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Best wishes to everyone!
Love,
Kelly
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Sorry it has taken me so long to give an update! We are just now starting to feel kind of settled into the "new normal'. The kids are doing great - things get better every day. They are learning so much, so fast - I think this transitional time is going to fly by and I am going to quickly forget all the funny, crazy things they do right now. Their health is great so far, they eat everything we put in front of them, and they are fully potty trained - all issues that we were really nervous about. They have a long way to go behaviorally, but that will come with time.
The remainder of our trip went very well. Our trip down to Nazret was amazing. We visited an orphanage down there (Yosef Orphanage) that we gave most of our donations to. The orphanage that our kids were in (KVI) was very nice and well funded, but Yosef orphanage needed much more help. We gave them all of the formula and diapers that we brought, plus we were able to buy a YEAR supply of food for them with some of the donation money! We bought almost 1 ton of grain for them! They were so grateful - they couldn't believe we would give that much, but it was only about $650 - we felt like we wanted to do so much more! We also went to another small orphanage (Ebeneezer orphanage) and when we got there, they were all eating their lunch on the floor - they didn't have tables or chairs for the children. So we had 2 nice wooden tables made, and 14 chairs. We hope to get pictures of those when they are delivered sometime next week.
Thank you again for all of your generous donations and gifts for our kids! Our biggest problem with them right now is that they are getting spoiled! They have an attitude of entitlement right now - we are trying to nip that in the bud! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers on our behalf - we need them even more right now!
Love to all!
Kelly
We completed our interview with the US Embassy this morning – BIG sigh of relief! Now if we can just make it to the airport on Saturday morning, we will be home free! We are really enjoying our last few days here – we are on our way to Nazret today to see another orphanage. The road to Nazret is much faster than the road to Sodo that we traveled last week – lots more cars on the road, so the people and animals stay out of the way. On our way, we stopped at this beautiful resort on a lake in Debre Zeit, called Kuriftu Resort and Spa – we had a wonderful lunch and walked around the beautiful grounds. We would love to return to Ethiopia with our kids when they are older, and we would love to come back and stay there for a few days.
We left our kids behind for a few days while we go to Nazret – I have really struggled with this! I am torn between wanting to spend time bonding with them, and wanting to see and experience their country. We left them behind a few days ago while we went shopping, and they cried and cried – it broke my heart! They have really bonded to us and won't let anyone else talk to them or help them when we are at the guest house. They are VERY obedient – maybe Peyton and Cooper can learn a few things! Micah loves to push buttons on the tv, remote, phone, computer, etc – he is very curious and outgoing. Sophie is much more shy, but she loves all things girly! I bought her this pretty pink dress and tights to go to the embassy, but when we put it on her this morning, it was way too small and short. I took it off her and tried on another dress – not quite so feminine – and she cried and cried until I put the other dress back on her. The tights came down around her knees and we had to pull them up every few minutes, but she loved it!
Micah loves to play soccer – he and Kevin and the doorman at the guest house have played several times in the courtyard outside the guest house. He has a Spider-man toy we brought for him that says several different phrases – he keeps repeating everything – we joke that he is going to learn English from Spider-man! They can both count to 10 in English and they know all their body parts. They sing songs all the time as they play – but every time I try to videotape it, they clam up! It makes us sad that they will forget these songs and their language – we have no real way to retain any of that. They are so eager to learn everything about our culture, that they will quickly forget all about their own.
We miss everyone at home – especially our boys! Take care and we'll see everyone in a few days!
Love,
Kevin & Kelly
Men's t-shirt - 100% Cotton - Sizes S thru 6XL
Click on the following link for exact garment measurements to pick your size. Please ignore the Tshirt color options on this page - we are doing all the shirts in black!
http://www.companycasuals.com/specsheets/PC61.pdf
Girls fitted t-shirt - 100% Cotton - Girls Sizes: S(6-8), M(10-12), L(14-16)
Click on the following link for exact garment measurements to pick your size. **Remember these are fitted shirts, so the size may be different than what you would normally order. Please ignore the Tshirt color options on this page - we are doing all the shirts in black!
http://www.companycasuals.com/specsheets/DTG204C.pdfBoys/Youth t-shirt - 100% Cotton - Youth Sizes: XS(4), S(6-8), M(10-12), L(14-16), XL(18-20)
Click on the following link for exact garment measurements to pick your size. Please ignore the Tshirt color options on this page - we are doing all the shirts in black!
http://www.companycasuals.com/specsheets/PC61Y.pdf
Prices:
1st shirt (any size) . . . . . . . $15.00
2nd shirt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13.o0
Any additional shirts . . . . . $11.00
Shipping
For those of you who live in Utah, we will either hand deliver your shirts, or have you come pick them up from our house. I have gotten several requests from friends/family out of state. I am still figuring out the best way to charge for this, but know that I will keep shipping costs to a minimum ($1 or $2 per shirt).
HOW TO ORDER!
Just send me an email and let me know what shirt you want and the size(s). kellyswasey@mstarmetro.net
Please order by Wednesday, JUNE 30th!!! (Only a week and a half away!)
At the time you place the order, please mail or bring me a check for at least 50% of the total - I won't be able to complete the order if we don't have this before June 30th - we don't want to get stuck with a bunch of unclaimed shirts! Make checks payable to Kelly Swasey and mail to:
Kelly Swasey
262 West 1240 South
Payson, Utah 84651
If you'd like to use PayPal to send payments, let me know, but they charge about $.75 per shirt to complete the transaction and I'd like as much money as possible to go to buying supplies for the orphanage! However, I won't be cashing the checks until a few days before I get the shirts back from the printer, so feel free to post date your check until about July 5th. I hope to get the shirts back and start distributing them by about July 9th.
Please feel free to call or email with any questions or suggestions, or if you would like to donate in another way instead! I know that times are tight for a lot of families right now, but we are still collecting formula, diapers, fruit snacks, etc. also.
WOW! That's a lot of information just to order a shirt! :) Thank you so much for all your love and support! We are finally coming down the home stretch! :)
Love,
Kelly Swasey
(801) 465-0316
kellyswasey@mstarmetro.net
Click on each picture to see more detail.
My nephew Aaron helped to design these - don't they look great?! They will be printed on black t-shirts and we'll be able to order them in any size (from children's 2T on up to a men's 5XL). I have picked out really cute, fitted, long t-shirts for the women and girls, so those should be really cute. I am going to go ahead and print up several different sizes for me and my family to get an idea of what they will look like, then we'll post some pictures on this blog so you can see what they're like before ordering. We will probably charge around $10 - $15 per shirt - all of the profit will go toward buying supplies for our kids' orphanage! I think it will be fun for our kids to see people wearing these shirts when they get here, to see how many people are here to love and support them!
Our kids have been moved from Sodo up to the capital, Addis Ababa. Their passport pictures are being taken tomorrow and that is the last step before everthing is turned over to our embassy. Our embassy then has 15 days to approve everything and set an embassy date. So it's looking like we'll be traveling in 3 - 4 weeks! Yeah! Hopefully now that they are in Addis, our coordinator there will have easier access to them and will be able to send us more picture, info, etc. We'll keep you posted!
Love,
Kelly
So, now we are requesting help from all of you for a few things! First of all, we need some help finding an American name for our little boy! We have decided on Sophie Netsanet Swasey for our little girl, but we can't decide on anything for our little boy. We kind of like the name Micah, but we are open to other options/suggestions. SOOOO, as suggested by my brother-in-law, Gumby, we are going to have a contest to see if anyone can help us come up with a great name for our son! Here's how it will work:
Click on the comment link at the bottom of this post (you will have to become a follower of this blog to do this - let me know if you have any questions about how this is done). Submit names in the comment section, as many as you want, then if we decide to use a name that you suggested, you will win $100!!! And you can't suggest Micah! (If we don't love anything that anyone suggests, that's probably what we'll go with!) If more than one person suggests the name we pick, we'll divide the $ between all the winners.
Now, to give some clues about what kinds of names we like/dislike:
*Names that I have suggested that Kevin has vetoed: Noah, Seth
*Name that Peyton has suggested (repeatedly!) that we have vetoed: Eli (We are not going to name our boys after all three Manning brothers! Yes, Peyton Manning has a brother named Cooper!)
*Something a little bit exotic would be fitting.
* We like the alliteration of an "S" name, like Sophie Swasey, Sam Swasey (can't use it because of a cousin), so another "S" name might work.
*His middle name will be his Ethiopian name - Eyasu (pronounced "yay-sue")Here is his picture again to inspire you! :) If you hear of any names that are cute and original, please post it!
Thank you for all of your suggestions!
Also, we have found out that there is a huge need at their orphanage for diapers (cloth or disposable), formula, wipes, plastic pants, underwear and socks. We will also be taking some fun things for the kids: crayons, stickers, coloring books, fruit snacks, gum, etc. We will be taking huge suitcases with us, full of all of these things, and hopefully taking money with us to buy more when we get there. If you would like to help out with any of these donations, we are starting to collect things now! Contact us if you'd like to help out! After our trip, I plan on posting video/pictures of our travels to share the children's reactions with you. Any other small things for the kids that you can suggest to take with us? Let us know!
Thank you for your support!
Love,
Kelly