Slowly but surely...

Has it really been 4 months? We haven't forgetten our mission or those amazing children in Yongzhou!

Life has been incredibly busy and unpredicatable. We are still in contact with Susan in China to see how our orphanages are doing. We didn't have our Annual Kids Carnival yet as my co-planner had a new baby during our regular Carnival weekend. We are definitely planning one and this year we will hold it in the Fall.

One of my biggest goals right now is to help with medical surgeries for the children at Alyssa's orphanage. I have seen many photos of the children living there and all of them (except 1 or 2) are children with medical needs. Many children have cleft issues and I know first hand how surgery can dramatically change a child's life.

I am looking into some other ideas as well to continue raising funds. Once I know for sure what we can do to help with medical surgeries, I will know more about how much we need to raise. I'll keep updating here and spreading the word through emails and facebook.

For updates on the kiddos you can visit our family blog.

Take care!

Getting rolling again!

Things have been quiet on this site for awhile...things have been a bit quiet with our work with Two Homes One Heart. When we came home in June with Evan, my husband really stressed the importance of taking a step back from many obligations to get our family transitioned, adjusted and back to a new "normal".

I have been itching to get back at it and am happy that we are at a place where I can commit some time and energy to our orphanages again.

We have 3 PEI families heading to China at the end of February and they have been kind enough to agree to take 3 bundles of donations to the orphanages for us! We have some beautiful fleece blankets, hats, mitts, baby items, etc...and we will distribute them to 3 separate orphanages.

I have also contacted our "regular" orphanages - Feng, Dao and Jiangyong to see what assistance we can provide. We are trying very hard to arrange medical surgeries for children at these orphanages because we know it will mean a better chance for the orphanage to put them foward for adoption. I will keep everyone updated on what the needs are and how we can best care for these children!

My husband and I are heading back to Dominican Republic and we are arranging a visit with the local school to see how we can help care for those children as well. There are many children waiting to attend school and sometimes all it takes is a uniform and a pair of shoes to be "allowed" to attend. There are many needs at the schools such as school desks, basic school supplies, spanish reading books, educational books and learning toys. We will do our best to take as many donations as we can and then find out what the needs are when we are there.

Please keep checking back for updates and fundraising initiatives!

Thanks,
The MacKinnon Family