Late last summer, I converted my journal into this blog, thinking that we might be getting our referral "any day now" and wanted to have the blog established so that I could post pictures and quick notes to the blog while in Honduras, and family and friends back home could follow along. Since then, I've enjoyed having this blog to share my thoughts and keep folks current on our journey. I'm not very technical, but having a computer programmer in the family has allowed me to add to this blog some buttons and links (over on the right of this text) that I wanted to tell you a little about. They are all near and dear to my heart.
The first is the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. Several years ago, a missionary priest visited our church and talked about an organization he is connected with: CFCA. Here's some info from one of CFCA's publications: "CFCA is an organization that creates relationships between sponsors in the U.S. and children, youth, and aging persons in 22 developing countries. Through its Hope for a Family program, our contributions provide life-changing benefits such as education, nutrition, clothing and medical care for our sponsored friend. Through letter writing we are able to learn about our sponsored friend's life and offer our encouragement and prayers. Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA works with people of all faith traditions. CFCA is highly rated by Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy."
We found CFCA's work to be very compelling, and started sponsoring a young girl named Olga who lives in Guatemala. Although CFCA also sponsors older adults, we thought sponsoring a child would be more interesting for our young boys, and we selected Guatemala since it is their heritage. We contribute monthly to CFCA, and the contributions directly benefit Olga and her family by paying for school fees, uniforms, nutritious food, etc. Several times a year, we write letters to Olga, and we receive letters from her and photos of her and her family. When we first started sponsoring Olga, she was about six years old, and so her brother wrote the letters for her, saying that Olga's handwriting was illegible. So funny! But she always would include a sweet little drawing for us. Now she is old enough to have very clear handwriting. CFCA always translates the letters for us, but it is so nice to also receive Olga's handwritten letters telling us about her life. We write to her and tell her about life here. We have formed a relationship with her, and this relationship has been very special for us.
We invite you to check out CFCA (just click on the CFCA button on the right) and consider sponsoring a child or older adult.
Next is Ordinary Hero. Here's some information from their website: "Our Mission is to inspire and empower ORDINARY people to make an extraordinary difference in the life of a child in need. Ordinary Hero Foundation is a nonprofit, 501c3, child advocacy organization. Our goal is to encourage and provide a way for every person to make a difference in the life of a child in need, through adoption, missions, or local outreach. We also strive to bring worldwide, public awareness to the orphan crisis. We aim to be a connector between those looking to make a difference and the child who needs your help, by promoting and providing outreach opportunities, adoption awareness, and availability. We believe every child needs a HERO, wants a HERO, and is looking for a HERO. We believe that HERO is YOU. Let us help you get connected to the child who needs you."
You can check out their website (just click on the OH button on the right) to see some of the truly amazing ways they carry out their mission. One of the ways is by helping adoptive families raise funds to help in their adoption. They have a store with a variety of cool merchanise: t-shirts, note cards, jewelry, etc. I'd like to get a couple of those guitar ties for our boys! But you can also purchase items that will directly benefit children in developing countries. This is so cool: you could buy a sheep and feed forty children! When you check out, if you click on "Angela Anderson," 40% of the cost would go directly to our adoption agency to help fund our adoption.
Finally, is 147 Million Orphans. The link is not there right now, but should be up in a couple days, when my in-home computer programmer has a moment to add some html. They also have items for sale: I love the Ugandan bead necklaces and Katie Davis' book! Funds raised support those in poverty and can also help families raise funds for their adoptions. If you click on "Angela Anderson" at check out, 30% goes to our agency for our adoption.
I don't really like asking for things, but I love these organizations and the work that they are doing to shrink our world, raise our awareness, and lighten the burdens of the poor.