Sweet Christmas Surprise....

(American) Christmas Day at Kolfe... 

 was a pretty fun occasion!

A few of the boys have families,

(Wouldn't it be nice if there were more?)

so Skype and email were working overtime.

Thanks to my friend Fekadu,

for playing errand boy for me.

Fekadu stopped by the mission house to pick up

some things I had sent to ET with Emily,

stopped by a lucky fruit vendor and

bought fruit for the entire orphanage,

and then took some Christmas cheer to Kolfe...

all on American Christmas morning!

The perfect day for this delivery!!!

 Our Emnatu had something up his sleeve.

I'm not known for just letting things happen,

(I am the worst kind of planner.)

so I almost spoiled it!

Christmas morning we got a Skype call from Emnatu,

he asked us to close our eyes,

he had a surprise for us,

for Christmas...

this is what we saw when we opened our eyes.

Emnatu John, AYAL John, and Mezgebu John.

Our three sons...

all together, all on skype,

This was Ayal's first time using Skype.

 - - - - -

Our sweet boy spoke right to the

♥ of my love language.

My favorite gift,

sacrifice (Ayal would be sharing a tiny bed

 with Emnatu again)

for the gift he knows his mom loves best...

T-I-M-E!

"Marry Christmass" from the Kolfe boys.

How much does it cost to get there?

A friend asked today about our travel costs.  I appreciated her suggestion on a way to trim some off of our flight costs.  If you know me well, you know I am all about spending less!  Traveling on our own actually is a savings already. Most mission trips to ET, are about $3,000-$3,500 per person.  So, it's like a coupon in use, already!!!  I love that!

It did give me a chance though, to explain some of the costs further.... so let me share some of my answer with all of you in bloggerville.

To get to Ethiopia and back, it will take:
4 plane tickets (We hope to be able to get them for under $5,000, but it takes some work... tickets for August are running about $8,000 right now.  So you have to catch them at just the right time!)
A driver (to save on costs, last time, I rode in a car, but we will happily fill up a van this time)
A translator (Not all that important at Kolfe, since most of the boys speak English, but a must outside of the orphanage.)
A salad bar full of travel shots. 
Travel visas
3 rooms at a Guest house for us and some special guests. ;o)
Meals for at least 9 (it is customary to pay for the driver and translator's meals as well)
Fruit for the orphanage
Help for our 2 oldest boys who IF they can get time off work, won't be paid...

That's the run down... hopefully our numbers will shrink some as things get firmed up.  Less spent on the "have to-s" means more available for blessing the people we come in contact with!

Journey to Ethiopia 2011

No plane tickets for the trip yet. 

We are waiting on some answers

 from John's job and the boys' schools

 as to when we can go.

We are still looking into February,

just 2 months from now.

YIKES!!!  That is fast approaching!

Our costs at this point, are somewhat estimates,

since the flights are steadily going up
 as time passes and we are still working
 on a guest house that

 will be affordable enough for
 all of us to stay at together.

We are collecting items for

another garage sale in January...
Let us know if you have anything ! 
Thanks!

Some updates...

At our garage sale a few months ago,

I met a sweet woman name Denise.

She has a love for Africa, and asked if she could

call me later to learn more about Kolfe.

I love this woman's heart...

at the end of the conversation, she said,

"Give me an assignment, what can I do?"

What a blessing it was to hear those words!

So... fast forward a few months, and Denise

called to say that she has been collecting things

for us to take in our suitcases...

She's been shopping at yard sales for clothing

for us to take for the orphanages, and 

a doctor friend of her's had given her $100

to buy cans of formula for a baby orphanage

we want to visit while in Ethiopia.

Praise God! What a huge blessing

to the workers & children at this orphanage!

We are so excited about Denise

and her partnership with us!

 - - - - - - -

One more update I am long

overdue for posting....

A sweet homeschooling friend of mine,

Juli, has been partnering with us since I

began fundraising for my first trip to Kolfe.

She has been such a blessing to us!

Juli is a major bargain hunter, in fact,

she has a fabulous website

 called Bargain Believer

that is spreading pretty fast.

In November, she showed up

at our door with these....

59 soccer shirts!

These FANTASTIC SHIRTS

were donated

to the boys by JCPENNY.

How cool is that!?!?!

I can't wait to deliver these to

 Gladney Adoption Agency

 for the orphanages they support.

(Including Kolfe)

I am going to send you to

Juli's site to read the rest of the story

(click on this link)

of how these fabulous shirts,

and a check for our trip, came to be

 in our home awaiting
their journey to Ethiopia.

While you are at it, you just might

pick up a bargain or two!

Standing Firm

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:58

Today is one of those days when I am thankful for promises like this one.  Fundraising is tough....  Getting to Africa with 4 of us in tow is expensive, and every time I get a few steps closer to the goal, something happens to make us go backwards a bit..travel shots, specific needs for one of our boys there, a fundraiser idea that goes kaput...  (Like the one I have been crafting for the past few weeks, that didn't end up happening, and I now have Jesus and Me tree ornaments a plenty!) 

But going backwards isn't always a bad thing.  Twice this month we have had offers to take our boys something with a visitor...Rather than send them Christmas gifts, we have taken the opportunity to reach out to the whole orphanage with love and send money for every boy to have fruit.  A few of you have even committed to helping us give some "sweet" love this Christmas, and we are forever grateful!

Fruit... a banana, an orange... they seem so simple and ordinary to us here in the States... BUT when you live in Ethiopia, in a Gov't run orphanage, and your very existence is essentially a version of bread and water each day ... fruit is a luxury, it is something special.  It means a rare treat, packed with vitamins.  It's what growing boys need...  so, I am thankful for the opportunity to go backwards in our fundraising... or  maybe, just maybe, that's what HE intended be done with HIS money all along....