Our daughter, Alyssa, in her orphanage in Yongzhou City, Hunan, China. She is NOT the circled baby - she is the one on the right hand side. She was about 11 months old here.
Another picture of Alyssa in her orphanage - she is the one in front with the pink sweater - she is about 14 months old in this picture. About 1 month before we adopted her.
Last December our family decided to take the plunge and commit to helping Alyssa's orphanage. She was born in Yongzhou City (or the countryside near this city) and lived in the Fenghuangyuan orphanage for 15 months - until we came to China and adopted her. We were not able to visit her orphanage personally while we were in China because it was a very far drive and the orphanage isn't very open to having people visit. Our family really wanted to be able to keep in touch with Alyssa's roots and to care for as many children as we could living in her orphanage. That's when Two Homes One Heart was born. The name basically means from our home to theirs but we all share the same "heart" or "love". We started by sending small donations for snowsuits, winter hats, mitts, clothing, etc... We then decided to commit to supporting the whole orphanage with any needs they had. We found a wonderful, kind Chinese contact in Hunan who continues to help us communicate with Alyssa's orphanage Director and who makes sure all donations and financial gifts are used for the orphanage in the way they were intended. Our family started doing small fundraisers and bottle drives to raise money for items such as cases of baby formula, crib mattresses, blankets, toys, meal tables, school tables, clothing and our most fun contribution - a brandnew outdoor playground for the orphanage!
Two Homes One Heart grew quickly as more people became aware of our projects and fundraisers. We now have a group of 4-7 people who meet together to talk about fundraising initiatives and projects. We have expanded our projects to THREE orphanages in Yongzhou City and we are also helping with Faith Village in Ethiopia (this is a project through our adoption agency) and we are raising funds to support the smaller orphanages in Ethiopia. We also have 2 projects for children living here in PEI - a "heart to heart" project for foster children where children coming into care receive a loving care package and personal note and we do baby formula drives for our local food banks collecting 400 cans of baby formula, packages of diapers and baby food.
Two Homes One Heart grew quickly as more people became aware of our projects and fundraisers. We now have a group of 4-7 people who meet together to talk about fundraising initiatives and projects. We have expanded our projects to THREE orphanages in Yongzhou City and we are also helping with Faith Village in Ethiopia (this is a project through our adoption agency) and we are raising funds to support the smaller orphanages in Ethiopia. We also have 2 projects for children living here in PEI - a "heart to heart" project for foster children where children coming into care receive a loving care package and personal note and we do baby formula drives for our local food banks collecting 400 cans of baby formula, packages of diapers and baby food.
This has been an incredible way to have our children involved in our community and in reaching out to others in kindness and compassion. Last year, our son, Caleb asked for donations for his birthday rather than gifts and he donated all his birthday money for brandnew snowsuits for the 40 children living at Alyssa's orphanage.
We are in the process of obtaining our charity status - can you believe a local lawfirm has offered to do this for us pro bono - that is amazing!!! We are also in the process of doing a real website (we currently have a blog dedicated to this charity) and we continue to hear from more orphanages and families needing our help. By next year, we hope to have full charity status with many fundraising initiatives on the go so we can support more and more precious children.
If you would like to join us in "sharing our love" with children all over the world...this is what you can do...
*If you have a child from a particular orphanage and would like to give back to the children and nannies living there, let me know and we will work on setting up a program at your child's orphanage
*If you have a talent to sew, paint, scult, etc....consider donating items to our Art Auctions and sales. We have been selling handmade blankets and knit items with 100% of the proceeds going to the orphanages. We are currently preparing to send a care package to Alyssa's orphanage and it is filled with beautiful, fleece, cozy, handmade blankets. Our next big event is FEBRUARY 16th and we would love to have items for our auction - so if you're talented - you can help!!
*Hold a fundraiser in your town or city for Two Homes One Heart - I have tons of ideas so send me an email and we can talk about lots of ways to raise money.
*Donate financially to Two Homes One Heart
*PRAY for all the children who need families, for the children who will live their lives in an orphanage - we can help make it a wonderful childhood for them, pray for the nannies who care for the children and pray for the birth families who cannot care for their children.
Enjoy the pictures below...the new playground at Alyssa's orphanage....Don't forget to check out the charity blog to read more about the orphanages we are helping and what the needs for the oprhanage are!!! Thanks!
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