Africa on our minds: UPDATE (edited)

A person's mind, once stretched to a new idea,

never goes back to its original dimensions.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes~

We have heard the cry of the people!

Ok, that may be a little dramatic but we've had several of our friends comment on how they might be interested in purchasing a necklace like the ones Mark made for us. So we were talking over dinner tonight ... could Mark make these and sell them?

Since we first started learning about Ethiopia and walking the road to Baby Ailor in Ethiopia, we've been feeling like there's more to 'this' -- that there's more we can be doing to help orphans in Africa while also keeping our child connected to his/her heritage. Actually, we talk about this a lot but haven't known what to do. We think that maybe others in the Lafayette Ethiopia adoption group might be thinking similar thoughts and that maybe we will all work together for a common cause in Ethiopia someday. Mark and I also hope that our families will find ways to work together to help our children learn about Ethiopia, celebrate holidays, and maybe even someday, travel together back to Ethiopia on a heritage tour. Lots of big thoughts for us when we're still early in the waiting!

So what does this have to do with the necklaces?

Mark is going to make some more and offer them for sale. We are going to do some research and find an organization to donate the money to ... something in Ethiopia that helps children. We know of several organizations but we need to do our homework. We want to be sure that as much of the money as possible goes to help children, in other words, an organization that has low overhead costs and is really impacting the lives of children in need.

Maybe this is how we can make a difference now, while we wait to bring Baby Ailor home, and maybe even beyond! Who knows?!? Mark is experimenting with adding a name to the back of the pendant and looking at how to 'mark' Ethiopia on the front. Lots of possibilities to make it a meaningful, personal pendant. Stay tuned! We'll let you know the details soon. And if you've had similar thoughts to these -- about staying connected to Ethiopia -- we'd love to hear what you're thinking.