Another Amazing Day in ET!!

Hello from Ethiopia!!! Wow! Our days are so packed but I am going to try to fill you all in on everything. I am including pics from my trip but I have no idea what order they will end up in. Remember that these are my "trip" pics and there is no telling where any of the kids are from in any of the pics because we visit many places ;)

I have LOVED driving through the countryside. It is a whole other world. It is poverty stricken and you just see mud hut after mud hut surrounded by beautiful countryside and little children running free and barefoot all over the place.
I mentioned we made the long trip back with all of the children and I just tried to take in all of my surroundings as we drove. It was awesome!!

We went to several orphanages and the transition home yesterday. It was a full day. I just can't explain how cute and adorable all of these children are. They are soooo excited to see us and we just give them bid hugs and kisses. I can't explain Ethiopian children except that they are just grateful. There is such a humbleness about them that is astounding. Their spirits are unlike what we are used to in the States. When you have nothing, you are grateful for everything.

I got to love all kinds of children. Those in the transition home that are coming home to their families soon and those that are still waiting. I just love watching the kids faces as they open their presents that were sent from their new families that they haven't met yet. They know exactly who it is as they point and say "Mommy and Daddy" with they biggest smiles ever on their faces. They are counting down the days to meet all of their new families and they are doing it with joy.

The coolest thing happened yesterday!! I was talking to a sibling group about their new family. I was telling the older one about her mom since I am friends with her and she just lit up with joy. This girl is amazing and can speak English very well. She just had all this wonder in her eyes as she was asking me if I knew what her room looked like or what her brother and sister were like......and then it suddenly hit me!!! "Oh my gosh, I have my computer and my internet card in the car and it is 6:30 in the morn in America!" Could I actually pull this off?
So I ran to the car, grabbed everything and then frantically started trying to contact the family. I didn't have her # with me so I sent facebook messages and didn't hear back. So I resulted to calling my hubby, having him call them, wake them up, and tell them to get on skype NOW! The kids just waited anxiously staring at the screen, while I just kept telling them "They should hopefully be calling soon." 
Then the skype phone rang and I opened it up to their entire new family sitting right in front of them. They were sooo excited. The kids kept saying "Hi, Mommy. Hi, Daddy. I love you."  Then the family walked their lap top around their house showing them their rooms and the snow outside and told them they would be coming soon. Then the kids sang them a song and we had to hang up.  It might have been the sweetest thing I have ever seen. OH MY GOSH!! I can't stand it! Just life changing moments, one after another, going on all around me.

There is a new 10 yr old boy I met who is waiting. He has TB but has been treated for the past 3 or 4 months. He looks totally healthy and cute, and adorable, and precious, and someone needs to adopt him. He should be long done with his treatment by the time he would come home anyway. There is also the two sisters ages about 11 and 7 who I met on our last trip who are STILL waiting. I am determined to find them a home. They might just be the sweetest things EVER! There is also a special needs beautiful little girl around 2 or 3 who has been waiting for a while and I met her yesterday.  She needs a family who can invest the time to get her the help she needs. I felt so sorry for her. There is also a 5 r 6 yr old boy who we played with and is precious. We met him on our last trip as well. He has a brother as well about a younger than him.  Then don't forget about the special needs boy who traveled with us all day. I HAVE to find him a home. There were two three yr old girls who have been placed just since we have been here....YAY!! There is a young brother set, among other smaller children who will be referred out to the families on the wait list. There is the sibling group of 4 whom I met on the last trip who are STILL waiting.  I will see them on Sat and get more pics. They are sooooo beautiful and sweet. They just HAVE to find a home soon.

We are headed to Korah today. We are so excited. I hope to find my little guy I met on the last trip, whom we sponsored for school, but then his mom decided she didn't want him that far away. I hope to speak to the mom today (through a translator) and talk to her about the importance of this young boy to go to school. If she agrees then I hope to take him with us on Friday to Shashemene when we go. He is already registered and everything, and his little best buddy went on to school without him and he was left behind. So you all pray that his mom will agree to let him go get his education. All he talked about in July was wanting to go to school. It is heartbreaking that he is not there.

And also pray for my friend, Bisrat. His father died yesterday suddenly. He is a true angel to so many over here. He has a servants heart and is very special to us.

More to come from Ethiopia soon......

Trip Pics....

Ok, trying this again for the pics.  I also need to say that these are my "trip" pics so don't ever get your heart wrapped around a certain child because there are many children in my trip pics and not all of them are needing or are able to be adopted. Some are and some aren't and some are already spoken for, so I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that :) If you would like to ask about a specific child then you are more than welcome to by emailing me at kelly@ordinaryhero.org. I will be visiting more than just orphanages so the pics will be mixed, but feel free to ask me :) Hopefully these will go through this time.

Our first day in ET!!

 Well....we have had a VERY busy first couple of days. Not sure how to fit all this in but I will try. First, we arrived at almost 2 in the morn. Did I mention that we are walking through the airport in ISTANBUL, TURKEY, and a girl walks by and says "Hey, I have that shirt!", pointing to Lauren's OH shirt she had on? So it just so happens we met a sweet girl on her way to ET as well and she had purchased three of our shirts from our adoption month to help her friend who is adopting :) How cool is that to see your shirt a million miles away? We took a pic with her. 

 

 

 Got to hotel about 3 and left for the south at 6, so I never went to bed. We left out with Sue and her driver and our wonderful friend, Bisrat, and headed south.  It almost feels like a dream as you drive through the countryside and pass hut after hut, small (sometimes naked) children along the roads and in the fields, women working in the fields, carrying heavy loads on their backs that would kill the average person. You dodge cow after cow, pot holes and everything else in the roads, but yet it is so beautiful! You have to remind yourself, "I am driving through the middle of Africa right now." And if I needed any reminder....this next scene we passed could have gone into National Geographic but Kristi saw it as we were passing by and I didn't have time to photograph it. It was a goat nursing her baby goat, with a child underneath it nursing as well, at the same time, AND there was a line of little children waiting to have their turn next!  CAN YOU EVEN STAND IT??!!

 

 

 

 

 

 So....anyway...yes, it hit us we are in Africa! We are also driving with us on this many hour journey, a precious child who had been in town for his medicals. It appears he has some kind of Cerebral Palsy but they are not sure. He is about 3 but looks 2 or younger.  He has a developmental condition but he still responds, smiles, grabs at things and seems alert of his surroundings. He is from one of the farther away orphanages in the south and rode with us in the bus back. Did I mention that he had some obvious stomach bug going on as well, so we had bouts of diarrhea blowing out all over the place? I REALLY felt sorry for this little one. He is trapped in his body somehow and needs physical therapy. He has been on the waiting list for a long time so here I am to SPEAK UP for him. I know there HAS to be a family out there that adopts special needs children. He is beautiful, and in that 7 hour journey, NEVER said a peep. He just slept or looked around peacefully. He would smile at us when we talked to him. So we had to return him to the orphanage where he sits and waits AGAIN.  It broke my heart because unless someone steps up to care for this child, I don't know how long he can make it there. He is precious!! If ANYONE is interested in adopting him and you are even close to being paper ready or would like more info and pics of him, email me. We have to find him a home. He only has 1 month left for us to advocate for him. 

 

 We arrived at the first orphanage which was pretty small. It had mostly toddler girls and a couple of babies. These kids were sooo cute. We fixed them up for their pics and put some of Lucy's big bows in their hair. They were just precious! We gave out a bag that one family had sent for their daughter who was at this orphanage. She was so cute looking at all of it with her GREAT BIG SMILE. I got tons of pics and some video.

 We left that orphanage and headed 3 or 4 hours further south. Lucy Lane's birthmom happened to be on the way so we stopped off in her village where we were welcomed with such great love and joy. We picked her up in the market first. She was so sweet. It was amazing watching all this with my sis, Kristi, unfold right in front of me. This sweet girl is VERY young and has Lucy's beautiful face. They had a beautiful meeting and then we headed with her to her home where we were greeted by her WHOLE fam. They were full of so much appreciation. They are very poor and it was amazing to be in their home and picture what Lucy would look like running around there with all of her cousins. They all gathered around Kristi as she took them through the photo album. They all laughed at her funny faces while the birthmom kissed her picture. They seemed so proud of her and what she was becoming. 

I could go on and on but I will let my sister do that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We left that village and headed further south. After several more stomach blow outs by our little friend, we arrived at a remote village where we were greeted by the cutest smiling faces you had ever seen. This is where one 3 yr old girl that has been waiting for a while lives. Her GREAT BIG grin is what greeted us first, matched with a big kiss. She literally never took the smile off her face.  I have never seen so much joy in a child before. I am DETERMINED to find this PRECIOUS, AMAZING, child a home! There is also a new 3 yr old girl that had just arrived. She was so beautiful I could hardly stand it. She was still in a little bit of shell shock from arriving there that week but OH SO SWEET!! She had warmed up to us by today and I even got a cute smile out of her. 

We played with the kids and I took tons of pics.  This particular orphanage had several children whom I got to give a package to by their new family.  I some of the cutest pics of them opening their stuff and seeing their new family for the first time. Trust me, we loved on your kids a lot. 

 

 After our time was through there, we went and found a hotel to stay in for the night. Well....of course it didn't have water, right? We are in Africa. An awesome kid was brought to our hotel there in order for me to photograph him for adoption. We looks around 8 or 9. He was sooo cute and polite. He is currently being treated for TB. We NEED to find him a home!  He is so patiently waiting. Contact me for pics and more info on this great little guy if interested. So we left this morn not feeling too fresh but that's ok because after we spent some more time back at the orphanage with them today, we loaded several up (6 to be exact) to make the 7 hour trip back and bring to the transition home. We had one little one that got car sick once in the back seat with Lauren (who took it like a champ), and then once in the front seat all over me (who took it like a champ). My first reaction is to catch it, Ha! which never works out good. Bless her heart! So we finally made it back. We brought 4 babies and two 3 yr olds back who never cried the whole time. It was amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We got them settled into the transition home and made it back to our hotel, where I am STILL in desperate need of a shower! It is truly amazing here. In the city at night you hear noises, dogs, roosters, muslims chanting, and everything of the like. But staying out in the country last night in the middle of no where, all I heard were crickets. All was quiet and I felt like I was back in Kentucky on a summer night. This country is beautiful. It's people are beautiful! I'm so glad I'm here. 

Oh! and my sister thinks she has fallen in love with another little one. Big shocker.... I know :)
I am going to try to upload some pics from today. I can't say who is who in the pics but you can guess and try to figure it out :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it!!

I am testing this by emailing to this blog. We made it to ET. We just left the first orphanage where we saw some adorable little cuties...(Tesfenesh, and 3 others) We took some cute pics I will upload tonight. (hopefully) Continuing to head south.  Will post again soon :)

Blessings!!

On Our Way to ET!!

 We are off!! We are sitting in the Chicago airport now waiting to board our flight. We are super excited to get to ET and love on all of your babies and the rest of the waiting children. I have all of your packages for some of your children that I will be seeing while in ET and handing out to them. You know I will be taking tons of pics of all the children, whether they are chosen or waiting. I hope to blog every night while there. Obviously that will depend on the connection.

I had to throw in this pic. Too funny. I had a friend tell me that some of her great friends were traveling to ET and maybe we would happen to run into them.  Well......here they are! Meet Heather and Kelly from Memphis. They are on their way to serve street children in ET with an organization called The Forsaken Children (www.theforsakenchildren.org). Awesome people! Thanks, Tabitha, for telling us about them.  You quickly learn what a small world we live in.  I run into someone every time I travel.

We are on our way to Istanbul, Turkey......wherever that is :) then on to ET. Have a crazy first couple of days there but will be blogging when I have connection.

Blessings!

Blog Follower Winners!!

CONGRATULATIONS....WE HAVE WINNERS!! 

I said when I reached 400 blog followers I would hold two drawings, one blog follower would win the coffee tumbler and coffee, and the another blog follower would win the Christmas ornament. 

Well....we have held the drawing and we have winners!!

Watch the video below to see who the two lucky blog followers are! 

Keep in mind I am NOT good at videoing myself and it is all LIVE with no editing afterwards. That is a disclaimer for anything my 10 yr old son might say as well, Ha! (Kids!) And there is a delay on the sound for some reason, I don't know how to fix. 

Thank you for being an OH blog follower!!!

(You might want to silence the music at bottom to watch video)

Countdown to ET!!!

 I leave in 4 days to head back to ET!!! I can't wait! My sister, my daughter and I fly out on Friday and will arrive in ET ready to hit it hard on Sunday.

I have gift packages from some of you ready to take over to your precious little ones as you wait on your court date.  I can't wait to give them big kisses for you......and take lots of pics.

This trip will be focused on visiting waiting children in order to get some good pictures and video of them and blast them out on our Speak Up.  Make sure to sign up if you haven't already, to receive our Speak Up emails. Email info@ordinaryhero.org in order to get signed up to receive the emails.

I am totally scrambling last minute but if you would like to make a donation for something for me to pass out to the kiddos in the orphanages while I'm there, you may do so by clicking HERE.

If you would like to send something in order for me to take to them you can email me at Kelly@ordinaryhero.org and let me know. You can mail it to PO Box 1945 Brentwood TN 37024.  I must have it by Thursday of this week because I leave on Friday.

Good things to take are small toys (dolls, balls, cars, coloring books, crayons, candy, suckers, crackers,etc) We also need diapers and formula.

Of course I will be taking tons of pics and posting as much as the internet will allow :) I plan to blog everyday I have internet so make sure you follow along on this exciting trip.

As soon as we arrive we head 7 hours out to a remote orphanage.  We may even head back to the city with some kiddos in tow with us the next day :) We plan on an action packed, nonstop week.

We welcome and thank you for your prayers, especially!!

ALSO.......TONIGHT I WILL DO A DRAWING OUT OF ALL MY FOLLOWERS.....

ONE WILL WIN THE COFFEE AND TUMBLER AND ONE WILL WIN THE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT.

STAY TUNED.......

Depraved Indifference!

I know this video is being posted throughout the blog world but I could not pass this up, just in case there is even one person who has not seen this.  Why do we do what we do? Why do we spend ourselves on behalf of the weak and the fatherless? This video will ROCK your world.

Please take the next few minutes and watch this if you have not already.

SILENCE THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM FIRST.

It's Grant Give Away Time......WOO HOO!!

Just as the boy whom I met in the above picture is running with pure joy, that is what I feel like as I run forward with pure joy to bring good news. I'm reminded of Romans 10:15~ How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 


It is my pure delight to announce that our t shirt fundraiser for the month of November was a raging success!! It totally amazes me what was accomplished in just one month. Thanks to all of you supporting these adoptive families, we are able to bless them with our profits. We are thrilled to offer a few matching grants from OH to make it even sweeter!

Drumroll please...............

Our top 3 t shirt sellers who all receive matching grants are..........

1. Sanders Family - www.rbabyethiopia.blogspot.com
2. Darin and Jolene Shrock adopting Stella and Benjamin - www.theshrockfamily.blogspot.com
3. Steve and Emily Hauter

CONGRATULATIONS TO THESE TOP 3 FAMILIES!!!

AND.......

Since we saw such an amazing effort on the part of some of the other families and those purchasing on their behalf.....

Well........

We decided to match the TOP 7....and not just the top 3!!!

So an extra CONGRATULATIONS goes out to these following families...

Hauret Family - www.lovingourlincoln.blogspot.com
Love For Liliana - www.redthreadstitches.com
Jody and Alison adopting Caroline - www.lovinmuch.blogspot.com
Webb family - www.webbadoption.blogspot.com

I want to personally thank all 54 families who participated in this and gave us an opportunity to bless you as you strive to raise funds for your adoptions. You all have wonderful family and friends who got behind you on this to show their support.  We look forward to continuing this in January.  I love giving money away!! It is so much fun!! We are here to help you in any way we can.

So with all that said......We have seen the month of November come to a close and we are so very excited to say that we are giving away.......

Get this..........

A TOTAL OF
$10,720 IN ADOPTION GRANT MONEY!!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Lastly, I have to give a huge shout out THANK YOU to Charlene, my tireless side kick in all this.  She has put in many hours to keep up with totals and emails and packing and shipping, etc, etc,.....I am so blessed to have her on this team.  THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES, CHARLENE!!

Wow!!! God is good!! That is all I know to say :)

December is Here!! Lots Going on... In Country and Out.....

I can't believe it is December 1st. Christmas always sneaks up on me. There is a lot going on this month.

First.....We will be tallying up all the proceeds for all the adoptive families and sending emails and notifications out soon with everyone's totals and also who are the top three that will receive a matching grant from our t shirt fundraiser. Can't wait!!!

Second.....I leave December 10 to return to Ethiopia for a special trip of meeting new waiting children. My sister, Kristi, and my daughter will join me. We will meet up with Sue, the agency director for Celebrate Children and go into a different orphanage each day in order to meet and photograph the waiting children. I'm sure I will come back with new waiting children for you to meet as well as get new pics of some of your little ones that you already have committed to :) Can't wait.

We also plan on visiting Korah while there as well as Shashemene.  So plan on following the blog December 10-19 to maybe get a sneak peek of your sponsored child from Korah, as well as anyone else who might just grab your heart ;) It will be a great trip!

Third....We just sent out a new Speak Up email last night with several featured waiting children.  If you are not signed up to receive our Speak Up emails send us a message at info@ordinaryhero.org to jump on board. Help us advocate for these precious children who need homes. Included in this weeks Speak Up are two adoptions of children that were once waiting!! Yay!

Fourth....If you are in the Nashville area and would like to help a mom and her children from the homeless shelter, to ensure that they receive Christmas presents this year, email me at Kelly@ordinaryhero.org for more info on how to do that.

This Christmas song is for all of you waiting on your little loves to arrive home to their forever families.....whoever your little love might be :)

Have a great day!! December is here!!!