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A LOT IS HAPPENING! |
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Celebrating Haiti Days |
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Well life certainly gets busy for all of us and before you know it, months have gone by without a newsletter update. So here is what we've been up to over the last few months.
Haiti Days is an annual event for us and a great time to reconnect with many of the families who adopted from the Crèche De L'Enfant Jesus. This last summer we got together for a barbeque in the park, renewing friendships with the children and the volunteers who spent time nurturing them.
We held two Mexico volunteer work projects at the end of last year in November and December.
We got a lot of work done, including landscaping the new nursery at Door of Faith Orphanage, lots of painting, building and staining benches, building a new swing set at Buena Vida orphanage, plastering, laying cinder block, and much more! Additionally we were able to bring trailer loads of food, diapers, baby formula, school kits, and other supplies to benefit many other orphanages in Baja California. Great times with great volunteers! |
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Work projects aren't all just work for fun-loving volunteers |
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In January, tragedy struck Haiti. Many of you have contacted us to look for ways to help the orphanage we built in Haiti, and we thank you for your concern and support. We are happy to report that the facility and the children are all well. If you have desires to adopt or donate to the children in Haiti, feel free to visit the Chances for Children website for additional information.
We don't often mention it, but we also help families with the finances required to adopt through the program we call the Perpetual Adoption Fund. Families apply for a loan at a very low interest rate, and as the funds are repaid they are used to benefit other adoptive families. Just this month we were able to assist the Weeks family with a much needed loan for them to bring home their adoptive daughter from China. Individuals interested in applying for the loan should contact our partner agency Wasatch International Adoptions, who administers the fund for us.
We recently received a $5000 grant from the ebay Foundation to aid us in the expansion of the Buena Vida orphanage. We have been involved with the expansion of their facilities since the very beginning two years ago, and we have had great satisfaction in seeing them bring an additional ten girls into their facility. This grant will aid our efforts to finish the next phase of the dorms which will add space for even more children.
To all of our donors, THANK YOU! We couldn't do any of this work without you. |
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ebay Foundation donating to A Child's Hope Foundation |
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UNFORGETTABLE |
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Neva (second from the right) takes a break from
planting flowers for the new infant building |
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Fifteen-year-old Marisol, born in Paraguay and adopted in 1994, gained perspective during her November trip to Mexico. She said, "It was a very humbling experience, helping the poor orphans. I am able to take home from this trip gratitude, and I am thankful for so many things that many of the families in Mexico do not have. It was very hard for me to experience seeing poverty. It struck me as something that I will never forget. We are all so lucky that we have what we have and that we are able to wake up with food, and a roof over our heads."
Eleven-year-old Neva, originally from Guatemala and adopted in 1998, said, "We had a soccer game against the orphanage team and they are really good. They won by five points. I enjoyed playing with the babies. They were so cute! I worked hard and got a lot of things accomplished. We worked on landscape for the new nursery and a building for the teenage girls. I am thankful for all that I have."
Claire Peterson attended the December trip to Mexico. One of her most memorable moments was traveling to Tijuana one morning. "We went to a church in a community that had literally grown around the city's refuge dump. Each morning, the church offered breakfast to the children in the area before they went to school. For many of them, this was the only meal of the day. We were so inspired by the local people, who facing hardship themselves, came to help feed these children everyday. Our experience was definitely a case of receiving much more than we gave. There was an unforgettable peace and serenity about being with such wonderful children." |
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