URGENT NEED: Forumla Needed for Malnourished Babies in Ethiopia

UPDATE: YOU DID IT! We raised all $12,500 as of this morning. Thanks to everyone who made this happen. We'll keep this post up for now and send you additional details on this project. Thank you Thank you! We can now provide 400 cans of Nutramigen to malnourished babies in Ethiopia.

We will continually update this page with more information about how AWAA is transporting the formula to the children.  As of right now, we have hit our goal. of $12,500. 

Please note: At this time, any gifts received toward this project in excess of the $12,500 will be allocated toward CHC's orphan ministry in Ethiopia.

If you would like to find out more information about Children's HopeChest's orphan ministry in Ethiopia, we have placed a few links below for you to visit.

April 2009 Vision Trip to Ethiopia Posts: My Heart is Full.

ZOIE SENAIT: Tiny Miracle

We met Zoie Senait for the first time on July 7, 2008 in Addis Ababa at the AWAA Transitional Home. We had been told by many staff and families that had traveled to Ethiopia before us that our daughter was VERY tiny. Nothing could have prepared our hearts for what we would see.

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note)

Our precious daughter was indeed tiny...at 6 months old, she only weighed 8 pounds. All I could say when they placed her in my arms was...she's so tiny. Her head and legs and arms and tiny feet were the size of a newborn infant. I had brought a beautiful flower head band to give her, but it looked massive on her tiny head.

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note)

She had no strength or energy due to her health issues. We were so happy that day and in love with our sweet girl, but we knew we were facing dire circumstances. She had pneumonia, dehydration, a severe upper respiratory infection and fever. Her tummy was swollen, due to malnourishment, her tiny chest was sunken and her breathing fast and labored, even her head veins were bulging

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note)

All she could do was stare at us with her enormous beautiful eyes. She needed our help!! Our second night at the hotel with Zoie, we knew we were in trouble. She stopped breathing several times and in our panic and fear we made the difficult decision to take her to the hospital. The Hilton Hotel staff were incredible and they helped pile our family in a van in the middle of the night. The head nurse from the Transitional Home (our angel!) met up with us and we searched the night for a hospital and doctor who would help our tiny girl. We drove around the city for hours, but could not find any help and in desperation prayed to God for His protection. At 6AM, we finally made a connection with beautiful Dr. Sophie and she met us at her clinic. It was one of the most painful, difficult nights of our journey. We started to unravel and doubt and fear what was going to happen next. Zoie Senait was fighting for her life!

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note)

We started feeding Zoie the same formula Tom Davis is donating to the AWAA TH. She ravishingly ate every 2 hours and we watched a miracle happen before our eyes. Within 24 hrs we could literally see our daughter healing.

Zoie had been in the best care and showered with love at the Transitional Home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The staff and nannies are our heroes!! However,they are desperate to have baby formula that will help the children waiting for their families heal and grow and thrive. At the time, the staff did the very BEST they could with the nutritional resources they had. When we heard they came close many times to running out of formula, it broke our hearts.

Donating $30 for life-saving formula for babies in Ethiopia will make a huge difference in ways you may never understand. This formula would have made a major impact on our daughter's health. It's something simple we can all do, but it's changing the world one baby at a time. Simply love!!

The best is yet to come!!(Fat Tuesday 09)

(the bow fits:)

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note)

CALEB: Before & After

From Caleb's parents' blog:

This photo was taken as soon as Caleb was brought into the orphanage after being found abandoned.

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note section)

While Zack and I were still in the adoption process, we were made aware of an urgent need for formula in the orphanages in Ethiopia due to the ever worsening and complex economic issues in Ethiopia. Thankfully, many people joined together to raise a huge amount of money for the transitional home and many other families took large donations of formula when they traveled to Ethiopia. This sustained the shortage for a short time, but there continues to be an urgent need. I know it is difficult for us here in America to understand the reality and urgency of this need, but I have seen with my own eyes the effects of malnourishment. Some of the children we held in Ethiopia were fighting for their lives. Thankfully many of these children will eventually be placed in forever homes, but while they are waiting, nutritious formula is their lifeline!

Malnutrition is real and it is heartbreaking, and it is something that we must work to eliminate! I have never shared this photo with anyone other than our closest family, but I felt led to share it just to show the difference that proper nutrition can make. We don't believe that Caleb was malnourished to the extreme that many of the babies are, but it is obvious from this photo that he was far from healthy.

Of course, you know what Caleb looks like now :)

DONATE NOW TO SEND FORMULA TO ETHIOPIA
(put "Ethiopia Formula" in the note section)

Read Excerpts from David C. Cook summer releases including SCARED

My publisher has released chapters and previews of their summer releases on Scribd.com. You can read up to 40 pages and choose from 14 books by clicking here. Two chapters of Scared are available for you to review or download. 

There are some great books coming out including one by my friend, Brain Doerksen, called Make Love Make War - Now is the Time to Worship. I'm just finishing up my endorsement and I can promise you this is a wonderful book. Brain has written songs such as "Come, Now is the Time for Worship" and "Light the Fire." Hope you enjoy the reads!

Amazing Uganda Photo Update

A special thanks to Ria, an amazing photographer on CHC's Uganda trip right now, for posting some wonderful pictures over on her blog. She's captured so much emotion in her photos...go to her blog to check out the latest.

Behind the Scenes in Uganda

Early this morning, our Uganda trip leader, Brandi McElheny, sent us another update on the progress of their trip. I wanted  you to see this "behind the scenes" look at what's going on right now in the ministry... 

In March of this year, you helped us raise thousands of dollars for the Rapha orphanage and school in Uganda. Brandi is there right now, and her update talks about many of the exciting initiatives that our launch in Uganda is funding.

From Brandi:

We were able to provide $2500 to Rapha.  They are building a kitchen (mostly. . .just getting it enough done to make it workable and will have to finish it later) and buy supplies to be able to feed all of the children in the school!!! 

We also worked with Rapha's director Arthur and this woman Rose (she works for an American family here and we are giving her a ride to Soroti).  Rose had found 25 double orphans and brought them to an orphanage near Jinja. . .she is later seeing that the orphanage is not taking very good care of the children. . in fact, she is going to Soroti to check on a little girl who is now hospitalized there b/c the orphanage didn't take care of a wound she had that is now septic.  So, she has been thinking that she will have to take these orphans in herself. . .now, she is talking to Arthur and Rapha will take some of these children in.  When our church does a trip in September (hopefully) they will have to build another building so that Rapha can take in more of the children!!!!  God is good all the time!

We also just finished purchasing 150 nets.  43 will go to Pastor John's Ministry that we visited yesterday as well as 8 mattresses.  They had NO nets and 8 of their mattresses had been destroyed in a fire.  We are also givine Rapha 7 nets for one that had gotten holes in them (we purchased them during our last trip in October).  We also bought 100 nets to give away in Soroti as we see needs.  We got a GREAT price of 4800 ugx which is only $2.25 per net!!!!!!!  We will probably buy many more as well, as the girls on the trip are thinking they no longer need gifts to bring home or even to eat lunch if we can spend more money on the kids! 

They are so overwhelmed that if the money we have for our ground fees is not spent we can either meet needs here or have it go back into the Uganda fund.  That speaks volumes as to the integrity of HopeChest.  Thanks again for being the kind of people and organization that I can brag about and promote without hesitation...and for being the kind of people who will love the fact that I just wrote you a super long update b/c I know you are each praying for us and wish you could be here.  Know that your faithful work in the US is what is making this possible.  It is eternal, even when it feels mundane!

It is eternal even when it feels mundane. That's a truth that we cling to every day. Thank you for being a part of the team that Brandi represents right now in Uganda. For those of you who have supported the launch, I'm so excited to see how it's turning out. Thank you so much!