It Takes a Child To Raise Money for the Village

Several years ago we were all captivated by Hillary Clinton's slogan, "It take a village to raise a child."  The Yoho kids are attempting to flip that phrase on its head this summer.  A short time back re received an email from CCAI, an adoption agency partnering with orphanages in Haiti, among other places, to match children with prospective families.  They were requesting that each adopting family consider a $100 donation to help outfit the new creche (infant room) at the orphanage that would double their capacity for babies at Lifeline. Our kids took the challenge seriously and began to devise schemes for raising money.  Their first thoughts of making a brick factory in the back yard, setting up a stand to sell their own art work, and then a general scouring of the house for any "sale-able" items did not prove to be fruitful.  We decided to have a family meeting and Ryan and I gave some guidance to them regarding their business plan.  It was determined that dog-sitting and other small jobs would be the best way to raise funds.    
Within two weeks of writing their business pan they have raised $248.00.   The day after they formed up their plan we received a call asking us to watch a dog for a week.  We had a great time with this little guy and earned a generous contribution toward our cause.
The next weekend the children set up a snack and drink stand at our family yard sale and earned a considerable chunk of money for their cause.  Abigail completed a project for her uncle to add to the total and a very sweet family heard about our efforts ad made a donation to help us out as well.

Mrs Clinton felt that it took an entire village to raise a child, and she might be right.  However, I think God showed me this week that with His power, maybe it take children to raise up a village.

Room For Two More

Many people have heard that we are adopting, and they start thinking logistics.  Their questions often center around the vehicle and the home.  Here are a few quotes and questions we have been hearing.....

"Are you going to get a HUGE van now?"  (maybe, but I hope not!)
"Where will they all sleep?"  (in beds, except on Fridays when they will all crash in the hallway in sleeping bags just like they do now!)
"Do you have enough room for that many children?" (yep, sure do)
"You'll need a bigger kitchen table!"  (nope, it is part of our weight loss plan....never sit down while eating in the kitchen!)
"Which room will they sleep in?"  (the one that their sisters are working hard to prepare for them)

Six children seems like quite a crowd to most folks, but the funny thing is that here, it seems like just the right number.  God has stretched our hearts to love all six of our children.  He has ensured that the house that we bought 8 years ago would be big enough to grow up with our family, even when we thought our family was done growing.  He knew how many beds would be needed, he knew how much space would be required inside on a rainy day, he knew where they would all fit in when they arrived in the family.  He planned for it, and made it happen.  An eight person family seems just perfect to us now!!

Just to prove that we have thought about answers to all of these questions, here is a picture of the "room for two" that is waiting for our littlest girls....(their bunk beds are in the garage awaiting assembly thanks to a very generous gift from Auntie Julie and Uncle Dean and the Milne cousins)

French Makes Me Happy

Today we learned that our dossier is now en francais.  C'est tres bien!  J'aime le francais maintenant!
(It's very good! I love French now!)
 Today I love French because all of our dossier documents are now written in French.  They have been sent to Chicago and there they will be legalized at the Haitian consulate.  16 years ago when I graduated high school I had no idea what I would do with my French.  In fact, I was a little disappointed that I had chosen to pursue it because it was becoming obvious that Spanish would have been much more useful for an elementary school teacher.  The funny thing is that God knew that I would only be a teacher in public school for three years.  He also knew that one day my 2 little girls would need a mom and I would be that mom for them.  God knew that if I had invested some years into learning French (6 years, to be precise) that I would be infinitely more well equipped to understand them, learn their language, and understand them when we met for the first time. Wow!  God, thank you for not listening to me when I beg you for what is not good for me,  Thanks you for not giving in to me when I whine about hard things that I do not understand.  Thank you for blessing me-I do not deserve your gifts.