A friend told me recently, when I turned down a referral, that I can’t save all of the babies. Maybe not, but I can make the lives of those left at the orphanage a little better by providing things that they need. Some people call this paying it forward. I was inspired recently by an Oprah Winfrey show on doing just that. She gave each member of the audience $1000 to pay it forward to someone in need. Some people used up the $1000 and were done, but others used that as a starting point to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the cause of their choice. They were not able to do this without the help of their communities, but they acted as coordinators and moved way beyond anyone’s expectations. I was inspired. I don’t have $1000 from Oprah and I don’t have Oprah’s name behind me to help in getting donations, but I do have $53 from my change jar and, more importantly, I have a cause. I also have a pretty large community of caring friends and family that I believe would be interested.
My goal is to help the children that live out their lives in the Vietnamese orphanages. When I go to Vietnam to meet and bring home my baby, I’d like to spend some time to shop for whatever the children need. This may include food, formula, diapers, clothes, toys, books and possibly medicine or vitamins. My hope is that I will have time to do the shopping, with the help of the locals, and deliver the items myself so I can see their smiling faces. That way I not only get to see the end result, but I can also (hopefully) bring back photos, videos and stories to share with all of you. I don’t have the details worked out yet, but I wanted to get this letter out, since there is not much time until I head to Vietnam. I hope to work with the director of my agency and our contact in Vietnam to organize this effort and to ensure we are buying what the children really need. If this fundraising effort goes beyond what I can spend while in Vietnam, then I will continue to make children’s lives better in other ways, such as donating to the agency’s humanitarian efforts to improve orphanages, working with local foster children or possibly even starting a foundation to continue the effort long term.
If you are interested, please send any donation you deem appropriate, and if you can’t afford what you want to give, even $2 will make a difference. Please send donations as soon as possible, since I may leave for Vietnam as early as October.
If you would like to send a donation, but don't know my address, please email me at orphan_funds@yahoo.com. And if you are adopting yourself, maybe you will think of doing your own fund drive. If so, I'd love to hear about it.
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