It’s a Blanket Party!!!

I’m so excited! Today is the day we get to bless some needy mommas and babies in Ethiopia. For those of you who are tuning in to my blog for the first time, this summer my mom, dad and sister are headed to Ethiopia to volunteer at the Soddo Hospital in a remote area of southern Ethiopia. Because of the poverty in the area, many new moms go home from the hospital with literally nothing for their babies — not even a baby blanket. Can you imagine not having a blanket for your newborn? The hospital workers have told us that they would love to have a stash of blankets to give to moms for their infants, and I would love to help grant that wish.

So today I am sponsoring a baby blanket fundraiser.

Since my family is planning to fill their luggage with medical textbooks for the nurses they’ll be training, they won’t be bringing actual blankets to Ethiopia. Instead they’ll take our money and buy blankets once they arrive in Ethiopia. This is doubly fun because it will allow us to bless both the new moms AND the shop owners from whom we’ll buy the blankets.

If you would like to be a part of this project, go to paypal.com and send any amount of money to owlhaven @ aol . com (remove the spaces from that address). They should be able to buy blankets for $5 or less. If we could provide them with $500, that means that at least a hundred babies should end up with blankets — wouldn’t that be awesome??

Here’s one more idea for you all. Maybe I’m nutty, but since I first cooked up this project, I’ve found myself dreaming even bigger. We have been told of another need that the hospital has. They are in great need of a commercial-style washing machine. This way the hospital laundry would not have to be done by hand.

This is a big thing, people. A commercial washer is — brace yourself– about $2000. I am actually kind of cringing as I type that number.. part of me thinks I am nuts to think we could meet this need too. I totally understand if y’all would rather just donate for blankets. Blankets are awesome and I cannot wait to share a picture… maybe even one of a baby wrapped in one of our blankets.

But just in case some of you like to dream big too, I thought I’d mention the washer as well.

Please be assured that 100% of your money will go straight to Ethiopia, straight to whichever project you prefer. Please write either ‘blankets’ or ‘washer’ in the instructions on your donation. If you do not designate where you want your money to go, funds will go first toward the blanket project until we reach $500. At that point any additional money will go toward the washer fund.

I will be updating several times during the day to let you know how the project is going, most likely around noon, 5 pm, and then again at midnight. Thanks to all of you who’ve mentioned this project on your blogs– I so much appreciate it! And thanks to all of you who’ve stopped by for the first time. Feel free to poke around a bit. To get started, you might want to check out my favorite posts in the sidebar to the right.

And now — ready, set, go! Let’s wrap up some babies!