You Helped Ajuna Adopt Portland!
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A message from Anne Weiss:
Eric and I adopting a beautiful baby girl from Ethiopia!!!
She is now two and a half! She is from the region of Gambella, which has a rich culture but also, unfortunately, a lot of extreme poverty as does most of Ethiopia. After many years of filling out paperwork, waiting, hoping and jumping over many hurdles, we joyfully received and accepted her referral on March 5th, 2014--my birthday(!). What a birthday present!
There still many more steps--and so many more expenses. Ethiopia has suspended adoptions several times, so I am now on my way over there to see if I can move mountains and bring her home! We are waiting on our court date in Ethiopia, and I may need to stay for a month or more as we work on all of the legal steps required. I can't even imagine how amazing it will be to hold her for the first time! It will also be an exciting, wonderful, enriching experience to get to know our girl's country and culture, although we also know that it may be very stressful and anxiety provoking at times to be wrestling with legalities in another country. Who knew there would be so many hurdles between then and now?
Your support means so much!!
She is a beaming, bright delight, and other visiting families have been able to let us know how wonderfully well she is doing at the foster home we have her in where we know she is being cared for by loving staff.
We can’t wait to bring her into our loving home and wonderful community.
We decided to adopt from Ethiopia for many reasons, but one of them is that Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 per cent of children throughout the country are missing one or both parents. This represents an estimated 4.6 million children – 800,000 of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Currently there is a terrible drought bringing on another famine in Ethiopia, and the plight of children is increasing.
One of the big hurdles left in order to adopt our baby is funding. At this point, we still need to raise another $10,000 at least (!). Every single step in adoption has costs, some of them reasonable and many unreasonable but all beyond our control. Adoption is tragically expensive and complicated, tragic because so many families can't afford it and can't take all the complicated steps necessary to adopt here or elsewhere, and that leads to many parentless and homeless children. Due to red tape in Ethiopia, adoptions are taking much, much longer than we expected, which also means that costs are higher-- redoing and paying for required paperwork that goes out of date in both the US and Ethiopia, legal fees, monthly foster care fees, and we still need to raise enough money to get through the flights and many weeks of missed work. This all goes under the old moniker "no good deed goes unpunished". We wish that we could legally and safely post our girl's photo here- you'd immediately see why we are so motivated and why its all worth it!
Adopting her means one less homeless child, and Eric and I will become one less childless family! This is our dream.
All donations over $60 get a free CD if you'd like one as a thank you (let me know!). For donations over $500, I’ll write a song for you on any topic you like in almost any style or Eric will make you a beautiful hand turned wooden bowl (your choice!) All donations over $10,000 get to name the baby…just kidding…well, maybe!! But just let us know if you'd like any of the other thank you gifts.
We may also be in need of baby clothes/furniture/car seats etc.
If you are able to donate frequent flyer miles to help us get to and from Ethiopia, please let us know!
If you are knowledgeable about internation adoption grants, we are eager to hear from you :-)
If anyone would like to host a fundraising concert at their home, please let me know! More info about the music I make: www.anneweiss.com
Eric is also selling his beautiful hand made wooden bowls as a fundraiser. His work is incredible! Take a look at: http://www.nwfinewoodturning.com/. To order a bowl, please get in touch with us directly through this gofundme site. He'll even make one to your specs! Thanks!
Please share this with as many people as you can…sometimes it takes a village, or several villages, to adopt a child!
Thank you, wonderful people!
Love,
Anne and Eric
Eric and I adopting a beautiful baby girl from Ethiopia!!!
She is now two and a half! She is from the region of Gambella, which has a rich culture but also, unfortunately, a lot of extreme poverty as does most of Ethiopia. After many years of filling out paperwork, waiting, hoping and jumping over many hurdles, we joyfully received and accepted her referral on March 5th, 2014--my birthday(!). What a birthday present!
There still many more steps--and so many more expenses. Ethiopia has suspended adoptions several times, so I am now on my way over there to see if I can move mountains and bring her home! We are waiting on our court date in Ethiopia, and I may need to stay for a month or more as we work on all of the legal steps required. I can't even imagine how amazing it will be to hold her for the first time! It will also be an exciting, wonderful, enriching experience to get to know our girl's country and culture, although we also know that it may be very stressful and anxiety provoking at times to be wrestling with legalities in another country. Who knew there would be so many hurdles between then and now?
Your support means so much!!
She is a beaming, bright delight, and other visiting families have been able to let us know how wonderfully well she is doing at the foster home we have her in where we know she is being cared for by loving staff.
We can’t wait to bring her into our loving home and wonderful community.
We decided to adopt from Ethiopia for many reasons, but one of them is that Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of orphans in the world: 13 per cent of children throughout the country are missing one or both parents. This represents an estimated 4.6 million children – 800,000 of whom were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Currently there is a terrible drought bringing on another famine in Ethiopia, and the plight of children is increasing.
One of the big hurdles left in order to adopt our baby is funding. At this point, we still need to raise another $10,000 at least (!). Every single step in adoption has costs, some of them reasonable and many unreasonable but all beyond our control. Adoption is tragically expensive and complicated, tragic because so many families can't afford it and can't take all the complicated steps necessary to adopt here or elsewhere, and that leads to many parentless and homeless children. Due to red tape in Ethiopia, adoptions are taking much, much longer than we expected, which also means that costs are higher-- redoing and paying for required paperwork that goes out of date in both the US and Ethiopia, legal fees, monthly foster care fees, and we still need to raise enough money to get through the flights and many weeks of missed work. This all goes under the old moniker "no good deed goes unpunished". We wish that we could legally and safely post our girl's photo here- you'd immediately see why we are so motivated and why its all worth it!
Adopting her means one less homeless child, and Eric and I will become one less childless family! This is our dream.
All donations over $60 get a free CD if you'd like one as a thank you (let me know!). For donations over $500, I’ll write a song for you on any topic you like in almost any style or Eric will make you a beautiful hand turned wooden bowl (your choice!) All donations over $10,000 get to name the baby…just kidding…well, maybe!! But just let us know if you'd like any of the other thank you gifts.
We may also be in need of baby clothes/furniture/car seats etc.
If you are able to donate frequent flyer miles to help us get to and from Ethiopia, please let us know!
If you are knowledgeable about internation adoption grants, we are eager to hear from you :-)
If anyone would like to host a fundraising concert at their home, please let me know! More info about the music I make: www.anneweiss.com
Eric is also selling his beautiful hand made wooden bowls as a fundraiser. His work is incredible! Take a look at: http://www.nwfinewoodturning.com/. To order a bowl, please get in touch with us directly through this gofundme site. He'll even make one to your specs! Thanks!
Please share this with as many people as you can…sometimes it takes a village, or several villages, to adopt a child!
Thank you, wonderful people!
Love,
Anne and Eric
Organizer
Anne Weiss
Organizer
Portland, OR