What an incredible journey it has been since we first looked into adopting. Denise feels her life has come full circle since losing her boys. Denise’s grants have allowed 16 children to be adopted by 13 families. We are in such a good place knowing Wiley, Morgan & Parker are living on in so many people’s hearts. With Gierma in our lives, Denise feels it is time to find a worthy home to invest the rest of the Wiley, Morgan & Parker Fund. This home should be a major project that has personal meaning and watch it grow into something amazing. We have recently come across an incredible group helping widows and orphans in the same region Gierma is from.
Denise & Steve are thrilled to join FOVC (Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children) for a service trip to Shanto, Ethiopia in June of this year. Shanto is a very isolated region that has not seen any substantial support. There are over 350,000 people in a ten mile radius. There is one contaminated well that operates one hour a day and many of the children are without clothes. FOVC’s focus is on the children and widows by providing clean water, education, and a sustainable income and food source. Please check out their website to see all of the amazing programs they are working on. http://www.fovc.org/index.html
Denise will be organizing an art event in which the Ethiopian children make art pieces. Half of these will be brought back to sell for further fund-raisers. Steve will be working with two other teachers to help eight Ethiopian teachers learn how to teach. We are extremely confident in FOVC’s vision, drive and integrity. They are an amazing group doing all the right things for all right reasons. Everyone pays their own way on these trips. Every penny is accounted for. The in-country person who has started the entire mission in Shanto, Desalegn, is nothing short of a saint! We can’t wait to work with him, the FOVC group, and all the staff there.
We are asking you to help us raise $5000.00 to cover the art and teaching supplies, plane tickets and in-country expenses. Any amount you give would be hugely appreciated. We understand that this seems rather fast, but we believe fully that this was meant to be. The connection with Gierma’s area, the widows’ trying to become self-supportive and the people we have already worked with at FOVC all are strongly connected to Denise and gently leading us.
We hope to come back from this trip with an exact idea of where to best support the efforts in Shanto in a big way. Can you imagine the Wiley, Morgan & Parker School?! While this has come into our lives rather quickly, we have nothing but positive feelings about our trip and FOVC. It just seems like the perfect fit. Once we have committed to a large project we will have one last fundraiser for the Wiley, Morgan and Parker fund that we hope you will be a part of. Thank you so much for being a part of our lives, for learning about FOVC and considering a donation. For more detailed information please visit our blog at http://familylivingston.blogspot.com/.
With much love,
Steve & Denise Livingston
No comments:
Post a Comment