Wordless Wednesday is preempted for an important message

Wordless Wednesday will return but right now, today I have something important to say and I need your help. It is about Plumpy'Nut. So I am standing on my soapbox today which I don't do often but this is an issue that touches my soul and my family.

This link and pictures will show you how Plumy'Nut can work miracles.

http://haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/medika-mamba-progress/

Before:
7 weeks later:
What is Plumpy'Nut? Click below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut

Why is this important to me?

Well simple really. My daughter is from Ethiopia thus Ethiopia is now and will forever be a part of my family. I didn't simply get on a plane and bring her home and turn my back on Ethiopia. If anything it was the opposite. I saw so much need and I just knew that I owed it to my daughter to do what I can. Children are starving. I saw it with my own eyes. It was one of many contributing factors to why my daughter was placed for adoption. I cannot ignore this. I am responsible. I have to do something.

As my daughter grows and hears her story and visits Ethiopia and asks the tough questions, I want to show her that her Dad and I are committed to helping out and doing our part. We didn't run away. We stayed focused. Why? For her, for Zinash, for Little Man and his family, for our greater family, the people of Ethiopia. It is our duty, our obligation really. What kind of person would I be to see what I saw and turn my back on it? To run away from the beautiful country that is the birthplace of my daughter and hopefully my son is unimaginable to me.

What can you do?

Click on this link to help raise $$$ for Doctor's Without Borders who is committed to getting Plumpy'nut to the starving children in Ethiopia.

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorreg/donorpledge.asp?ievent=296288&supID=246858948

Count your loose change, make a small sacrifice of a luxury for you to save a child's life. I personally gave up my nail appointments for the month and donated that money to the Plumpy'Nut campaign. What can you do without? Think about it. Please. The deadline is Friday, September 11th at midnight.

Okay--I am stepping down from my soapbox. I know this was preachy, but I have to do what I can. It is important to me and my family.

Plumpy Nut and a way to help

If you have a second please read this:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1915544,00.html

Now if you have read this and seen the pictures and want to help you can. Some amazing women are running in the Ironman. There is a charity challenge attached to this and they are raising money for Doctor's Without Borders to provide families with Plumy Nut to feed their children in Ethiopia.

For $40 a 6 week supply of Plumpy'Nut can be provided to a family for a child. That supply can be used at home - with the child in the care of the family - and a child can literally be rescued from the grip of serious malnutrition. ( I have quoted another adoptive mom here as she said it so well)

Why is this important? Well Kiya was born in Southern Ethiopia, one region being hard hit by drought and famine. Part of my heart will always belong to Ethiopia and it is my duty as a mom of an Ethiopian child to spread the word and do all that I can to help.

Will you help me?

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorreg/donorpledge.asp?ievent=296288&supID=246858948

All donations go directly to Doctor's Without Borders and are tax deductible.

Gloves, gloves and more gloves

There it is. My suitcase is full of gloves!!! And I weighed the suitcase and it weighs exactly 50lbs :) Thank you to everyone that has helped me reach my goal. I have another bag full of sterile gloves still to pack but overall my goal was to fill a suitcase and thanks to all of my wonderful friends and family, I did just that. Thank you also to those friends who sent money and infant vitamin drops. The money will be used to buy more infant vitamin drops. Along with the gloves and 4 large cans of soy formula, I will be bringing about 26 boxes of infant vitamin drops.

No news on buying plane tickets. We are waiting for Peanut to have her US Embassy physcial and once that is complete we will get definite travel plans. My specialist is extremely optimistic (her words) that we are traveling in the May 7th group so leaving the US on May 6th.

Her confidence spurred me to go to the basement and get the suitcases and then I packed the gloves. I haven't packed anything else yet but am just about ready to. Peanut's stuff is ready to go as in it is all laid out and just needs to be put in a suitcase.

I am hoping we hear soon about definite travel plans and then I will be more motivated to start packing other things. It was a big step for me to just get those suitcases out of the basement. I have been in a pretty bad mood but I figured I am traveling at some point so I will still have to pack eventually so why not start now.

Fill me up

I have under taken a project. I am calling it Project Fill Me Up. I sent out an email to some family and friends so they could help me.

Here is the email that I sent out:

We are hoping to travel to pick up our daughter in May. While we are in Ethiopia for a week we would like to drop donations off at AHOPE when we go to visit.

AHOPE for Children is a non-profit organization whose mission is to serve the children of Ethiopia, with a primary emphasis on caring for orphans infected with HIV. In Addis Ababa, AHOPE's two pleasant, well-staffed Children's Homes care exclusively for orphans who are HIV+ and have no extended family to care for them. Many of these children are now finding their forever families through adoption. AHOPE's Community Outreach Program enables orphaned children to remain within their extended families and culture, while receiving medical care, education, food, and other services.

We have received word from a dear friend that this organization is in desperate need of medical gloves. I am making it my mission to bring over a suitcase full of medical quality gloves. I purchased a box yesterday at Walgreens ( I found them near the diabetic supplies). I know the economy is tough right now but if you find you have a few extra dollars and would like to help me fill my suitcase I would greatly appreciate it.

So I have gotten a great response so far. I have friends that are going to send me money so I can buy more boxes, some are going to buy boxes of gloves and get them to me and a very kind offer from someone I don't know personally offered to give me some boxes of gloves. She and her family are involved in medical missions in Guatemala and she thinks she can send some boxes of gloves with me to Ethiopia. How awesome. So if anyone is reading this and wants to help, leave me a comment with your email or if you are on Facebook I am on there as well or if you have my email you can email me directly or if you use the CHSFS forum you can send my a private message.

A special thanks to www.forever2young.blogspot.com for letting me know what is needed and giving me the inspiration for this project. You are amazing girlfriend!

Random pictures

I haven't posted pics in awhile so here are a few. We went to Target this weekend and I think if I could have a love affair with any store it would be Target. This first picture is of this adorable hat that I bought for Peanut :) Not sure why it is vertical so just turn your head and you will get the drift. :)
Here are a couple of pictures of the dogs. Sebastian is first and as you tell he is annoyed. Nothing like a annoying human to stick a camera in his face while he is trying to sleep oh and the flash was on. Oops. I see an extra treat for him later.

Here is Badger. I wouldn't normally take such an up close picture but he was just standing there being adorable and kind of in the way of my other pictures so I took it. And yes he always looks sad.

Since we were at Target, I decided it was time to start gathering things for our big trip. We need water bottles to bring with us so ta da here they are.

And on the donation front; soy formula was on sale so we picked up a couple of cans to add to our donation suitcases.

No other news to report....We are hoping to get a growth, weight and head circumference update on Peanut soon. Definitely this week I would think. Other than that just trying to plan the next 31 days (that's how long it is until our court date). I want to stay nice and busy so time flies by.