Free Giveaway to help the Orphaned Children of Mogra!

You recall when I introduced you Mogra? After my heart was ripped from my chest when Baby Daniel died...

I shared it with you here. 

I took on the challenge of making a change in his honor, so his death meant something.

I asked and you gave! Putting big smiles on the children's faces here!

Then, I celebrated the accomplishment of transforming Mogra into a facilitation home for adoption here.

To date we have raised $2500 for the Baby House, and we were fortunate enough to be in Kenya when construction started, to physically help in the process.

 

Since coming home, I have jumped on board with a wonderful organization, run by Mom's like me with a heart for the orphaned. They have agreed to assist us with our Baby House Project!

 Linked Through Love is 100% volunteer run, to ensure that every dollar gets to where it is needed the most. These are Mom's who have adopted, who have been to these developing countries and seen the devastation. Moms who have been left with the haunting memories of the faces of the children left behind. Let me tell you, this is something that never leaves you.

Children like little Jordan here, who suffers from a skin condition that we cannot get diagnosed.

 

Those of you with similar conditions, or sensitivities, know how expensive treatments are. Well imagine having to pay hundreds just to see a dermatologist, the cost of hypoallergenic soap in Kenya, lotions, special non lactose baby formula, etc, etc. These are things you do for a child with sensitivities. Has Jordan had any of these? Sadly, no ... there is no money to support this. Don't worry though, I'm working on this problem behind the scenes, to find a solution for Baby Jordan.

Then we have children like little Sharon here who was so neglected before she came to Mogra that she clings to the slightest bit of attention. Put her down, and her world collapses. She goes limp, and thrashes around. She is the child that you simply cannot pick up or hold, unless you have hours to spend, simply because it breaks her heart every time you leave.

 

 

Every child has a story.

 

Every child has suffered trauma.

 

 

Every child is deserving of Love.

 

 

Every child is deserving of a Home

What can you do to help?

 

Ultimately, it takes money - but there are so many other ways you can really help (and be entered into the draw!)! SEE BELOW!

 

If helping these babies wasn't incentive enough, I am going to sweeten the deal for you!

Once we have reached $100 in donations from this blog post, I will be giving  away this beautiful, hand made in Kenya, paper beaded necklace.

Once we have reached $300 in donations, I will give this bag away.

Hand made in Kenya by the girls at Mogra.

 

Padded, with zippers in a local Kenyan fabric - your sure to love it!

 

 

How can you be entered in this draw?

 

1. You will receive one entry for sharing this post on your blog.

 

2. You will receive one entry for sharing this post on your Facebook.

 

3. You will receive TWO entries for heading over to Linked Through Love and donating as little as your morning coffee money!

 

IMPORTANT - to complete these entries, you MUST leave a comment here on this blog post, indicating that you shared on your blog, fb and or donated - or combination thereof.

If you do not comment, I will not know to enter you in the draw!

 

I will be shipping the above items at my own cost to North America only.

Contest ends September 30th/2013.

 

 In the end, your dollar, or assistance in achieving these dollars, will help to give these babies a bigger home. Giving them more room, means that more babies will be saved, and more babies will have the opportunity to be adopted. And for the ones who cannot be adopted? They will have better quality of life. Right now, there are 38 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment! That is no way to live.

 

Please help us help them.

Thank you for making a difference in these children's lives!

 

Catch all the info and photos not shown on the blog here:

Thompsons to Kenya on FB

Mogra Rescue Centre on FB

 

First Doctor Visit.. the ups and downs.

Zahra has always been a healthy child who sits at the 50% on the growth charts. For that we are very blessed!

We did see a doctor twice in Kenya, once for a UTI and another time to check for parasites. It is always advised that you see your family doctor upon return from Canada, but given her good health, we were able to wait until we received her health card.

Zahra's visits with the Doctor in Kenya were quite traumatic. She was absolutely terrified! Despite the fact that he was very nice and gentle, she hated every last second of it. He explained to me that many times the public, or government doctors, often process the orphanage children quickly, with little time spent trying to calm or reassure them. I don't know if this was her experience, or what type of Doctors she had previously seen, but I am sure that because they often go together, they also get each other worked up; when one cries they all figure it is a horrifying experience.

Because of this, I intentionally planned for Zahra to escort me to a Doctor's appointment this summer. She was a little nervous at first, but fine once she realized that it was Mommy being seen. She witnessed that it was a positive visit, and I did the same for a lab visit where I had my blood taken.

This made all the difference in the world! She went in to her doctor appt, happy and even excited! (I do think having a female Doctor made a bit of a difference as well!) Shockingly enough, she willing participated for the entire check up and she even responded to the Doctor when she asked her a question.

It was a great visit... and we walked out with smiles and an armload of blood/stool requisitions for all of our post 'out of country' parasite checks and a full blood analysis for Zahra. Everything from lead levels, to thyroid count was checked off. I knew this meant a lot of blood.

In the waiting room at the Lab, Zahra was bouncing around, so excited to be next. Little did she know, poor thing.

Once we were call in, I sat her on my lap in the lab chair and the ladies went to work. The rubber band tie started the tears, but she braved it with a stiff upper lip, hiding her face in Mommy's chest... until the needle poke.

 It totally sucks to watch kids go through this and not able to make it stop for them. 4 viles into it, 3 to go, and the assistant kept moving the needle, so it finally collapsed and that was the end of the show. They said they probably had enough with what they had in the other viles.

My poor little baby cried and cried, all the way through the hospital and out to the car.

We made a special stop to pick up a treat. I told her she could choose whatever she wanted. Her choice? Grilled cheese and ketchup chips! ?? I distracted her thankfully, and she decided on a freezie.

After returning home, she was happy to share with Daddy and Mister, her story, her stickers, band aid and treat. Tears dried up, she curled up with Muffin and enjoyed a Dora episode.

For adoptive families - there are blood screens that you can ask for that are markers for what current vaccinations your child has had. Rubella for example will be able to judge if your child has had the Measles/Mumps vaccine. Our doctor ordered what was available to us. Over vaccinating is not something I want to do!

Outtakes

That's a whole lot of Kaka I'm gonna be dealing with! Yikes!!

First day of school through Zahra's eyes

As soon as she woke up, she could sense the charged air, full of frenzy and excitement. Muffin and Mister were quite excited to see all their friends, teachers and actually be back in the classroom setting again.

As they were sorting out their school 'stuff', Zahra got right involved. Not wanting to be left out, I witnessed her searching for her backpack, then her running shoes, water bottle and snack. 'I do!', or 'Me too! is what I was hearing. I always knew this day would be a hard for her. Going from 1 out of 15 kids in an orphanage to 1 out of 3 kids in a family, means she has always had other children around. This was going to be a difficult transition for her.

We indulged her, packing her backpack with the school essentials and headed off to school. On the way she was singing, 'Me go to school...'. Of course, she actually had no idea what this meant, but she could sense it was not something she wanted to miss out on.

During the ride, we explained to her that school was not for Mommies, just kids and that if she wanted to go to school, Mommy couldn't stay with her. But if she wanted, she could play for a little while at school and then come home with Mommy and have some fun together.

We arrived early, snapped some photos and then played in the playground as the kids started to roll in.

 

 

Then she discovered the Kindergarten class. Oh my, the toys to play with! I allowed her to play for a few minutes, then had to take her once the kids started to arrive. She was not too happy.

I finally was able to have her agree to leave the school by telling her we were going to see a puppy. As we stood out front, meeting a friends dog, she noticed the children in the school window and it wasn't just any classroom, it was her brother's classroom. She remained glued to the window, watching her brother.

Then the time came, and we had to leave. She cried for her brother the entire walk to our van, a block away. So upset. Until, I bribed her with grapes and a cheese stick, and all became well with the world again. :)

Flash Back Friday - Mathare Slum Kenya

Tetherball

 

I came across these boys enjoying a game of tetherball and couldn't help but stop and watch them for awhile.

They paid me no attention, unlike the many others that I had following me.

They were having so much fun with this game they made from a string and a soda bottle.

Ingenious.

 

 

 

3rd Birthday in Pink Princess Party Style!

We missed the 1st and 2nd birthdays, so we wanted to go big with her 3rd. Pinterest to the rescue, although a broken front axle on our ailing van held us up in Calgary, so it cut my preparation efforts down to a day and half... never the less, we think it was pretty pinktastic!

I had started with an over sized 3d collage. I wanted the collage to be her first 3 years. Unfortunately, I don't have many photos of her before we met her, but the few we had were certainly enjoyed by everyone.

Luckily, I had started this weeks ago. Let me tell you, it was not an easy project. If you are interested in making one, I have posted some shots below that will show how I made it. After the structure is complete, you cut and paste photos with Mod Podge.

 

 

 

 

I hung pink plastic table clothes from the dollar store, to look like curtains, tied back with tiaras.

 

I made tissue paper pom poms, and suspended them from the ceiling with fishing line. Tutorial Here. I did cut mine in various shapes and sizes for variety, and hung them at different heights.





 

 

Sparkly pink tulle from Walmart adorned our chairs.

 



 

Water bottle labels that I created on PicMonkey.

 

 

'Morning Dew' made from pink lemonade and lemon/lime soda, garnished with strawberries.

 

 

Cute little Tea Sandwiches, cut out with cookie cutters. We had 2 flavors, strawberry cream cheese/banana and marshmallow puff/strawberries. Yumm!

 

 

'Royal Gem' fruit salad, which I provided wooden skewers so the kids could make their own kabobs.

 

 

Pink Popcorn was a hit! Recipe Here.

 

 

 

Pink Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing.



 

 

The refreshment table, if I would have had more time, I would have added the pink plastic table cloth curtains the back dining room wall.

For activities, we had a few different stations.

'The Royal Closet' which provided dress up fun!

 

 

 Princess Spa

 

We also had a couple other stations that I didn't get a chance to get photos of. We had the Royal Crowns, which was tiara and crown making. Tiaras were made out of hair bands, pipe cleaner and beads and the crowns were foam crowns purchased from the dollar store which we provided glitter etc for decorating. We also have the Palace Painting station, where the kids painted wooden masks, also purchased from the dollar store.

 

Zahra actually was actually catching up on her beauty sleep when the guests started to arrive. When she woke up, she was excited that 'her party' was finally here.

 

 

 

 

She was a little shy being the centre of attention, so she asked if her sister could help her blow out her candles.

 

 

 

 

 

Because I'm always behind the camera, this is the only photo I have of me on her birthday. You can see my pink highlight. Yes, I dyed my hair pink for her party!

 

When it came time to open presents, she once again felt a little shy with all eyes on her, so she asked her sister and friends for a little help.

 

 

It didn't take long though before she got into the swing of things.

 

 

After the children went to bed, this is how the parents ended the evening... with Pink Champagne.

 

 



Exciting News!!

I have some great news to share with you... !

One of my hearts greatest desires while in Kenya, has come true. During our stay in Kenya, I had the opportunity to meet and get to know some of the greatest children. My heart was heavy for them as I knew they would never have the opportunity to have a forever family.

While Hannah taught me so much about Kenya and the orphan crisis, I was able to put a little seed in her heart. You see, she didn't know much about adoption, and didn't think much about it either. Could parents actually love and care for a child that isn't theirs they way they could a biological child? And what about a child of a different race?

Adoption is not as socially acceptable in Kenya as it is in other parts of the world. If a child was adopted, it was kept a secret.

It wasn't until Hannah met us and our other Canadians friends when she saw the bond and love that we shared with our children, before she realized that adoption can actually work. She believe that God has used us to open her eyes and her heart, and now she is ready to let go of the children she loves so dearly because she can see how much brighter their lives can be in a forever family.

Before I left for Kenya, I spoke with the board members of Mogra about the possibility of becoming licensed for adoption. Hannah and I visited and observed the operations of the largest Orphanage in Kenya, who has successfully adopted 1400 (as I recall, may have been more) children. They way I saw it, adoption brings about 3 benefits. First, as much as any orphanage can provide for a child, they simply cannot give a child what a forever family can. They can't give them a Mom and Dad at the dinner table, an arm to walk them down the isle, a home to go home to for the holidays... security in a place to call home and know they will forever belong and be loved... etc. In addition to this, if we are really in this business to save children, there is no better way to save more than to facilitate the ones we have to Forever Families, to make room for more children. When I was in Kenya, people were literally banging on the Mogra door pleading them to take more kids. Babies who had nowhere to go. Mogra only has so much room, and as things were with 4 babies to a crib... many children were turned down. The equation is simple then... the more children adopted out, the more children they can welcome in and literally save! As a bonus to this all, adoption will raise awareness to all the other programs they are struggling with, like the Mogra Star School and their feeding program... assisting children in the slums.

So I guess you have figured out where I am going with this?

Mogra is now licensed to adopt!

Even more exciting, they have actually just adopted out the first baby! As many of you who have been to Mogra, will know Teddy. 11 months now, Teddy is always a happy baby and one of the favorites. Teddy has been adopted by an American family who currently reside in Kenya. They are head over heels for Teddy, and from the photos, I can tell that Teddy is very much enjoying his new family!

And if you don't think God has hand in these matches, or believe in fate... Teddy's first name is the same as his adopted Father and Grandfather!

Teddy got the ball rolling, and since then, Rose (Teddy's crib mate) has also been adopted by a local Kenyan family and many other have been referred and are just waiting for their families to come to Kenya! I simply cannot tell you what a smile this puts on my face, when I think of these babies in families!

To keep up on the latest news from Mogra, please join their facebook page and help us raise awareness to the great work they are doing!

Pink Princess Party

I thought I would share our invitations that I made for Zahra's Welcome Home/ Birthday Party. We really want to have a large celebration to not only celebrate her 1-2-3rd birthday, but also as a special day to share her with our family/friends and celebrate her coming into our family and home. We are going to do this party up big and PINK. Look out Pinterest!