Orphan Sunday - One Day. One Voice. One Purpose.

Hi, all!

Today is Orphan Sunday, part of November's recognition of National Adoption Awareness Month.  As you know, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, as my daughter and her family are in the process of adopting Nathanael, a sweet 3-year old boy from China.  

A few years ago, I didn't really know anything about adoption.  It was a great idea but it didn't touch my life personally.  Now I can tell you that it is hard work, filling out paperwork and jumping through all the hoops required by both our country and the country you are adopting from.  It is heart-wrenching, as you come to love a child you have never met and realize that this little person is a part of your family already.  You go to family get-togethers and wonder if your child will be present next year.  You work hard to raise the incredible amount of money required to adopt, wondering if your friends are going to start avoiding you because you are constantly asking for their support.  And you feel blessed because those friends continue to support you throughout the whole process.

But I never really considered the feelings of the adoptive child until this morning when our church showed this video.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch it...

In the US, 397,122 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system.  101,666 of these children are eligible for adoption, but nearly 32% of these children will wait over three years in foster care before being adopted.

Around the world, there are an estimated 153 million orphans who have lost one parent.  There are 17,900,000 orphans who have lost both parents and are living in orphanages or on the streets and lack the care and attention required for health development.  These children are at risk for disease, malnutrition, and death.

According the the US State Department, US families adopted more than 7,000 children in 2012.  Last year, Americans adopted the highest number of children from China, followed by Ethiopia, Ukraine, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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This month, Nathanael will turn three years old.  Oh, how I wish we could be with him on his birthday!  Soon, we hope - but not this year.  As of today, the kids' adoption dossier has been in China for 60 days.  The estimated time for China to process that dossier is sixty to ninety days.  Once it is approved, they will have another large payment due to the adoption agency, and then their travel funds once China issues their travel authorization.  So I've decided to put some quilts up for sale to help raise some of the money they still need to raise.

There is a wide variety of quilts available!  

There are some fabulous scrappy kids' quilts…

All three of these tops were donated by Gayle to help raise money for the adoption - thanks again, Gayle!

There are also some sweet baby quilts - can you imagine the great "monthly" shots you could take on these quilts?

Some larger quilts…

Another one of Gail's beautiful tops!

A wall hanging…

More of Gail's fabulous work… wouldn't this look 

wonderful hanging in a breakfast nook?

And a really long table runner!

I'm going to post the quilts on my Facebook page, Fabric Addict Quilts, with photos, a starting price and description of the quilts.  (It will probably take a couple of days to get them all posted - be patient!)  You can bid on them there, or if you are not on Facebook, email me directly at salliesue57 (at) gmail (dot) com for more info. I'll also post more pictures and descriptions here on the blog, a couple each day, all week. 

Please feel free to share this information around - I'd love to sell all of these quilts this month to help #bringNathanaelhome!!  And thanks again for all of your support - it really does take a village!!

Hugs!

Sarah