Rock To Wind A String Around

After two years of planning, we’re finally on our way to meet some of our favorite Ethiopian adoptive families (and fellow board members) in fabulous Oregon!  We’ll visit P-town, and the beach and visit a million people we’ve been eager to meet.  In between, we’ll hold a board meeting, visit Dove Adoptions International (our Ethiopian Adoption Agency)  and look for whales.  We are all super-excited about the thought of 2 weeks together and Oregon!  Posting will be a little slimmer while we’re away, but I’ll be thinking Oregonian thoughts about you all

Oh, and about yesterday’s photo–I know it wasn’t the best shot but the band was really grooving to their own funky beat and wouldn’t be stopped for a photo opportunity.  (And, they entertained each other this way for more than 40 minutes, which in itself is quite noteworthy).  Look for more elegant moments soon.

So, I wanted to share our press release for Ethiopian Orphan Relief, because with this out there in the world, we’re official!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Adoptive Parents form “Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc.”
to Fund Relief Projects in Ethiopia

July 18, 2008—While adding to their families through international adoption, the
Founder and Board Members of Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc. (EOR) had the
privilege of visiting Ethiopia, including the opportunity to visit the orphanages in
which their children lived, and the communities in which they grew up.

In Ethiopia, one in ten children will die in infancy, and nearly double that number
will die by their fifth birthday due to tetanus, infections or diarrhea. At present,
13.2% of children in Ethiopia-–3.8 million–-are orphaned. International adoption
touches only a tiny fraction of these orphans; in 2006, only 731 Ethiopian orphans
were adopted by American parents.

Through discussions with Ethiopians over the course of their trips, they learned of
numerous challenges facing Ethiopian children and their caregivers. These are as
mundane as the lack of clean water, as complex and enormous as the orphan
problem, and as tragic as children constructing their only toys from objects found in
trash heaps. They saw a country ravaged by HIV/AIDS, and an entire generation of
parents perishing. They also saw a beautiful country, filled with many wonderful
people, and a place where there is hope.

As a result of what they saw, and their desire to help, these adoptive parents formed
EOR in early 2008. EOR is a 501(c) (3) non-profit charity that works to improve the
living conditions and lives of Ethiopian orphans by working with Ethiopian orphan
care groups to provide supplies, infrastructure and experiences.

At present, EOR has partnered with established non-governmental organizations
such as the SOS EE/Toukoul Orphanages (a home for over 300 orphans in Ethiopia),
AHOPE for Children (a home for HIV positive children in Ethiopia), Children’s
Heaven (a home for orphaned teenage girls in Ethiopia) and Children’s Home
Society and Family Services Hope for Hosanna Project (a project by an American
adoption agency to build a school and medical facility in Ethiopia).

EOR’s current projects are to provide a playground at Toukoul, a water filtration
system for AHOPE for Children, a facility to house Children’s Heaven and a
sanitation system for the Hope for Hosanna School.

If you would like to contribute to these projects, or receive more information please
contact EOR at info@ethiopianorphanrelief.org. You may also visit the website at
www.ethiopianorphanrelief.org or the blog at
www.ethiopianorphanrelief.wordpress.com

Contact:

Danielle Marquis, President, Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc. 6791 Brook Forest Drive, Evergreen, Co
80439, 303-674-1290, Danielle@ethiopianorphanrelief.org

Here’s a contest for YOU, yes YOU!  EOR needs all the press we can muster.  Post our press release on your own blog and then comment (with the link provided) and you will be entered into a drawing for a fabulous item made by my dear friend, AMY .  I’ll plan to hold the drawing the week of August 15th (the same week that EOR’s fabulous store opens).  I’ll ship anywhere– the US, Canada, even overseas!   Please post on any type of blog you write.  If you have more than one blog, you’ll be entered multiple times.  So easy, so helpful.  YOU are such a do-gooder!

The Boy! is home and seems as happy to be back as we are to have him here (so, um, very!).  Pops is here until we leave for vacation, and while we love him for his own wonderful self, we are always happy when he shares his home-improvement knowledge with us.

We pulled the unpleasant (and in one corner, soggy) carpet out of the basement a few weeks ago.  It was clear that water was seeping in at the corner, but that was the extent of our knowledge.    I decided it was a groundwater issue (because those abound–not really, but it sounded good).  If we sealed out the water and replaced the drywall, it seemed that the problem would be repaired.   I showed Pops the diy fix I found on the internets and believe it or not, he thought that might not take care of things.  After several hours of digging, running water through the downspout (which happens to be located in that corner) and conferences with our helpful neighbor who was out raking tree bark (really, he said he was out of garden chores, and it’s a beautiful day, so he was raking the tree bark scattered on the lawn) we found a leak in the pipe that leads to the downspout.   Repairing it will be step 1 of a 7 step problem, I’m sure, but it’s a start.  All of the male members of the homestead are at the Depot, buying everything they can think of (and a ladder) to solve the problem.  At this rate, we should be able to replace the carpet in October, but when we do, it will be very dry!

This fabulous face returns home tomorrow.  He’s not ready to leave Popsland, where the junk food is plentiful,  bedtimes are forgotten, and showers are something the rain makes.  We’ve bought a few fripperies to entice him to return, and of course once he’s home, he’ll be happy to be back to his ’stuff.’    I plan to welcome him with a ready hug, a Doodle Dice rematch, clean sheets, and a ’specially-requested lunch:  scooper chips with Mexican beef.  It’s Aunt Wendy’s special recipe–Elliott is eager to share its salty fatty goodness with us.    It’s been pretty quiet around here without Mr. Excitement.   Although Maude love her, Astrid Meklit has done her very best to fill the void,  I can’t wait until Elliott is back to fill it properly. 

Ethiopian Orphan Relief Needs Your Child’s Artwork!

Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc. (EOR) will be producing a series of note cards, greeting cards and holiday cards for sale on our website. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these cards will benefit EOR’s Programs, all of which help Ethiopian orphans. We would like these cards to feature the artwork of Ethiopian children, and we have already been gathering submissions from children in the orphanages.

If your Ethiopian child (any age!) would like to make a submission, please mail it to our Vice President, Kim Pasion at 3020 SW Christy Ave., Beaverton, OR 97005 by Weds, August 6th, 2008.

We will be choosing the artwork to include at our Board Meeting in Portland later that week. The top boy and girl submissions will receive a free EOR t-shirt!

We will notify you if your child’s submission has been chosen for inclusion, and let you know what series it will appear in. Along with your submission, please include your address, your child’s name and their shirt size.

Also, please prepare a “bio” for your child. These bios will appear on the back of the art card featuring your child’s submission! Here’s an example bio:

“This work of art was created by Amelie from Colorado. Amelie is 2 years old and was adopted from the Toukoul Orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2007. She was born in Harar, Ethiopia and is of Oromo descent. She loves climbing, running, drawing and playing with her little brother and dogs. The purchase of this card supports projects aimed at improving the lives of Ethiopian orphans. For more information, please visit www.ethiopianorphanrelief.org.”

Thanks in advance for your help.

We’re very excited to see the submissions!

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions…

(completely stolen from my pal, and fellow board member, HabeshaChild

So you know some days you wake up with a hole in your heart that needs to be filled.  I tried to fill this void with closet organization, but the siren song of the fake lemon kept calling.  Yes, I woke this morning with an overwhelming urge to fill a platterin my living-room with fake citrus fruit.  After ignoring the urge through most of the morning, I did a google search for ‘artificial lemons’ while Astrid Meklit napped.  I thought I might be tempted to order some online and decided not to buy anything right away, given my self-imposed ban on frivolous expenses.  I’d rather buy fresh lemons every week or so, but they’re so expensive right now, and I hate to waste food as decor.  I went on with the rest of my day, but the thought of the bright yellow lemons on the aqua plate wouldn’t be silenced.  The gal and I  played, did some weeding, and ran some errands, and of course, by the end of the day, I owned a box of fake fruit.   It has been arranged on the platter now nestled on my coffee table.  

 It is the pop of color I hoped for.  It makes me happy when I walk by the room.   It was 4.94 well spent. 

Last week’s trip to Chicago flew by like a lovely dream.  In between trips to the Millennium Park Fountain, we squeezed in a playdate with some old friends (ok, they weren’t old friends to Meklit, but they were friends she hadn’t yet met…) and dinner at a terrific Ethiopian restaurant in Edgewater the following night.  We met our Rogers Park neighbors there and caught up on the gossip from the  old hood.  We’ve managed to keep fairly up-to-date about K & S through K’s blog   ( a fabulous and thorough retelling of life on Chicago’s Public Transportation) but needed to fill in the gaps for them about our last few years on the lam.  Astrid Meklit was a sport about the long dinner–she preened, ate an obscene amount of gomen and every other dish she could reach, and practiced her Amharic with the other Ethiopians in the restaurant  (ok, so her Amharic is somewhat limited to the names of food, Selam, Ciao, and ‘enalo–short for amesagenalo, but it’s very cute,  and she gets raves whenever she says anything in ‘Eopian’ so she’s highly motivated!)   At one point, she was sitting and chatting with a group of very nice Ethiopian men.  One of the men said, “Oh Meklit, konjo Meklit” (Meklit is beautiful) and she looked right at him, and in this weird deep-throaty whisper that she uses said, “I know.”  Everyone who heard her laughed and laughed, which made her repeat it several times to similar effect.  It’s not as funny in the telling, but she was a riot.  Really.

On Friday, I made another trip to the Benefit Brow Bar (because, after 4 weeks, it was time) and then we took full advantage of Albert’s per diem to grab lunch at Topolobampo before we drove home.   We tried to get into the lower-rent sister restaurant, Frontera Grill, but there were no tables, so we brought the world’s best baby in to dine with the well-heeled.  The Frontera kitchen made a custom dish for allergy girl so she was able to enjoy lunch as much as we did, and there was enough to pack in the cooler for her dinner on the road.   Funny story,  there was a table beside us with two nice ladies who were quick to smile and chat with the girl.  The one woman leaned forward and said to me in a loud whisper, “She’s adopted isn’t she?”  I confirmed, and she continued, “I’m adopted too, and I always feel a kinship with other adopted people.”  She went on, “I am thinking she was adopted overseas, am I right?  That’s just like me–I was adopted from Greece.  See, I always know the adopted ones.”   With her special gift, we don’t know how she missed Albert’s adoptedness, but you know, maybe her gift only works with children, or the transracially adopted…  her insight definitely added a special zing to lunch!

So our steamy week in Chicago ended, and we came back home, to steamy Cowtown.  Marathon man ran 17 sweaty miles Saturday morning, and then we dragged ourselves up to the Farmer’s market.   We planned to grab a few locally-grown veggies and escape to the air conditioning, but it was Market Days, so we shopped more extensively and found a few treasures.  New-to-us vintage cherry table for the livingroom for 40.00, and 2 incredible pyrex bowls from the 60’s (they’re fabulously orange) for almost nothing.    We put all of this largess to good use later that night.  Joel and Amy came to dinner, which included the locally grown veggies served in the orange bowls, so really, they were worth every penny we squandered. 

Albert and I made a huge list of things to accomplish before Elliott comes back only to realize that with just one week remaining, there is much that will not get done.  We didn’t order carpet, or finish our 2007 taxes, or hang the picture in the family room.  The list  is filled with a number of similar items, and as Albert leaves tomorrow morning for a fun-filled, fabulous week at work in Chicago, we’re dealing with this list tonight by sitting side-by-side on the couch (when I was nine, I learned that some people, classy people use the word davenport instead of couch or sofa.  I lobbied hard to call our couch a  davenport too, but here I sit, on my own couch 20! years later…) laptops at the ready and icecream in hand.  The taxes, like the carpet, can wait for awhile.

Wordpress and I are having an argument about photo placement–WP won…