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We are so grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from all of you during our entire adoption journey. We are so excited to bring our little man home to meet all of you (how does next week sound?!? We are just waiting on the word & we'll be off to DRC)! So many of you have brought us donations for Weston's orphanage, and we are so overwhelmed by your generosity. The 112 children living there now will be overjoyed to receive the shoes, clothes, toys, school supplies, sports equipment & baby formula we are bringing with us. The orphanage director has requested that we purchase a much needed generator, a freezer, or a bunk bed for the orphanage while we are in DRC. We have had many offers of cash donations in the past few days, so I just wanted to let you know that if you are wanting to donate a few dollars towards one of these big purchases for the orphanage, you can still use the Paypal button (on the left side of this page) and 100% of the money will go directly to purchasing these things for the orphanage. BIG love xoxo

And the Winners Are....

Today was our son's very first birthday, and I can't thank all of you enough for honouring him in this very practical way - you are literally sending us to him, as the money we raised from the raffle will be helping us buy our plane tickets to Africa. What an amazing 1st birthday gift! Our son spent his 1st birthday today with no family by his side, no cake, no balloons, no gifts or photo ops for his baby book, but I am pretty certain that thanks to all of you, he was feeling loved. Thank you to each and every one of you who participated in our giveaway - our whole family is grateful beyond words for your compassion and generosity.
And the winners are.....the 1st ticket drawn was Jenn Markosky, and she chose the iPad2 as her prize. The 2nd ticket drawn was Rea Isaac, who is the proud owner of a new HP laptop.
BIG love to you all!

aDonation for Adoption

Please help us bring our precious baby boy home from his orphanage in the Democratic Republic of Congo! Each time you make a donation of $5 to our adoption fundraiser between September 28, 2011 and November 28, 2011, your name will be entered into our amazing giveaway. The lucky names will be drawn on our son's first birthday,
November 29, 2011, to cheer us up as we celebrate his birthday without him this year. The first lucky name to be drawn will receive their choice between an iPad2 (valued at approx. $520) or an HP laptop (valued at approx. $880). The second lucky name to be drawn will receive either the iPad2 or the HP laptop, whichever one was not chosen by mr or miss lucky #1! Speaking of lucky, how fortunate are we to have such incredibly generous, supportive friends that they donated the brand new iPad and laptop to us to help us with the overwhelming costs of our adoption?!?
Please share this blog with your family, friends and co-workers. Donations can be made via Paypal/credit card using the DONATE button on the left, or can also be mailed in to the address provided below the DONATE button. We are so grateful for your generosity, and can't wait to introduce you to our newest family member soon!

Our Story

We are a transracial adoptive family made up of Daddy Alistair and Mommy Cara, two biological children, and one precious son we are in the process of adopting from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We aren't allowed to post his photo here, but he is nearly 10 months old and he is one handsome lil' man! We can't wait to have him home with us so we can stop hugging and smooching his photo, and snuggle up with him for real!
As most of you know, international adoption is incredibly expensive, and we have been holding fundraisers all year to help us with a portion of the overwhelming costs involved. You can read more about our previous fundraising efforts here: http://usvsthekids.blogspot.com/2010/10/congo.html
or here: http://piecesofthecongo.blogspot.com/2010/10/piece-of-puzzle.html


Bringing our son home is the next step in our journey, so we are holding one last fundraiser to assist us with the truck load of travel expenses we are facing. We are very excited about this fundraiser (who wouldn't LOVE an iPad2 or a new HP laptop!!), and we hope you all know how much your support means to our entire family. Please share this blog with your family, friends and co-workers. Donations can be made via Paypal using the DONATE button on the left, or can also be mailed in to the address provided below the DONATE button. We are so grateful for your generosity, and can't wait to introduce you to our newest family member soon!

Facts About the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

- At war from 1998 - 2003 (even though the war officially ended in 2003, the hostilities, violence and human rights abuses continue to this day)

- Deadliest conflict since WWII

- 1,500 people die per day in DRC because of the conflict

- Over 5.4 million people have died since 1998 (even though the war is 'over', people in the Congo are still dying at a rate of an estimated 45,000 per month - reports indicate that almost half of the individuals killed are children under the age of 5)

- Life expenctancy is 46 years

-over 5.2 million Congolese children receive no education

-over 1.2 million people are infected with HIV-almost 60% of those infected are women

-Malaria kills 400 children a day

-the sexual violence against women and children is the worst anywhere in the world

- there are currently over 5,000,000 orphaned children in the Democratic Republic of Congo - approximately the same number as the entire population of Scotland

Ben Affleck in DRC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTkWTb2-Jyc&feature=related