***Donations Wanted***

If any of you have been following our Ethiopian Adoption timeline, you have noticed that we are getting closer to getting a referral!!! We started at twenty-something on the wait list and we are now 9th...things are progressing through our agency rather quickly. The wait time has went smoothly...we were told weeks to months to a year...so we have been waiting for 5 months thus far for a referral of "Baby Ella" (we think that will be her name) and we believe we are getting close!! So, we are starting to make some plans for travelling to Ethiopia.

One of these plans is to take a slew of donations to the areas' orphanages. We have asked our agency for a list of recommended items to bring in order to help the children the most. The most needed item for the youngest, most vulnerable kiddos is formula. The brand that is used in most orphanages is called Similac NeoSure. There is a formula shortage in Ethiopia, thus by us bringing this we could make a huge nutritional impact on these children. Additionally, in order to care for the children in the areas' orphanages they could use disposable diapers, medicines, lotions, new clothing & shoes. Basically anything that is practical for the care of infants and children. Could you...would you...do you want to donate any of these items to the orphanages in Ethiopia? Would you prefer to give a monetary donation (due to additional shipping costs) in order to go toward any of these items specifically? I will be sure to purchase whatever you would like to see be delivered to the children of Ethiopia...or I will donate the monies to the orphanage directly.

The other thing that we would like to collect for donations are FUN items for the older kiddos of the orphanages. Things that bring a light to their lives and to their day!!! We'd like to create goodie bags for as many children as we can...like those little bags kids get at birthday parties with a few pieces of candy, some little toys, stickers, etc. So, if you have any interest in making a purchase from Oriental Trading Company or have another source...AWESOME! Or if you would like to donate a sheet of stickers...we'll take it!!! If you have leftover bags from a birthday party last year...we'll take them!!!!!! If you have some wrapped candy for the kids, send it my way! If you'd like to give a monetary donation for this project, please let me know and I will be sure to designate your monies toward this end of the donation collection.

Call Me!!! Mail It!!!! Email Me!!!!!!

Thank you for your material donations, your monetary donations, as well as your prayers for all of the children who are in need of forever families...not only in Ethiopia! Please feel free to contact me via email if you need our home address in order to drop off any donations or to mail anything. If you are in the mid-Michigan area, I'm also more than willing to arrange to pick items up from you! My email is jklandl@comcast.net.

We are thrilled to be able to add to our family, but we know that when we travel to Ethiopia we will want to bring ALL of the children home. Giving a little something to them to bring a smile to their faces and a a bit of joy to their day just may make it better for us all! We will surely bring you all pictures of joy and pure happiness that you just may help to bring to the children!

Chocolate Chips

I've never lost anyone really close to me...until now. My Grandma Kohls died last night. I was by her bedside for about 3 1/2 hours as she laid there struggling to breathe, fidgeting in death, but still puckered her lips to kiss and gently wrap her arms around me to hug my neck. She didn't die with me there so I said a goodbye as I left to go outdoors into a snowstorm. I told her thank you for the wonderful memories, that I needed to go put Leah and Logan to bed and that they loved her with all of their hearts, I told her I needed a kiss and a hug which I got and I said, "God Bless You". I told her many other things as I sat by her side last night, stroking her arm, holding her hands, rubbing her shoulder. All of the memories I have of the hours which turned into days which turned into weeks that I spent with her and Grandpa: her tickling my arms as we watched cartoons together, her filing her nails and me watching and learning, us going to breakfast at the Colonial restaurant, golfing together, the lack of volume on the Tigers Games because she got so nervous for her 'boys of summer', the Girl Scout cookies in the bread box that I confiscated, the Christmas Cookies she made with mom each year and I would come in to the kitchen and see the array of wonder, her sassy Swede attitude, her beautiful blue eyes and my jealousy for them, her fancy shoes that I would wear as dress-up and that I made my valiant efforts to hit the doorways to make the clunk-sound with the high-heel, the hours upon hours of her sitting on the bleachers for my swim meets and band shows...this was my Grandma.

She died last night after most of us left her to rest. My mom stayed with her for the night so she wasn't alone. The nurses came to wash her face, my mom was talking to her reminding her that my dad, my Uncle Bill, my Grandpa, Ken III, Josh and I were there at her bedside earlier. She then died peacefully. My mom was with her when she went into God's open hands. It does make ME feel better to know that Grandma was able to tell my mom that she was "ready to go home".

My Grandma died after 33 years of wonderful memories with me. Do all people turn someone elses death into something personal? I don't know how to feel right now. I'm told to celebrate, but I'm sad. I'm worried about her being placed in the cold ground. I don't understand this process of death. I don't understand the body, the spirit...I never have been able to wrap my mind around it. But now I feel I need to. How else can one find that "closure" everyone talks about?

To end this seemingly path of therapeutic words, I'll end on a story. After sitting by her bedside for several hours last night, Josh and I walked into the house where Leah and Logan were freshly bathed and loved by our wonderful Miss Kate and they could see I'd been crying. Logan was very concerned so I picked her up, she wiped my tears and she proceeded to ask what was the matter. I told her that Great Grandma was very sick and that she was going to Heaven. Logan searched her mind and her heart and responded with this: "Well maybe if I bring her some chocolate chips she will feel better." Maybe, just maybe, Great Grandma had her first bite of food in weeks in Heaven and maybe it was a handful of chocolate chips!!!