Sammy's Suitcases, finally complete!

THANK YOU FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!


Hello friends and family...today we celebrate Sammy's 3rd adoption day and can officially close the books on Sammy's suitcases. We never expected this project to be over a year in the making but delays in bringing Sam's brother home caused this project to go from year 2 all the way to year 3. So thank you for participating in giving back to Sammy's birth country.

The final tally of all the things donated and delivered by us or our friends is as follows:

64 cloth diapers
4 pairs of shoes
23 women's shirts
11 pairs boys pants
5 hooded sweatshirts
9 onsies
lots of infant toys
baby sheets
11 diaper ointments
4 antifungal creams
4 zinc oxide ointments
1 reusable tote
4 infant vitamin drops
8 babywashes
4 baby lotions
50 pk fruit snacks
60pk granola bars
3 antibiotic ointment
1 cortaid cream
Mediscope
10 packs baby wipes
1 LCD projector and adaptor (for the Bright Hope School)
11 Extreme Black Soccer Balls
11 Extreme Silver Soccer Balls
22 Hand Pumps
23 sets of needles
Bandaids
Baby clothing
Socks
Blankets
Monetary donation for drilling of a well in the Korah community
Monetary donation to self sustaining chicken farm feed at Bright Hope School

You overwhelmed us with your generosity and it was exciting for Sam to be part of this project that lasted throughout the time he awaited his brother's arrival. Thank you, thank you for helping us give back!

Love, Sammy, Allyson, Eric & now Joshua:)

Here are some photos:

Visiting the Bright Hope School which serves the Korah community giving them one of their wish list items.

The first well drilled in the school, you gave to the drilling of a second well which will be on the school property but service the community of Korah.
School was not in session when we were at the Bright Hope School due to the holidays in Ethiopia but we still got to see all the projects going on and hang out with some of the beautiful children that attend the school.
The self sustaining chicken farm...a really amazing sight to see especially watching kids from the community come and get eggs for their New Year's celebration.
Hanging out with some children along the road up to Mt. Entoto. The man in the photo was our interpreter Bizzy. He is an amazing man who distributed some of the donations.
If you don't know about Korah I encourage you to see the video below. Some of our donations went to Mission Ethiopia the organization that made this video. Many others went to the Bright Hope School which serves children that live in this community.


Again, thank you on behalf of our family!

Sammy's Suitcases Trip 1 Delivered!

Hello dear friends, sorry for the delay in writing this but wanted to report that Sammy's first set of suitcases was successfully delivered to Ethiopia last week. We were amazed by the generosity of friends and family and filled all of our empty space with donations to two different organizations in Addis Ababa. Sammy had a blast shopping with mommy for donations and packing up his suitcases with items we bought and items you donated. Half of the donations went to the House of Hope which is a transition home for children waiting to be adopted. This is where Sam lived for several months when he was waiting for us and it is where his brother is now living. We gave the other half of the donations to Mission Ethiopia, an empowerment program that provides individuals a sustainable job to support themselves and their families. They work with local churches to help reach women in their community. Today, 56 women (single mothers, widows, and women with HIV) come to 4 local churches in Ethiopia daily for a job in handicraft. We will hopefully have the chance to meet some of these women on our next trip.


The next trip donations will focus on Bright Hope School. This is a humanitarian aide project by our adoption agency that serves one of the greatest areas of need in Ethiopia. The school is located in the Korah community. If you want to know more about this area of Ethiopia we would love to share with you. Our agency has been involved with creating a self sustaining farm for the school that serves 2100 children. They also recently received enough money to begin drilling a fresh water well next to the school to provide clean water for the people of Korah. We are elated to get the opportunity to spend time there on our second trip and bring Sammy's suitcases with us.

WE GOT OUR COURT DATE:

JUNE

We got the call yesterday that our court date is June 9th! We will be in Ethiopia 3 weeks from yesterday! CRAZY!!! We are very excited to take Sammy's suitcases FINALLY! He will be busy packing them up over the next few weeks with mommy. Please pray with us for all the details of our court date to come together so we will pass without any delays and can bring Sammy's little brother home.

Thanks friends and family!!

It just might happen before our 3rd adoption day fundraiser!

We received our referral on St. Patrick's Day and Sammy is going to be a big brother! We now wait for a court date and then will know when we make our first trip. We are so thankful for the little miracle God has planned for our family and it looks like Sammy's fundraiser will indeed go on! I have to admit we were wondering there for awhile:) So thanks to all of you who contributed, you have been so patient with us and we will hopefully in the next 4-5 months have specific details on the blessings Sammy's Suitcases provided for his friends. We appreciate all you've done and want you to know we have not forgotten about it, we just really wanted to provide you with specifics about where it went once we deliver it. So hang on and continue on this journey with us!

Thank you wonderful friends and family!

The donations continue to roll in and we are so thankful for all of the support for Sammy's suitcases. Now if you could all just pray that our phone will ring soon with a referral then we will be on our way:) Sammy received the amazing card pictured above from his wonderful friends Kathy and John - isn't it awesome! Sam received a bag of donations yesterday from a friend at our gym and he immediately brought them in the house, looked at each one and showed me with excitement and said, "I put them with the Opia gifts" and carried them to his other suitcase donations. I love seeing him get so excited about collecting donations and understanding what we are doing. We are thankful to all of you for helping Sam fill his suitcases!

The suitcases are filling...

Thanks so much to everyone who has begun helping Sammy fill his suitcases. Here he is admiring some of the donations he received. We really appreciate you being part of our adoption day celebration!

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