Sunday, January 27, 2013

Necklaces are Posted

Due to icy weather conditions, church was cancelled today.  We were home as a family ALL day long.  Even Ryan was home all day with us.  It was a great day to catch up on a few things.  Bethany and I enjoyed much of the day beading and crafting.  I was able to get some necklaces uploaded to the necklace page.  Check it out.  Let me know if there's something you'd like.

Disclaimer: if you're willing to support us, you can mail us a check or follow this link to donate online. It is ***REAL IMPORTANT that you put ET130301T Tamara B in the memo line or the donation won't go towards us.

https://secure3.convio.net/chc/site/Donation2?df_id=1420&1420.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=zafei1cb21.app333b

Saturday, January 26, 2013

We Trust

With each day that passes, we get closer to leaving for Ethiopia.  In fact, we secured our airline tickets on Thursday.  We expected the tickets to cost $1800 each.   You can imagine our surprise and gratitude when our tickets were only $1430 each.  That means we just saved $740.  Well, what it really means is that we have $740 less to raise.  That's super exciting!

We had to raise about $3,000 to cover our $6,000 in expenses.  That's a lot of money.  To date, we've raised $1375.  We're glad for the generosity of those who've donated, those who've sacrificially given.  The simple fact is that we have $1625 left to raise.  It's a lot to raise in a few weeks.  But we trust as we continue this journey of serving the widows and orphans in Ethiopia.


If you're interested in donating online towards our trip, you can follow this link. It is REAL IMPORTANT that you put ET130301T Tamara B in the memo line or the donation won't go towards us.




Saturday, January 19, 2013

8 weeks or so

If you follow my personal blog, tam4buit, you'll know that I've been fighting some health issues.  That means I haven't had a lot of energy to do much around the house, or any fundraising for Ethiopia.  But, we're in crunch time and I really need to hop to it.

This past week, I've been making some connections with people in and around Soddo, adoptive families, and other organizations interested in helping widows and orphans.  It's been a great week of information gathering and connecting the dots.

If you're interested in donating online towards our trip, you can follow this link. It is REAL IMPORTANT that you put ET130301T Tamara B in the memo line or the donation won't go towards us.


With that said, I will be starting to make bead products again.  My sweet friend Nina says I need to branch out and do different things with the beads.  Oh golly, I'm really not all that creative.  But, I'll be seeing what I can come up with for new and improved bead products.


On a totally different and out of the blue note, that last sentence made me thing of babycakes products.  Have you seen them? These cool products are made by my adoption friend, Chrissy.  These are all natural products that are good for your skin and for Ethiopian kiddos' hair.  With my recent skin issues, I've been paying closer attention to the "lotion" I use.  Did you know that alcohol makes up the 3rd highest amount of stuff in my skin moisturizer.  Oh, but not babycakes stuff.  It's whipped up of all natural, organic, food grade products.  I recently put in an order and begged Chrissy to send it to me right away. I just know it would be much better than my alcohol-filled product.  If you check out Babycakes website, you'll find that it's more expensive than the stuff from wallyworld, but it lasts longer and isn't full of alcohol.  Thanks Chrissy for sharing your helpful products with all of us!


Friday, January 11, 2013

9 weeks

Thanks to our wonderful trip leader, I understand that it's 9 weeks until we travel.  Boy, are we excited.  This week has been full of Ethiopia business:

  • talking through itinerary options
  • skyping with Dr. Rob and his sweet wife, Kaight
  • trying to connect with other Americans in Soddo
  • trying to make new connections in Halaba.
  • daydreaming about packing, ethiopian food, and those beautiful faces in Shanto
It's been a busy week for me but there's so much left to do:

  • drum up prayer support
  • drum up some financial support.
  • think through some questions to ask Judah's birth mom since she doesn't spew it out like me.
  • connect with those in Soddo and Halaba.
Ryan and currently have a little over $3,000 for the trip.  If you're willing and able to help us along financially, we'd appreciate it.  The following is a link for secure donation plus some important info that assures your donation can go to our trip:

REAL IMPORTANT!!  You need to enter the trip ID which is ET130301T and in the memo line you need to say "donation for Tamara".  Hope Chest is working with 1,000's of people.  It's important to label stuff.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Trip Planning: Fundraising

Ingrid, our trip leader, has been doing planning for some time.  Besides asking for time off work, I haven't done much with planning. With 2012 officially out the window, I better get focused.  These next few months are busy in our personal lives with birthdays and my all-time favorite, Sweetheart Supper.  Without dragging on forever, here's the deal.

Ryan and I are travelling together so we have double the expenses which amount to the following:
$3,600 for airline tickets (which can vary)
$2,800 in-country fees which includes food, hotel, travel to the South
$1,000 project costs

The above are estimates.  I'm guestimating a cost for Ryan to do an outreach project to the entire Shanto community, not just those involved with FOVC-Ethiopia.  Through Children's Hope Chest, there is a budget for the animal husbandry project.  However, as we currently understand it, we can't officially start the project until we raise the complete funds for the animal husbandry project.  Because I despise asking people for help, and because we need to raise money for our own expenses, I thought trying to raise $30k to finish off the animal husbandry project might be asking a lot.  With that said, I know that I serve a BIG God who can provide that $30k through people... I'm just not ready to ask for that.

Ryan and currently have a little over $3,000 for the trip.  If you're willing and able to help us along financially, we'd appreciate it.  The following is a link for secure donation plus some important info that assures your donation can go to our trip:


REAL IMPORTANT!!  You need to enter the trip ID which is ET130301T and in the memo line you need to say "donation for Tamara".  Hope Chest is working with 1,000's of people.  It's important to label stuff.