The Sixteen Days of Christmas (Vacation)--Day 4--A Season of Giving

Today I wanted to brag on my students a little bit.  For the past few years we have been doing an event at school called Coins for Congo.  A group of my kids started the project when we were in the process to adopt Manny and JoJo. My students have big hearts and they wanted to do something for the children they had heard so much about during our wait.  Each year, any theater student that wants to participate checks out a baby bottle and carries it with them collecting spare change.  They are also given a fact sheet about Congo and Congolese orphans that they can share with any and all that will listen.
At the end of a set number of days we donate the money raised to Our Family in Africa.  If you're a new reader, OFA is the amazing humanitarian aid group that helped me bring home my kids from Congo.  After Haven came home, Brian and I volunteered to sit on the board of directors for OFA.  I can tell you that this is an organization that is doing real, tangible grassroots work in DRCongo.  Unfortunately, this is last year that OFA will be helping facilitate adoptions.  The world of Congolese adoption has become unstable and uncertain so OFA has decided to back away from that area of work and concentrate on caring for the children that will spend their lives in orphanages.
In years past my students had collected as much as $1500.  This year we set the goal for the project at $1000,  but we had more kids participating than ever before.  This year, in just 4 weeks of collecting, they raised $2100.  OMGoodness, I was so moved!  A lot of that money came from emptying out their own piggy banks, paychecks from their part-time jobs, and some very generous donations from their parents.
At the same time we were running our Coins for Congo project I told the students I would put my money where my mouth was and I ran a special offer through my shop on my More Love t-shirts.  For every shirt I sold I would donate $10 to OFA.  Well, a very special Christmas angel contacted me and said she would buy out the rest of my inventory.  So all 25 shirts were sold and I am able to make an additional $250 donation to support some of those children in Congo that will be without a family this Christmas.
So now I'd like ask you to pitch in too.  If you have been blessed by someones generosity or time, or love this holiday season, please consider paying it forward with a donation to Our Family in Africa. Any amount, big or small, can make a huge difference in the life of a child.
Right now it is time for OFA’s last fundraiser of the year and an opportunity to get your last tax credit in 2013. We must continue supporting our Congolese children in Kinshasa, Kaziba, Kapanga, and Lubumbashi. As we have done before, we are going to have an iPad contest. The contest starts on December 9 at midnight PST. The 150th donor between December 9 and December 31, 2013 will choose between the Apple iPad4 (16GB) with Retina screen or the iPad Air. The contest ends with the 150th donor, but no later than December 31, 2013 at 11:59pm PST. 
People can donate in honor of a loved one to whom they wish to give a Christmas gift or just for themselves. If they choose to honor someone, they should write the name and contact information under the Other Special Relief section of the donor amount option. We will send their honoree a Christmas message confirmation.
To donate to OFA you can use this link to the donation page on their website.
Any amount qualifies for entry into the iPad giveaway.  The iPad is valued at over $500.  If that is not enough incentive, then take a look a the beautiful faces in this Christmas card.  Can you forget them this Christmas?

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