5 For Hope

Come Over For Coffee

We've said it before:  Ethiopia is the birthplace of not only M3, but also coffee.  I stumbled onto a way to introduce you to some fabulous fair trade coffees while assisting 5 for Hope in reaching its long-term goals. 

The gift giving season is here and if you are looking for a gift for yourself or you wish to brighten up the palates of visitors over the holidays, consider stopping in to the 5 for Hope Coffeehouse and placing an order.  Although it appears you have to join a coffee club on the landing page, you don't.  Simply go to the sidebar menu list on the left and click around to see all the items Just Love Coffee offers for your purchase.  If you place an order through our personal family page at Just Love Coffee, not only will you receive some of the best coffee on the planet, you will be helping us with our financial adoption goals.

Once you try this coffee, you will want to re-order, so be sure to bookmark our family's page or click on this symbol in our left sidebar to return to our Coffeehouse anytime.

We look forward to hearing your reviews and reports on your coffee!  Once you place your order, the coffee ships the following day via USPS and will arrive at your home in 3-4 days! 

Plenty of time to place your order for Christmas gatherings, gift exchanges, hostess gifts, teacher gifts or even to stash in the pantry for those folks who bring you a gift but for whom you had not planned on buying a gift.  Just slap a bow on it and you're golden!  And, if no one brings you an unexpected gift, Merry Christmas to YOU...you can enjoy it yourself!

Drawn From Water

As we continue on our own, personal journey to helping the children in Ethiopia, I will continue to bring you new, grassroots ways that others are doing so as well. 
Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

Please visit their website and see how you can help.  It can be as simple as remembering their efforts when you pray or inviting friends to check out the site.  Keep in mind--word of mouth can be a marvelous thing!

Been Saving My Pennies...

I've been "ignoring" a set amount from each paycheck ever since I read about this project on a fellow adoptive mom's blog.  I have found so many wonderful links via this blog, I cannot even begin to tell you. 

One day, I was linked to yet another adoptive family's blog and I was inspired and enthralled with such a simple, yet lifesaving idea.  Joining Lori in her quest to build a well in Ethiopia to bring clean water to people in desperate need of it filled my heart with purpose.  I wanted to do this, but I knew I needed to do this even more.  I have so many tenuous little connections with M3 right now that being part of a greater group working toward a goal that would make a permanent difference in her country became very important.

So, I watched that 'ignored' amount of money grow and decided today was the day for our family to join Team Ethiopia.  Our family's name is now featured with so many others along the sidebar at Lori's blog.

I thought I'd tell you about it in case you wanted to toss your hat in the ring there as well.  Every little bit counts and, with the response she has received, it looks like Team Ethiopia may be responsible for TWO wells through Charity Water.  By using that link and the red donate button, our funds went directly to Lori's Team Ethiopia.  We are so excited!

You've been very supportive of our adoption journey and, most of all, we appreciate your positive thoughts, prayers and encouragement.  We'd appreciate it if you'd dedicate some of those to Team Ethiopia as the project winds into its 'big announcement' of just how big this team actually is!

Go on over and visit Lori's blog.  Post some encouraging words and see what a few determined families will be able to do in Ethiopia.  Yea!!

Things I Will Enjoy

Amritas asked in the comment section of the previous post for a status report on my level anxiety about traveling to Ethiopia.  Several things impact that level including, but not limited to, the very real possibility that I will be making a major excursion overseas by myself.  I will go over alone but come home with a likely heartbroken, petrified and squirmy kindergartener who has no earthly idea if I'm an okay person or not and who may not even want to know for a very long time.

I would say that this stage, I am settled with the idea of going to Ethiopia to pass through another stage in the adoption process.  It, honestly, reminds me of my overall feelings of having a baby.  I was okay with the idea as a whole.  When and if I broke it down, however, and thought for any period of time on one particular step (like labor and actually pushing a child forth or, in this instance, trusting the Lord will protect my always testy tummy from anything that would make me hurl, the dreaded plane trips to and fro, and the very real possibility that bonding may not show signs of life until we are back on US soil for days) I could become very anxious.

So, overall, I am okay with the entire idea and I know I can do it (what other choice, right?).  However, many steps need to fall into place and lots of information gaps have to close before I feel more comfortable with the several steps.

I love spending time reading blogs and personal accounts of those who have already been to Ethiopia and those who are planning to go.  One thing I am super stoked about is that Ethiopia is the birthplace of one of my favorite things on the planet -- coffee.  I have heard and read about the coffee ceremonies held in Ethiopia and cannot wait to observe and participate in one myself!  This is one thing that I am almost 100% certain I will enjoy when it happens.

One particular blog I regularly read not only explained how the ceremony progresses, but also provided photos!  You may be as amazed as I was to watch the progression of the coffee bean into a drink I cannot wait to try in its home country.  Of course, I'm even more amazed at the young woman who writes the blog and the important work she and her colleagues are doing in a region of Ethiopia that holds a special place in my heart for reasons that you will know as our story is told.