On May 4th we received our referral for Embakom, faster than expected because we were open to an older child. On June 9th we passed court – Embakom became a legal member of our family. We settled for a wait of “between 12 and 20 weeks” for immigration papers, and on October 13th were told that they had arrived in Addis Abbaba . Our son was free to enter Canada on a permanent resident Visa. I prepared to travel to pick him up.
The earliest flight I could get without either hitting a 5-stop/48 hour travel time, taking out a second mortgage, and/or being away for Ruthie’s 5th birthday, was Nov. 2. I had 20 days to plan and pack, and wait to meet him – a lifetime it seemed. The wait gave me time to learn more about Embakom’s home, and the more I learned the more I thought about the changes he faced going from a third world country where he had nothing, to a place where we all have so very much. So I started shopping, at first just for the little friends he’d be leaving behind. I bought about 70 pairs of children’s shoes to take with me – and I have to give props to air Canada who allowed me an extra duffel bag free of the usual charges, for humanitarian reasons. Then, people started asking if there was anything they could do to help and I thought, “why yes, yes there is”.
So with only about 12 days to go before travel, I vowed to ask 400 people for $5.00 each, to buy things for the orphanages I’d heard about and planned to visit.
400 People is a lot more than you’d think. I asked 387 and was positively stuck – out of friends, family and acquaintances!! Luckily, one friend asked her church group to help, one asked the book club gals, one asked her co-workers, and one asked everyone on her daughters’ hockey team – so my request reached over 400 people after all!
Money came pouring in, from the most likely and unlikely places. My family was so generous, as were all of my close friends. But I also got cheques from people I hadn’t seen or heard from in 25 years, from little kids who opened their piggy-banks, even a teen who requested donations on her birthday in lieu of gifts. I got cards and chqs, from neighbours of friends, students of mine from years ago, even some from people I don’t know at all. And, being the kind of goof who tears up at long-distance ads, every donation and touching note sent me bleary-eyed to Mario’s arms to tell him about the awesome goodness of every single person I know. I couldn’t pack, couldn’t work – sending thank-yous, shopping for shoes, and praising everyone’s generosity became a full time job!
By the time I was ready to travel I had 2 money belts stuffed with US cash and 2 huge bags stuffed with children’s shoes, clothes , vitamins, and medicine. I had contacts to meet in 3 orphanages, and a little boy waiting for his mommy to come get him.
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