Dirt Cheap Christmas Gifts!!!

I am selling these scarves to raise money for a wonderful nonprofit agency called Ordinary Hero.  Please take time to look at their site http://www.ordinaryhero.org/Ordinary_Hero/Home/Home.html 

Ordinary Hero's mission is to inspire and empower ORDINARY people to make an extraordinary difference in the life of a child in need.  We stayed at their guesthouse a couple of weeks ago, when we were in Ethiopia bringing Seyfu home, and would like to make a donation to this wonderful organization.  Hope you can help us and get some Christmas shopping done :)

Browse through the scarves and let me know which one(s) you would like to get, you can comment here and let me know or shoot me an email Vanessa.morgan2012@gmail.com.

 

I have taken $5 off all of the scarves since the last time I tried to sell them. 
ALL of the proceeds will go to Ordinary Hero.

 



*Disclaimer:  I took all of these pics with my IPhone and I am a horrible photographer so I know I did not do justice to the scarves nor the beautiful models.

A) Perfect Scarf for a child:  Beautiful Blue with specks of red and yellow
$10

B) Perfect scarf for a girl:  Has little pink balls
 $10

C)  Perfect scarf for a little girl:  Dark bright pink with specks of yellow
$10



D) This scarf would be good for any age, it is very soft and warm
$10

E)  This one would be best for a lady because it is very long: 
Very unique with all different styles and colors of yarn
$15
 

G)  This one is similar to the previous two, it is made out of different
colors and styles of yarn and is also very long.
$15

H) Solid red scarf that is super soft and warm
$15

I)  This scarf is very fun and soft, it is solid bright pink and would be great for any age
$10

J)  This scarf is very uniquely made, it has a hole to put one end through.  Multi colored and very soft
$15

K)  Perfect for any age, this bright green scarf is super soft and can be worn many different ways
$15

L)  This scarf is one of my favorites, it is so unique with its many different colors.
 It is beautifully made with a unique stitching.
$15

O)  This is my favorite scarf, it is beautiful and very trendy with its contrast of colors. 
It would be best for a lady because it is longer.  It will keep you super warm on those frigid days.
$20

P)  This one is super cute and would be great for any age.  It is a contrast of light orange with yellow and brown.  It has more of a scalloped flair to it and can be worn many different ways.
$10

Q)  This one is definitely the nicest one of all, it is very durable and has a very unique pattern to it. 
Very hefty and will keep you nice and  warm.
$20 

All of these scarves were made by my mother and a lady from our church who donated them to us so we could use them for our fundraiser.  I want to give them a shout out for all of the hard work they put into making these.   The cute models are 2 sweet girls from our church and it just so happens to be their grandma who made alot of these scarves.  If you are interested in any of these please send me an email at vanessa.morgan2012@gmail.com or leave me a comment here.  They would make perfect gifts...and it's never too early to start your Christmas shopping ;)

 

 

If I have to mail them I will just charge a flat $5 rate. 

 

Take care, Vanessa

Coming Home...Bittersweet

 

After 34 hours of travel we arrived home safe and sound on Tuesday evening.  It was good to sleep in our own beds, be able to drink water straight from the tap and not have to rinse our toothbrush with bottled water.  Although I feel like I have mastered getting my tooth brush clean without using tap water.  It is bittersweet to be home without Seifu.  I just keep telling myself that we should be able to bring him home in a couple of months but I feel like a piece of my heart is still in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Not just with Seifu but with all of the precious kids that we bonded with this past week.  These kids are some of the strongest kids that I have ever met.  They have suffered so much hurt, pain and loss at such a young age.  I can't even imagine all that they have had to endure.  It's hard for me to listen to complaints from people that live here that have been blessed beyond imagination.  I can't help but want to scream SHUT UP at the top of my lungs when I read silly complaints on Facebook from those that don't realize how truly blessed they are.  I know this sounds judgemental and rude of me but it is the truth and I feel like being really honest right now.  We saw firsthand kids that are perfectly contempt with having pretty much nothing of their own.  Not a family, not toys, not clothes, not food that they can grab from the pantry when they are hungry...and on and on.  Imagine your child never getting to eat fruit, meat, milk, candy, chocolate, and the list goes on and on because where they live that is considered luxury and not necessity...and all of those things cost way too much money.  Imagine these children not having a family to call their own, even though they know the love of a family because they had parents until one day they died of AIDS or other disease that are considered treatable in America.  I want so bad for these children to be able to have a father and mother, even though I know that many of them won't and they will end up aging out of the orphanage as orphans. 
We feel so blessed to be able to call Denver and Seifu our sons!  I am so thankful for adoption and all of the blessings it brings to a family.  I know that at a time like this I should be focusing on all of the happy moments but I can't help but ache for these children.  After spending so much time in the orphanage and bonding with all of these children my heart will forever be changed and I hope and pray that I will NEVER forget about these amazing kiddo's.  When people ask me why we are adopting from Africa I just want to be able to teleport them to one of these orphanages and show them because words cannot come close to explaining this.  

We had an amazing trip and can't wait to get back over there to bring our son home.  Here are some pics from our trip.

Meet our son Seifu!!!

Morgan Family pic on our court day!!!  Of course we passed!!!

They loved each other from the beginning

Seifu and mom

They giggled so much and loved playing together

This was a little scary from momma but Seifu proved to be very strong

Mimi was helping Seifu read a book, we wanted to see how well he could read English.  He proved to be pretty good at reading and math:)

Coloring Spider Man pictures, the coloring book was a huge hit for kids of all ages

Mom getting beat at checkers...I mainly left the checker playing to dad and Mimi. 
I'm more of a socializer not a deep thinker...plus Seifu was really good and I'm not competitive at all.

On one of our many outings, packed in the backseat

Denver crashed on his brothers shoulder, it was so adorable

Another outing that wiped Denver out. 

We ate at the volcano lake restaurant and it was yummy...unfortunately right after this was when the roof collapsed so we had to skip out on coffee and dessert.  Although I would've probably been the only one willing to risk it for coffee :)

Seifu's first time trying ice cream!  He wasn't exspecting it to be cold and it shocked him at first.  Needless to say he finished it all but the next day when we went back he ordered cake instead of ice cream.  We are going to have to take a trip to Braums when he comes home.

Seifu showing off some of his moves, he loves doing different lifts with his body.
 He is a lot stronger than I am that's for sure.

Of course Denver wanted to try it out and his brother was so sweet to help him.

Dad and Seifu playing checkers...they are both pretty good and competitive so it was interesting.

Seifu loves his Mimi
 

We took Seifu to pick out some new shoes b/c all of his shoes were too small.  He has really good taste, just like his momma.  I was very impressed with the shoes he picked out. 


God bless you all!!!

  

Our Exciting Day!!!

Today we picked Seifu up from his orphanage and then headed to the volcano lake.  It was supposed to be about 1 1/2 hours but with Ethiopia traffic jams it took us about 2 1/2 hours with 6 of us cramped in an old Toyota seleca (if you don't know what kind of car this is all I can tell you is its a compact car).  After we got to the lake resort to eat we finished a very good lunch and then as we were in the middle of dessert the roof on the middle of the building collapsed.  It was like something out of a movie.  We were all fine and I think only one lady was injured but we got out of there quick. Grant and our driver went back in to check and make sure everything was fine and the waiters were trying to get them to sit down and eat some more...haha, I don't think so.  After that we decided to head back to Addis which only took about 2 hours to get back.  We went to a market on the side of the road to get Seifu a new pair of shoes b/c the ones he has been wearing are too small.  He loved his shoes and kept telling his dad thank you.  After this we went to a little coffee shop here called Kaldi's so mama could get her some coffee and the kiddos could get ice cream.   Seifu was really surprised after his first bite and we found out it was b/c it was his first time eating ice cream and he wasn't used to the cold.  He finally got used to it and seemed like he enjoyed it.   We took Seifu back to his orphanage and headed back to our hotel to call it a night. Only 48 hours left in Ethiopia and it is going to be hard to leave but nice to get home.  Just can't wait to get Seifu home.

Another great day in Addis

Today has been another great day here in Addis Ababa!  We are tucked into our hotel for the evening...just catching up on our Internet time:). We spent time with Seifu and the other kids at the orphanage today, we played soccer, memory, jumped rope and just has alot of fun. These kids are so sweet and have the best attitude.  Then we headed to lunch and then out for a little souvenir shopping.          Our driver is so good, he translates and negotiates for us.  We are so blessed to have him as our driver.  Tomorrow we are heading to the volcano lakes with Seifu for a day outing.  We are going to soak up the rest of time we have left here in Addis.  This has been a wonderful trip:).

Date with Seifu

Today we had a very great day!!!  We got to take Seifu out to lunch today and spend sometime with him outside of the orphanage.  Seifu was alot more shy and quiet outside of the orphanage than he has been inside.  We also went to visit Denver's orphanage today and all of his nannies were so excited to see him.  We told them Waqo was here to visit and they were so excited they started yelling to all the other nannies to come see Waqo.  They wanted to love and hug on him but he was pretty shy and scared of all the attention.  They had a picture of him when he was an infant up on the wall, so Grant took a picture of it.  I think we tired Seifu out today running him all over Addis with us but I think he had fun.  Denver and Seifu have already bonded so much, they are going to be great brothers!  I just realized the pics I have posted yesterday and today are not showing up so Grant is going to add them to his Facebook if you want to see him.  If you're not his friend he said just friend request them and he will accept:)

Meet our new son Seifu!!!

We had court today and we passed...Seifu is officially a Morgan!!!  He is such a sweet boy and Denver and him love playing together.  They are going to be best buds!  Everything is going really well and we are enjoying every moment we get to spend with him and all the other kiddos at the orphanage.  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Meeting Seifu

Today we met Seifu for the first time.  We got to spend 3 hours playing with him and all the other kids at the orphanage.  We are all still exhausted from flying and jetlag so we are going to stay in and rest this evening.  Seifu is such a sweet, smart and funny kid.  His personality is going to fit perfect in our family.  He took my camera and started taking pics of all the other kids and  then showing all of them...it was so cute.  We will head to the agency tomorrow to go over some court questions and then head to the orphanage to see Seifu.  After that we have our court appointment, and then we just get to spend time with Seifu the rest or the trip.  Thanks for all of the thoughts and  prayers!  Many blessings