Thursday, January 8, 2009

Document & Formula Shortage

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post about these 2 things ... anyways, when we got back from our Christmas travels to Indiana and Illinois, we had a letter from the Dept. of Homeland Security. SWEET! We got our approval to bring a child into our country. WRONG!! It was a letter stating that I did not fill out the form all the way, even after a dozen passes over it. I guess I didn't fill out that I had not been married before so they needed that information. I guess I musta thought that it didn't pertain to me so I didn't fill it out!?!? Anyways, filled out the form and mailed it back in on Dec. 31st. Hopefully, everything will get approved and we'll get our approval.

And more importantly, there is a severe baby formula shortage in Ethiopia...in good blogging fashion, I stole the below from Charisa...


Hello friends!
We have recently been made aware of the formula shortage in Ethiopia right now because the birr (Ethiopian currency) has lost value due to the downturn in the Ethiopian economy. Because of this trading with the Middle East, the normal source of formula, has been hampered.
This has resulted in a shortage of formula in the country and more specifically, dear to our hearts, the orphanages. Imagine trying to care for those precious babies and not knowing how you were going to feed them! I cannot fathom the heartache that must be. They are desperate for formula. This comes straight from Almaz, the director at Hannah's Hope.
"Some of those same babies that I loved on, specifically at Enat Elam, are becoming sick from lack of formula and being fed powdered milk."
I have talked to Julie, my case manager, about specifically what we can do, here it is:
If you want to purchase powdered formula (no liquid!) , specifically up to about 12 months of age, you can give it to me (AMY). If you are further away, email me and I can give you the address of a traveling family to send it to. We will send this with traveling families as they go to Ethiopia. This is the best way to get it to Ethiopia.
Monetary Donations-- Because God is faithful and we are going to receive an enormous amount of formula (I like to think big with God) and sometimes people would prefer to just give money, we can collect money to help pay for the extra luggage charge to send over with formula with families traveling to Ethiopia. This is the cheapest way to get it there.
As far as monetary donations, they can be marked Formula for Ethiopia and made out to AGCI and sent to address at bottom or you can also give monetary donations to me and I will send them on.
I know that I am always coming to you guys with one cause or another...and I am so grateful for your help each time. I just really want to help these precious babies! It absolutely crushes my heart to think that they are without the formula they need to grow and live. They already have so many odds stacked against them.
If we each just send one can of formula, what a difference we can directly make to those babies!
I can't imagine the pain and heartache the orphanage directors are going through...trying to feed all of those babies and not having what you need to do it. Can you imagine?

All God's Children
3308 NE Peerless Place

Portland, OR 97232

Hannah's Hope is our orphanage in Ethiopia...so, in saying all that, feel free to ask me any questions ... thank you for your prayers on this to see if God is leading you to give formula to this need...feel free to pass on to anyone you know.

If you live in the Nashville area, there is a local family traveling later this month to pick up their daughter so anything gotten to me by the Jan. 14th, I'll give to them (as long as they have room). Then there is another local family that is #3 on the girls list that will be traveling in a couple/few months and then we're #7 boys/#16 girls so we'll be traveling after them (hopefully by end of summer??)

1 comment:

Paul and DeeDee said...

oh golly if you and I aren't traveling by the end of summer I will cry.....praying that this all goes by super smooth:) thanks for posting this! I hope to have a formula drive at our church right before we leave!