited the Catholic orphanage, we visited SOS EE’s satellite orphanage in Harar, which is where Amelie and Meron resided for a short time before being transferred to Toukoul in Addis. I don’t really know what I was expecting,  but we were all definitely impressed. The orphanage was pretty small, but extremely well run by an incredibly organized manager–he even shared his Strategic Plans and Action Plans with us. And he had a My Little Pony on his desk, so that made him cool in my book.

There were 3 older kids, a couple toddlers and 6-8 babies at the facility. I noted 3-4 nannies on each visit. There weren’t many toys, and the older kids seemed a little bored. The older girl asked our driver if we’d bought toys when we first arrived, and he shared this with us during our visit. We asked the manager what he could use, and he said “Toys. Definitely toys.” So, we were off to do some shopping in Harar. If you’ve met Kim, you KNOW that girl can shop, so she was all over it. I stayed in the car–we were in an area where we didn’t feel super comfortable–and Kim and Lauren did a whole lot of negotiating and shopping in the market until they were able to find things for the kids. We ended up buying a bike with training wheels, several large cars, a big set of blocks, a set of musical instruments, lots of different sized balls, a magna doodle, a couple tea sets, a kitchen set and enough baby toys for each baby to have something in their crib.

When we came back, we were so excited and could not wait to give everything to the kids–I think in our heads it was going to be like Christmas morning back home. Except it wasn’t. The staff was SO excited to see everything, but the kids were just…shocked. They just stood there and stared at us. Kim grabbed the little girl who’d originally asked about the toys, and showed her how to ride the bike. Lauren grabbed the little boys and gave them cars. I brought a ball for one of the toddlers and a maracca for another. They just held their toys and stared at us. Now, keep in mind, the satellite orphanages for SOS EE are all “way stations” of sorts–the kids aren’t there for very long (2 weeks max at this one) and they’re all very recent orphans. These kids had all just lost their families, and they were by far the saddest kids we saw at any of the orphanages we visited. I scooped up both toddlers in my arms with their toys, and we sat on the ground and snuggled. It was really, really hard to leave them and I basically cried the whole time we were sitting there. They were both Oromo like Amelie and were around the same age she was when we came to adopt her. Everytime I kissed their little heads, a part of me felt like I was kissing Amelie’s head way back when she was there, and telling her how much she’d be loved soon. Leaving them was one of the hardest parts of the trip for me. Lauren and Kim were much more cautious about getting close to the kids than I was, but when we were leaving one of the older boys just grabbed Kim and held her for a long time and she completely lost it. We left knowing they were really happy for the toys, even if they were having a hard time expressing it at the time.

After this, Lauren and I wanted to research our girl’s stories a bit more, so we visited the police department listed on their referral paperwork, the hospital where they both resided and late that evening, I was able to speak with the man who found Amelie. We’d been looking for him all day–under the assumption he’d found Meron–but when we finally found him, we realized it was Amelie he’d found, not Meron (this man had been an orphan himself and knew nothing about his story, so he kept meticulous records). The shear number of coincidences that needed to happen for Lauren and I to meet during the adoption process, for her to become involved in EOR, for our trip to Dessie to get screwed up and for us to end up in Harar together with our referral paperwork on a wild goose chase to find out more about our girls is truly mind-boggling. Everything happens for a reason. We’ll share this bond forever, and I’ll never forget when he was telling Lauren what he knew about “Meron” and none of it fit and she said, “I’m sorry. It’s not my daughter.” Kim stopped her and said, “Let Danielle talk to him.” And it WAS my daughter. Truly amazing. I’m also happy to report that the hospital where our girls were is in MUCH better shape than it was when Bryan and I visited 3 years ago. The doctor and nurse were so happy to have photos of our girls, and we were happy to thank them for taking such good care of them.

After all of that emotional stuff, we really needed a break, so we went to visit the famed Hyena Man late that night. Back in the day, there was a big hyena problem in Harar, so they began feeding them scraps outside the slaughterhouse on the edge of town to keep them away from the city. The man who was in charge of feeding them became more comfortable with them, named them, and began feeding them by hand. Today, he feeds them raw meat hanging off a stick between his teeth. He’s on the Discovery Channel all the time. It’s nuts!

We arranged to meet him, pulled up the van, and were instantly circled by 12-14 wild hyenas in this field outside the slaughterhouse. Kim refused to get out of the car. Bryan and I visited the Hyena Man last time we were in Harar, but the hyenas were NOT this close to the car when we arrived. It was scary. But, I’d already dared Lauren to feed them with me (this is an option–you too can feed the wild hyenas raw meat off a stick hanging out of your mouth!). I was working out my speech where I’d weasel myself out of the whole situation, when Lauren walked right up to the Hyena Man, sat down next to him, and fed the damn hyenas raw meat on a stick hanging out of her mouth like she was the toughest person on earth. I have some really brave friends, but I’m usually the one who does stuff like this first–I’ve never been friends with a girl as tough as Lauren, but man, am I happy we’re buddies! Kim did end up getting out of the car, but made it clear she WAS NOT feeding the hyenas, so she was in charge of photo and video. After Lauren went, it was my turn. I was scared to death the entire time. It was truly the scariest thing I’ve ever done (and I used to guide rafts through Class V rapids, have been bungee jumping so many times I lost count, etc.). When we were done, Hyena Man’s 5 year old daughter completely showed us all up by calming walking up to her dad, giving him her lollipop, replacing it with a stick and proceeding to feed the hyenas as if they were the family dogs. When she was done, she retrieved her lollipop and calmly walked over to us, gave us a high five and walked away. Next time I visit, I will not be surprised if the Hyena Man has been replaced with a Hyena Lady.

As we were getting ready to leave Harar and head to Dire Dawa for our flight back to Addis, Lauren was able to get medicine for Toukoul to replace the medicine stuck in customs. She was ecstatic the whole time she was talking with the pharmacist, placing her order. And the minute she climbed into the van with all the boxes, she burst into tears. She had felt personally responsible for the customs issues relating to the medicine she’d brought (even though she’d done everything she was “supposed to do”)–so many friends and coworkers back home had donated money they didn’t really have to provide all that medicine for the orphanage, and when she was finally able to replace it, she was beyond happy. Kim (AKA “World’s Greatest Shopper”) ended the Harar trip by buying Ethiopian toothbrushes (beautiful hand carved branches of a special tree Ethiopians use to brush their teeth) for all of the attendees for this year’s Lights of Hope fundraiser in Portland. She bought the toothbrushes from two little boys who had whittled them by hand, and who were from Amelie’s village. Their moms were really sick, and they were working before and after school making toothbrushes to support their families. Kim bought over 300 toothbrushes. Our driver said her purchase supported their families for a month. Tickets for Lights of Hope go on sale soon–tell your friends, we have 300 seats to fill!

More after I get the kids to bed,

Danielle

You’re probably wondering why we were going to Harar instead of Dessie to work on the well in conjunction with Union College’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders. So are we! And again, this is another long story that we’re still trying to figure out, so the short version is we were told about a week before we left that Union’s EWB chapter wouldn’t be in Dessie while we were there. We weren’t given any explanation for this sudden change, despite my repeated requests for an explanation. I’d been in constant contact with the professor in charge of the project at Union for many months, and all of a sudden he stopped responding to my emails. The next time I heard from him, he’d cancelled the trip. I have no idea what happened, but I’ll let you all know when I find out. At this time, we’ve decided not to work with them on this project, and are making plans to reallocate the funds to other projects (no money had been exchanged).

I scrambled to get another trip arranged once the well project fell through, but there were lots of internet issues in Addis that week, so we had a heck of a time getting in touch with Village Ethiopia to change our plans. When we did, Felekech was awesome like usual, and completely changed everything for us 2 days before I left the US. We chose to visit Harar because SOS EE/Toukoul has a satellite orphanage there, and because it’s where my daughter and Lauren’s daughter are from.

Harar is an 11 hour drive from Addis, but the scenery is absolutely spectacular, so I highly recommend it. Our drive, like much of our trip, was fraught with difficulty and by the time we arrived in Harar, we’d suffered two flat tires. The first was in the desert near an Afari village, and was complicated by the soft shoulder where we’d come to a stop after the tire literally exploded. Our driver recruited an Afari man to help him gather flat rocks to use under the jack to stabilize it while he removed the tire. We were there for quite a while as they worked on this. While there, we saw a large group of baboons run in front of us, then a large herd of camels run by. Our driver got our blown tire repaired at the next village, and we were very thankful for this, because it wasn’t 10 minutes after we left the village that a different tire went flat. Our driver was awesome and felt absolutely horrible about this, but was able to get the second one changed very quickly–we loved him and knew it wasn’t his fault, so we tried to just laugh about it. It certainly wasn’t as bad as the 6 hours in customs!

Harar is an amazing, amazing place. It’s steeped in history and culture and colors and smells and life. The center of the city is a walled city with cobblestone streets and zillions of mosques. We had the same guide as Bryan and I had last time we were there–Abdul. He knows the city incredibly well and he took us all over the place as we took millions of pictures. Lauren and I bought our daughters traditional jewelry and scarves, and Kim picked up a bunch of cool stuff for Lights of Hope.

More after dinner,

Danielle

I’ve been having a hard time getting started on the post-trip recap of our trip for various reasons (jet lag, the holidays, etc.), but mostly, it’s hard to explain the issues we had with customs because we’re still trying to work them out. The short version is that the Ethiopian government detained all of the medicine and shoe donations we were attempting to bring into the country to donate to our orphanage partners. And it happened despite the fact that this had all been cleared with the Ethiopian embassy in the US before we left, and we’d meticulously followed their instructions for documentation. The situation is under investigation here in the US, and for that reason, we will not elaborate on the issue further until there has been some resolution.

Before I arrived in Addis, Kim and Lauren had already spent many hours working to get the medications released from customs. When I arrived, they met me at the airport and tried again, then we all went to the cargo area to work to get the shoes released. Six hours later, we still didn’t have any donations. I’d been travelling for 4 days at this point, and although I felt like I was holding it together really well for a good long time, I just couldn’t take it anymore toward the end of the day. Many, many tears were shed and I really began to question what we were doing. Why were they making it so hard for us to help the kids in their country that we all KNOW need help most? Were we EVER going to be able to make a difference in this place?

Eager for a positive experience, we visited Toukoul 1, the orphanage where all of our daughters were before coming home to the US. Toukoul was exactly how Kim and I remembered it, although there were not nearly as many kids around as the first time–they are in the process of moving some children to the new Gelan Orphanage in Akaki, and it was noticeable–the whole scene was much less chaotic than our last visit. We met with Dr. Tsegaye, who cared for all of our children, but more so Lauren’s daughter Meron, who as you know from reading this blog, was very sick with multi drug resistant TB when she came home. Dr. Tsegaye immediately knew who Lauren was and became incredibly emotional when she saw Lauren’s pictures of beautiful Meron today–

“I tried so hard to keep her alive.”

Normally strong and unemotional, Lauren just started sobbing and they hugged for a long time. It was so nice to see these two women finally get to meet. After we all stopped crying, Dr. Tsegaye took us on a tour of the “baby house” where our girls had lived. It was much less crowded than last time, and the babies all seemed to be doing well. I have a very good childhood friend currently waiting for a referral from Toukoul, so I studied all the baby’s faces–maybe one of them will be a neighbor and friend to Amelie soon.

We spoke with Dr. Tsegaye and the nurses about what types of things they needed for the clinic there, and we were told they desperately needed medicine and a special type of food used to treat malnourished children. Both are readily available in Ethiopia, so we took notes and will begin fundraising for these things soon. To avoid future customs issues, we will arrange for purchase in Ethiopia.

From Toukoul, we headed out of the city to Akaki, to visit the new Gelan Orphanage. When Bryan and I were in the adoption process, long before we started EOR, we raised a bunch of money from our family and friends to help fund this orphanage, so it was really nice to finally see it in person. The orphanage is amazing–set on a hill out in the country with beautiful views, beautifully designed and built. The clinic EOR helped fund is here, and we visited the doctors and nurses, along with the treatment rooms. All were clean and bright and well done. We also visited the dorms, laundry facilities, restrooms, kitchen, dining hall, playroom and classrooms. All were beyond our wildest expectations–the center of the complex features two large traditional “toukoul” shaped round structures. One houses the dining hall and the other is the playroom. They are surrounded by windows and views of the countryside, and also the playground that EOR funded. The playground is still under construction, but looks great so far, and is adjacent to a large, grassy play space where I can imagine many soccer games will be played.

The toddlers were in the playroom and were happily playing with blocks. They were all more reserved than I know they’ll be once they have families again, but overall, they all seemed to be doing well. I stopped to say hello to each of them, and towards the end, a little guy asked me if I was a mommy. I said I was, but that I wasn’t his mommy, but that he’d have a mommy soon. It feels good to be able to promise a kid that who is in an orphanage, because I know that all of the kids here WILL have a mommy again.

The older kids were in the classrooms doing school work. The younger ones were working on puzzles and the older ones were working on word match games and writing. Again, they were all quite reserved, but after some “high fives” everyone was giggling and happy and full of energy. They were all really proud to show us what they were working on and the teachers seemed to have what they needed to teach effectively.

When we left Toukoul and Gelan we were all still pretty dejected from our experience with customs, but we were starting to feel an eensy, weensy bit better about all EOR had been able to accomplish in 2 short years. We were also ready to get out of Addis, and really looking forward to our early morning drive to Harar.

More after I take the kids to the gym,

Danielle

Well, we’re back from Ethiopia. And the only post I wrote during the trip was done via my phone and in the Newark airport. Not exactly the daily blog posts and photo extravaganza I (over) promised. Sorry about that.

The short version of a very long story is (1) we encountered many, many issues on our trip related to the donations we were attempting to bring into the country, (2) said issues ate up many hours we already had jam packed with orphanage visits, which left us behind schedule and scurrying to catch up most of the trip, (3) internet was down in Addis 3 of the 4 days we were there, (4) no reliable internet access where we were staying in Harar.

Basically, if we had time to shower late, late at night or in the wee hours of the morning, that was a major coup for the day. We were running non-stop for a week. But in the end, we had a really amazing and a really frustrating trip.

More posts are coming–for real. I’m just not sure when.

Danielle

For Christmas we bought each of Lidya’s teachers (she has 4) a pack of the EOR note cards.  She gave them out this morning and the teachers were so thrilled, they actually got teary eyed when they read all the bios and searched through the stack for Lidya’s card.  One said that she was going to frame Lidya’s.

It is so nice to be able to share what I do with EOR with others – and have it be so well received.  So in one swift move of buying and giving EOR note cards, I was able to support EOR’s projects and make the day of four lovely ladies who do so much to care for my child.

THANK YOU KIM for all the hard work you did to make these cards a reality.  And for those of you who haven’t bought cards yet, contact Kim.  They are so beautiful and make a wonderful, meaningful gift.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!

Shawn

We are officially on our way to Ethiopia! Kim and Lauren left yesterday and arrive tonight. I left yesterday and arrive early Monday morning. I promise we’ll blog during the trip, provided we have Internet access. I’ll leave you with my daughter’s parting words to me…

“Mom, you’re taking the kids swimming, right? Because you need to make sure to ask them, ‘can you swim?’ because if they can’t, you’ll need to help them you know.”

Duly noted, Amelie.

Talk to y’all from Addis!
Danielle

My husband and I recently made the insane decision to pick up and move our entire family across country. I say recently, but that’s not really the truth. It only happened recently.

We started thinking about it around the time Amelie had been home from Ethiopia for about 9 months and I was 6 months pregnant with Brayson. In a massive snowstorm in Colorado. And we lived on top of a mountain. And my husband was out of town for work. And we lost power. And I had no way to snowblow our driveway because the snowblower was too heavy for me to move out of the shed without help while pregnant.

So, suddenly moving back to the (Cold! Dark! Icy!) state we grew up in didn’t seem like such a preposterous idea. The upsides were this–much cheaper to live in Upstate NY than in the mountains in Colorado, our jobs would remain the same, free babysitters, no more guilt about everyone having to come visit us, no more mandatory cross-country flights with little kids, vacations to somewhere other than Upstate NY, free babysitters, our kids growing up with the physical and mental closeness to their family we had, the ability to go to Ethiopia to do volunteer work because of the proximity of free babysitters, date nights with my husband, warm water you can actually swim in and free babysitters.

My husband began the process of trying to get transferred within his company, and after approximately 150,000 situations where we thought it was going to happen and then it didn’t, I bought a plane ticket to Ethiopia for me and a plane ticket to Denver for my father in law who is retired. And who happens to be a free babysitter. If we couldn’t make the move work, then we couldn’t make the move work, but I wasn’t holding out on this trip to Ethiopia any longer. Guess what happened the next week?

My husband’s job transfer went through. At first we decided to wait until after the holidays to move. But then that meant moving from Colorado in the winter to drive across country in the winter to move into a new place in NY in the winter. None of which sounded particularly appealing. Then we decided to move after Art for Ethiopia. But we had already bought plane tickets to NY for Halloween, so at the end of the day we just decided to move at that time–pack the moving truck, fly to NY with the kids as planned for Halloween, leave them with the free babysitters named Grandma and Grandpa, fly back to Colorado, pick up the dogs from the kennel, drive across country, unload the moving truck into a smaller moving van, move into our new house, pick up the kids.

Sounds fun, no? Oh, but it gets better. Because while we were packing the moving truck in Colorado, we got 3 feet of snow. Just close your eyes and imagine for a moment packing a tractor trailer full of all your belongings–just you and your spouse–while you try to keep your 3 year old and your 18 month old from losing their minds from boredom. Now add 3 feet of snow and (!!!) a power outtage. And a school closure for the 3 year old. It was just as delightful as you are imagining it to be.

But we made it. And we’re all moved in and unpacked and decorated. And my kids see their Grandparents and Uncle every Saturday (we rotate whose house we watch football at and have dinner), Grandpa babysits them (for free!!) every Monday, we get together for burritos on Tuesdays with their cousin, Friday night is pizza night with Uncle Brendan, and for the first time in 10 years, we spent Thanksgiving together.

Totally worth the drama.

-Danielle

Thank you to everyone who braved the snowstorm to come out for the 2nd Annual Art for Ethiopia event in Lakewood, CO! We had such a fun night and were beyond thrilled to see our supporters all dressed up and ready to buy art to help Ethiopian orphans.

We could not have done this event without the support of our fabulous organizing committee–Emily Andronici (Marketing & PR Guru), Shawn Rodda (Sponsorships & Legal Eagle), Tracy Stevens (Gallery Pretty Upper & Photo Assistant), Jane Gregorie (Sponsorships & Art Procurement), Katie Bell (Sponsorships & Art Procurement) and Greg Cradick (Gallery God, Photographer Extraordinaire & Art Procurement Mastermind). I was also thrilled to have Board Members Paige Chapman-Layland and Lauren Andronici in town for the event (becaus an EOR fundraiser just isn’t the same unless you end the night with a Board Member slumber party, complete with giggling and pillow fighting).

Our sponsors were also fantastic this year–Aspen Catering & Specialty Foods put on an amazing spread of food (which was partially donated and partially funded by Jane’s business Acupuncture Denver), Barefoot Wine & Bubbly provided us with some fantastic wine and bubbly, Grindstone Graphics put together event posters so beautiful, they actually sold off the wall (even though they weren’t originally for sale) and Door to Door Organics sent some delicious fruit baskets. Thank you!!

Greg Cradick worked his butt off taking family photos all day long, then worked during the event taking red carpet style photos of attendees, which you can view here.

And I happily flew home with a priceless J’Dandy original tucked under my arm. And at the end of the night, EOR raised approximately $7,500.

Thanks All!

Danielle