12 Days of Giveaway

I have mentioned my love for Stefanie at Ni Hao Y'all before on my Poppy Day post, and now I want to post about a wonderful giveaway event she is hosting (with Diana and Lisa.

It is called the Fill Their Stockings: 12 Days of Giveaway to benefit orphans in China. From November 25th to December 23rd, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they will be giving away an item.



Here is what Stefanie says on how to enter for a chance to win:

For a chance to win the item featured that day, all you need to do is leave a comment on that post and then click a button to donate $5 to the organization that we each represent: Lisa for Half the Sky, Diana for Pearl River Outreach and me (Stefanie) for An Orphan’s Wish. Your donation will go directly to the charity featured, and we will be notified of all donations made. For every $5 donation you make, you will be entered to win the item posted. If you’d like more entries, just make a larger donation! If you make a $25 donation, you will get 5 chances to win, and so on. And yes, if you’d like to enter on all three of our blogs on any given day to win one of the three items we have featured, feel free. The more the merrier!

Love this. And the picture was taken off of Ni Hao Y'all, and is just some of the items that will be given away. It looks amazing, and the items are just insanely awesome.

I can't wait! (:

One More Ladybug giveaway!

Actually, I don't know if this is a giveaway. I don't exactly know what that means. But I think it is! (:

Check out this link: http://k6comehome.blogspot.com/2011/11/beautiful-pendantsfor-purpose.html

These pendants are sososososo beautiful, and I love that they have a purpose. The money is going to Connie (the mother of One More Ladybug blog), so that her family can make the trip to New York for Kooper to receive the help he needs.

He and his father are leaving for NY on the 13th, and I pray that it works. I pray that God helps their wonderful family, and helps this wonderful boy recover from the trauma he has endured. God knows what Kooper needs best, and I pray that he will reveal what that is, while they are in New York.

I also pray for Connie, who will be staying with her 8 children for the three days that her husband and son are in New York.

Sponsorship Update: Part 2

Okay so...

I now have to choose a sponsorship. I've specified that I want to be a sponsor for older children (specifically the ones who have already phased out (14+). This is mostly because I am 16, and I want to make a difference. The whole phasing out thing makes me extremely sad. Spending your whole life in an orphanage, watching your friends be picked but not you?

I want to brighten up their day just a little.

Anyways!

So, I originally sent requests to three different organizations. It took about three weeks for any of them to get back to me.

One of them sent me an option for five orphans who have all phased out. Unfortunately, I do not have the money to sponsor all five at the same time, or you can bet that I would.

Instead, I plan on getting a care package together for each of them and sending it out. I'll probably be paying more than the yearly fee in shipping, but I think it'll be worth it for them to receive a package.

Ch*naHeart is still my #1 option, but the boy that I inquired about is still unknown. We have to wait and see if he will continue schooling (which is a requirement) to be eligible for the program. Fingers crossed.

The last agency just sent me an e-mail, that they're shipping out a package with the information.

How do I pick?

On another note, I'm almost to $70. I've been working on my wordpad document for about four hours. I'm writing down my memories of my Greece and Italy trip from this year. And school starts in four weeks. I feel like I might be sick.

Poppy Day

Today is Poppy Day!!

Okay, this post might come off as a little bit obsessive.

But hey, it tells you a lot about me!!

Going to derail for a bit.

I have a job. (Really, I do.) But it is a family job. As in, my parentals are my bosses.

And I have a laptop at said job. On which I do no work.
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And I work all day. From 10-10. And I am not busy during all twelve of those hours.

So, to keep myself entertained (and to satisfy my need to find out more about China adoption), I read adoption blogs. A ton. Some of my favorites? (Actually, these are just the ones that I check every day. But I do check other ones out often.)

One More Ladybug Man, oh man. I first found them on NHBO, when I was researching older child adoption. And I just love the stories they have with so many children.

Forever Family- Berzenji family. <- this. is. HILARIOUS. I found it off of No Hands But Ours (another blog that I read). A daddy blog. A daddy blog that is written by a hilarious guy. Seriously, his stories make me crack up.
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Once Upon A Mooncake <- I love this! She has done two back-to-back older child adoptions (a current passion of mine), and two children adoptions. She is very awesome and candid.

Dim sum and Doughnuts <- Fun-ny. I love, love, love her! And the fact that she's from Michigan. She is hilarious and very real life.

American Family <- She is so very raw and real life that I love it. She blogs about EVERYTHING, very personal, very snarky and sarcastic and just, in general, my kind of blog. I also love that she has an open adoption with her Chinese adopted daughter.

And finally, the love of my adoption reading list (and the blog that got me really, really INTO adoption): Ni Hao Y'all <- I have read and re-read each of her posts. Some of them (okay, most) more than just a couple of times. She writes with amazing honesty. The way she opens her heart is astounding.

What does all of this have to with "Poppy Day"?

Well, first I just wanted to show why I am like this. (Actually, I don't know why I'm like this. I blame NHY.)

Back on topic.

POPPY DAY

Stefanie from Ni Hao Y'all (which I will refer to as NHY because I am ridiculously lazy) has been paperchasing for Poppy since September 2010. (actually, I don't know if that's correct. She'd been paperchasing since before that. I think. I don't really know where the paperchasing starts.)

But then, Esther appeared to her in March 2011. And Stefanie, bless her, wanted to bring them both home. But it needed to be fast. (Because of heart problems. More under the hyperlink). And God provided through her So Loved fundraiser.

Tragedy struck in May. Esther had passed away. I remember crying as I read that, because I had been praying for Stefanie and speed to get both of her beautiful daughters.

She went to China on the 24th, and her Poppy Day (Gotcha Day in adoption circles, I suppose. But I like Poppy Day better) was today.

I woke up this morning and danced around singing Poppy Day.

(Never mentioned this, but my parents dislike me reading adoption blogs. It's okay though. I can't keep myself away.)

Pray for Stefanie and her son Zach (who traveled to China with her) and her sweet daughter, Poppy. Because don't those pictures break your heart?

Happy Poppy Day.

(P.S: I know that I sound a bit like a stalker. I really am not (... okay, I try not to be). But NHY was the first adoption blog that I read. And it has stuck with me for a year. And I credit Stefanie's honesty and faith for giving me the idea to adopt.

Sponsorship Update

I found an organization! :)

I don't know if I am allowed to post the name or anything. It's Ch*naHeart Intl. (Please tell me if I should erase that).

I haven't been confirmed as a sponsor yet, though. They had a list of available children to be sponsored, and I asked for more information on one of the children. (An older child. 16, to be exact).

They sent me the information today, but have to find out if he intends to return to school, which is a requirement to stay a part of the organization. If he does, I am so sponsoring him!!

I was kind of sad. I sent e-mails to 3-4 other organizations, but no response. At all. And so I was just kind of realizing that maybe I shouldn't sponsor, when this e-mail appeared in my inbox.

I love you.

Sponsorship Month 1

So...

I haven't received a sponsor notice yet. The coordinator is still on holiday.

But I HAVE saved up the first payment. Thirty-five dollars.

I saved my tips (I waitressed one day this week, cashiered for the rest) and, miraculously, received exactly $35 in two days.

It's times like these that tell me God is trying to be part of my life.

Anyways!

Month 1 is ready to be paid for. I kind of like this. Saving my tips for sponsoring encourages me not to spend it on junk.

And I get to help a child in return. Lovely.

Sponsorship

So, I'm not quite the right age (30) to adopt from China.

In fact, I'm just past the halfway mark (16). So I still have quite a bit of time left.

And so I have decided to start supporting causes that I believe in.

Like orphan care in China.

And US Soldiers.

I signed up for www.adoptaussoldier.org, to hopefully make a difference in a soldier's life.

And the orphan sponsorship?

I'm working on it.

I'm still a student, and I am starting college in fall 2012, so I really shouldn't be spending $35 a year.

Especially since my "job" is tutoring (and unpaid managerial work).

So I've started a sponsorship fund. When I get paid, I'll split the money like this:

(I get paid $200 per month)

$100 goes to my bank/college account.
$30 goes to orphan sponsorship.
$30 goes to care package items.
$30 goes to my everyday needs.
And the last $10?
I think I'll use that last $10 and start an adoption fund. It's never too early, I think.

I haven't found the right orphanages to sponsor. But I want to sponsor a specific child (because, I totally buy into all the stuff that they show on television. About how certain programs will send you a picture and biography and note from the child you are sponsoring), preferably from Southern China. Like maybe possibly Guangzhou, depending on what I can do.

I honestly cannot wait. By the time my senior year starts, I will (hopefully) be changing the life of an orphan. But I think that my life will be more changed from this experience.

My Calling

I'm only sixteen, so most people, after I've told them that I plan to adopt when I turn 30, think I don't know what I'm talking about and try to discourage me.

But, I know that this is something I HAVE to do.

Adoption has been all around me, it seems. A family friend adopted a baby girl from Korea about 13 or so years ago. Two other family friends both adopted Vietnamese daughters, and it seems every day I meet a new family that has adopted from China.

One little girl, who is homeschooled and I don't know the name of, came in to see my mom at work once. And cried as she hugged my mom, who, at the time, was a complete stranger, because she missed her and my mother was Chinese, like her, and she missed her home. It was touching and heartbreaking.

One of my family's close friends, who adopted a Vietnamese girl before we got back in touch via facebook, was in the process of adopting another girl from China, but has since halted the process.

Through her blog detailing the process, I found the link to Ni Hao Y'All, a blog about an amazing woman who has four children, and adopted five more, and was in the process of adopting two more, until one of them passed away at the orphanage before she could get to the United States.

Through her blog, I started to research more and more adoption stories, and look into orphanages a little bit more. Then, I watched the PBS POV movie, "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy" about the Sadowsky family, who adopts a little girl from Guangzhou in China, and records the interactions and the assimilation.

And that was when I felt the nudge.

I'm between religions. I was raised Buddhist by my family, but I have gone to a Christian school all my life. I can perform a prayer ritual, and recite the Lord's Prayer with no problem. I believe in God, but I still feel pulled by my Buddhist faith.

And so, I have no clue where the nudge is from. But every day, my heart aches that it is still another 14 years before I can find my child, the one who is waiting to be born and put into an orphanage in China until I am ready for her.

And I hope, with all of my heart, that I'll be able to do it. That whatever Ggod there is can help me in my life. To lift me up so that I will be able to bring her over, and provide for her. To guide me through this process, so that I will be ready to get her. To let my heart stay open to adoption.

Baby names!

So, I've actually been thinking a lot about baby names. Not just for my future adopted child, but also for any birth children I will have.

I'm almost positive I want to adopt a girl, from China. And so, there's tons of options for me. The names I like most (as of 6/12/11) are:

-Jocelyn
-Sora
-Vivienne
-Sophia
-Kamryn

I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but it will be nice, in ten years, to look back and see if those are still my favorite names.

Hi, I'm Rakuzen.

I'm sixteen years old, going into my senior year of high school at a private school. After that, I hope to go either to U of Michigan, or Michigan State University for pre-med, then go on to become either a Nurse Practitioner or a Physician Assistant, with a Minor in Chinese.

I started this blog because, after a lot of thinking and looking around, I feel that I want to adopt when I come of age (which, if the standards stay the same, will be in about fifteen years). This blog will be a place for me to post all my thoughts and the advice I learn.