"I'm leavin' on a jet plane . . . "

We leave SLC at 10:40 tomorrow morning! Check back in the next few days - we hope to post pictures and videos of our kids!
I didn't get around to ordering the t-shirts - I will order them when I get back. So if you still want one, send me an email!
Keep us in your prayers!
Kelly

And . . . we're off! :)

We finally got our travel approval today from the US Embassy and we leave next Wednesday!!! Yes, that's right - 6 days from now! :) We have made our flight arrangements and we are set to go! I am so excited, but so stressed out having to get ready in one week! I thought I had everything about ready to go, but now I realize how unready I am! But we are so ready to meet our kids (in 1 week!!!) and we now may be able to go to their village and meet their birth family.
So many of you have donated items/money for our kids orphanage and have expressed the desire to donate before we go - so if you still would like to help out, we need to have everything here by this Monday morning! Right now, we still need more of the following:
*Formula - smaller 12 oz. cans - any brand.
*Children's OTC medications - i.e. Children's Tylenol, Children's cold meds, Children's motrin, etc.
*Fruit snacks
*Old happy meal toys - go thru your toy boxes and find any old SMALL toys that still look cool and aren't really lame or have small parts with them. I would love to take over a whole suitcase of little toys.
*Money - we will be buying supplies for 3 different orphanages when go over there (sugar, grain, medicines, bed linens, etc.) so even just a few dollars would go a long way!
Please email or call me if you have any questions about any of these donations!
*T-shirt orders - we are still doing another T-shirt order, but I obviously won't be getting them distributed before we go! I would like to have all the orders in before I leave and I will have one of my friends place the order and pick them up while I am gone. So, if you want a shirt - this is really your last chance!!! I need all orders by next Tuesday night - August 3rd!!!
kellyswasey@mstarmetro.net
801 465-0316
Keep our babies in your prayers! And a prayer for my sanity wouldn't hurt either! :)
Love to all!
Kelly

More T-shirt orders!

We are placing another order for shirts! So many people have asked me about the shirts that I realize we need to do another order! To order, scroll down to the post from June 18th - all the sizing and price info is listed there. Orders should be emailed to kellyswasey@mstarmetro.net - ASAP! Thanks again for all of your support! We should be getting our travel date any day now and I'd like to get these ordered and distributed before we go in a few weeks!

Remember that the girl's design can also be put on a regular men's or youth t-shirt, instead of a fitted shirt.
Thanks again!
Kelly

Thank you for your support!

Thank you so much for all the t-shirt orders and donations! So far, we have raised over $700, plus numerous donations of formula and diapers. We are so excited about the good we can do for this orphanage and the smiles that we will bring to the faces of these kids! If anyone is interested in finding out more information about the orphanages that we are raising money for, go to: http://www.kingdomvisioninternational.org/
There are numerous pictures of children on this website, and I have scanned each one, looking for pictures of my kids! I swear I found Sophie in one of them, but Kevin thinks I am delusional! :) (OK, on the homepage, look at the small picture to the far right. I think the third child from the left is Sophie - what do you think?
I know - I'm psycho!)
We should get our embassy approval any day now, then we will have about 2 weeks notice before we travel. I am so excited to finally get to meet our kids and find out what their little personalities are like. I worry constantly about them - they have been moved from their original orphanage in southern Ethiopia, to an orphanage in Addis Ababa, the capital city. They speak a different language than most of the people in Addis, so I worry that there is no one there to communicate with them and that we won't have anyone to translate for us when we go to pick them up! I hope that they understand what is happening to them and that they are as excited to meet us and we are to meet them!

So many of you have suggested great names for our little boy, but Kevin has not heard anything he likes better than Micah! We decided a long time ago that I get final say on the girl name and he gets final say on the boy name - so I think it's going to be Micah! (If you think of anything else in the next few weeks, he still could change his mind!)

Time to order T-Shirts!

Hey everyone!
We are ready to start taking orders for these t-shirts to raise money for our kids' orphanage! We are so excited to go pick up our kids in a few weeks and we are grateful for your support! I wasn't sure if I really wanted to take on this project, but I have had numerous requests for the shirts already, so I've decided to plunge in! It will be so neat for the kids to come back and see the shirts and all the people who love and support our family! We already have orders for about 18 shirts, but if we can get orders for at least 4o, we'll get a much better price. We will be sending the order in on Wednesday, June 30th, (less than 2 weeks away!) so if you'd like to order one, please let me know ASAP!

We have created 2 different designs, one for women/girls and one for men/boys. Click on the pictures below to see a better close up of the designs.
We are offering 4 size ranges of shirts, as follows:
*Mens and boys regular t-shirts from a child's size XS (size 4) up to a men's 6XL (sorry, the smaller sizes I mentioned in the previous blog post aren't available)
*Womens and girls FITTED t-shirts ranging from a girls size S (6 - 8) up to a Juniors size Plus 2X
All Tshirts will be black! The spec sheet link below each picture includes lots of different Tshirt colors - but to simplify, we are just doing the black Tshirt
.***See the sizing chart links below each picture to choose your size. Note that the Women/girls shirts are fitted so you may need to buy a larger size than you would in a regular t-shirt. Also, we can put either design on any shirt, so, for example, if you'd like the womens design on a regular men's or youth t-shirt, let us know!

Womens/Juniors fitted t-shirt - 100% cotton - Juniors Sizes: S-XXL; Plus 1X, Plus 2X
Click on the following link for exact garment measurements to pick your size. **Remember these are juniors sized, hip length, 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/DT200.pdf

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.pdf

Boys/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

T-shirt designs!

Here are the designs for the t-shirts we are going to sell to friends and family to raise money for our kids' orphanage:

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

New picture!

Click on this picture to enlarge!
We got a new picture of our kids yesterday! We were so excited to see another facial expression - although Sophie still has the same little "I am not going to smile!" look on her face! It's so great to see Eyasu (Micah?) smiling - he looks like a sweetheart! This picture was taken in their bedroom at the orphanage in Soddo. They will hopefully be moved to the orphanage in Addis Ababa in the next few weeks - then our agency liaison will have more access to them to take more pictures/videos, etc. We hope to have copies of their social background soon, too. When they were first left at the orphanage, an intake form was filled out, detailing their social history - where they lived, with whom, the reasons they were brought to the orphanage, etc.

I was at Sears a few days ago, exchanging some shoes for Peyton, and I walked by the little girl's clothing department - oh my gosh! I had so much fun picking out 3 cute little dresses/outfits for Sophie! I haven't really let myself get too excited about that kind of stuff yet, but I am ready to jump in now and start decorating bedrooms, buying clothes, toys, etc. These kids are going to be so spoiled! (just like my other kids!) I am not going to buy too many clothes yet - I really don't have any idea of their sizes! We will hopefully be getting their measurements soon, then I can possibly get a few more things.
Love to all,
Kelly