Blankets for Orphans

A Guatemala con Amor

A Guatemala con Amor means "To Guatemala with Love"

There are 370,000 children in Guatemala who are orphaned. Many of these children are living in orphanages and have nothing to call their own. Our mission is to give them a handknit doll to hug or a handknit blanket to cuddle when they need comfort.

If you know how to knit you can help.

We are collecting:
· Rainbow babies, here is the link to the pattern to knit these cute cuddly babies http://www.jeangreenhowe.com/Images/Rainbow_Babies.pdf
· Knitted blankets of any size
· Knitted 12 X 12 Squares


Please use washable yarn in bright cheerful colors.
If you are making a blanket please put a heart somewhere on it. The heart can be any size or color and placed anywhere on the blanket. You could either knit it into the pattern or stitch it on.

Because there are children of all sizes we need blankets of many sizes. Older children benefit from a handmade "blankey" as much as newborns.
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I don't knit or crochet (insert gasp and finger pointing head shake here!). My Grandmothers were both great with any craft needle but I just never learned. Fortunately my 19yo is great with a crochet needle and I plan to start my 9yo daughter this fall. In the meantime, this "old dog who has a hard time learning new tricks" is going to put her sewing machine to use. With scraps cut from old clothes that a local Goodwill-type store usually throws out, there are several of us who will make quilts that can be sold to help pay shipping for these "babies" and/or mailed along with them. If you don't knit, crochet or sew, maybe you can have a yard sale to raise money for orphans, make cards and letters to encourage them, send toiletry items that you get on sale, etc. Where there is a will, there's a way....to help orphans!

Quote

“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
- Old African proverb

How wonderfully this speaks to me of the adoption of 3 precious African children by my friends Eileen and Jerry (and two from the US and now planning on another from Ethiopia!). If you don't know their amazing miracle story, go read it at Eileen's blog HERE - but start at the beginning and read to the current dates, you'll be glad you did! And if you want a book with more amazing stories, get out the tissues and go read A Treasury of Adoption Miracles by Karen Kingsbury. It only takes about as long as watching a movie and is much better than most!

One More

(Thanks, Ellie!!)

Sorry....

Well, Monday came and went and I didn't post a "Missionary Monday". Sorry. Here it is almost the end of another week and well, I have lots of excuses that you don't want to hear but let's just play catch-up by trying to get back on schedule next week, OK? Praise that my MIL is doing very well after her nasty fall on Thanksgiving "eve" and that no other people are sick, only the cars (yes, plural, part of that phrase above about "you don't want to hear"!). Thanks for all the prayers for my MIL.

Tonight our friends should be returned from Ethiopia with a much larger family (by 3!) than when they left here 10 days ago. Rejoice with them! If you haven't read their story, scroll down to the oldest postings and read them in chronological order. It will truly bless you - GOD is so very good!!

Other friends of ours are dealing with 1) an unsaved brother's terminal cancer amidst a very dysfunctional family, 2) a wayward son who seeks the truth everywhere except the one place it can be found, 3) an unplanned teen pregnancy (praise that they will have the baby!), 4) & 5) loss of jobs, 6) financial woes, 7) major church split and 8) a possible separation/divorce. All in all we are doing very well, thank you! Sometimes lately when we pray it almost smothers me and then I realize none of this is my responsibility or that I can do much of anything to help but I can pray to the One who can help. And then I am overwhelmed by the amazing fact that He lets me be part of His cure. I get to be the observer and sometimes even the one who helps give the cure to the patient. I can't help anyone, especially not even myself, and yet the Creator, the Great Physician, allows me to be a part of seeing His wonders by aching with and for my friends, by bending my knees to pray for them, by watching amazing miracles happen in the midst of heartaches and sorrow.

Truly rejoicing with some and truly aching with others - and always seeing astonishing things happen to those who trust the Lord!

Faithful again!!!

Here I just blogged about how faithful God is and you have GOT to go see the sweet faces of a wonderful story of how VERY faithful HE is!! (I can't wait to kiss those cheeks and hold those sweet ones - watch out, Eileen and Ellie, we are coming to help!!)

"My Ethiopian Sisters"

Our friends who are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia have a teen daughter who has a sweet blog that you should visit. She posts ways to help their adoption and to help many orphans.

Aprons for Adoption

What a great idea! This lady is making top-quality aprons and donating the money toward the cost of adoption of a child from Korea. Please check it out HERE -
and buy one!!
-F