The importance of sponsorships

Our family has been on quite a journey since we became involved with our “sponsored” kids. Our lives have taken many turns. While our family picture is not like we first envisioned things to be, we are all very satisfied with how things have turned out.
For anyone reading this who is reeling from an adoption that looks as though it may not materialize, I really encourage you to continue to sponsor if you can. The children do need you terribly and with today’s ease of communication across the world, close bonds can be formed.
We hear from all our kids and their families at least every 10 days or so. Most of the time contact is much more frequent. Barely a day goes by when I am not somehow connected to at least one of our crew. Some days the internet has several messages and we are on the phone a lot. Feels like they all live here.
Our sponsorships have made life altering differences for each and every one of these kids and I don't know how our family could be complete without each and every one of our girls and the extended families that come with them.

Stephanie

Delilah and Stephanie proudly wearing their tribal costumes. Each tribe has a specific pattern or weave that they wear for celebrations and holidays.

Last but not least is our little Stephanie. Stephanie is 9 years old. Stephanie is Delilah’s sister by birth. She is somewhat fragile health wise as she has Sickle Cell Anemia, but she is just a little burst of energy.
Stephanie is very bright and remains at the top of her class. She is also very creative. She has grown up loving us and probably doesn't remember when we weren’t in their lives. So our relationship with her is a bit unique from the other girls.
I always love to talk with her by phone because she is always so enthusiastic. While I am disappointed that she hasn’t been able to grow up in our home playing dolls and being a typical American little girl, I know how much their grandmother loves them both and I sleep well at night knowing how loved both girls are.
Stephanie is the type of child who makes you smile just being around her because she gets so excited about everything. I can’t wait to give her real hugs and kisses.

We are very excited to go to Burkina to spend time with all of our girls. With every document that comes in the mail and every shot we receive it makes this journey more real. I am starting to get very excited.

Delilah

Delilah, Grandma and Stephanie wearing Just Dance t-shirts

During our wild goose chase with Rakieta, we found ourselves in desperate need of a translator who spoke Rakieta’s family’s tribal language. We were fortunate enough to be introduced to a family from mid Michigan who was also from Burkina Faso. The family happened to have 2 nieces who are in great need in Burkina. We originally attempted to adopt the girls. Unfortunately adoption from this country is not possible at this time due to incompatibility of laws between our country and Burkina.

Delilah is 13. Delilah is our little “mother”. She is very practical, steady and reliable. She buts heads with Grandma because of stubbornness, but really is very grounded. She has done admirable things in her life such as offer to have her grandmother use what little money they had to pay for Stephanie’s tuition and give up her own schooling since at the time Stephanie’s grades were better. She is very protective over her sister.
During the darkest days of attempting adoption it was Delilah who kept the faith. Delilah has needed a mother so badly and has shown so much appreciation for our family. Most of the time it is Delilah who runs to the computer store (cyber Cafe) to relay messages.
We look so forward to meeting Delilah. We know she is a very brave and admirable young girl and we are very proud to have her in our family.

Rakieta

Jeni, Rakieta and Merry when she lived with us

Rakieta taken on New Year's day 2007. Rakieta has always loved long hair. Through the monthly allowences we send, she is able to afford to "do her hair". This is very important in her culture.

If you are an online friend, you may know more about Rakieta than even Merry and Jeni. Rakieta is a long, long story and is the main reason I became active online. Now I will give you a brief recap. Rakieta is 17 and is from Burkina Faso, W. Africa. For those of you unfamiliar it is one country north of Ghana. It is part of French W. Africa. Rakieta is Muslim and from one of the “villages” that surround Ouagadougou the capital city of Burkina. Since she is Muslim, she has one father but 2 mothers. The men may have up to 4 wives at a time. It is handled similarly to step parenting, but the order in which the wife was married has to do with her seniority. The lower the wife on the totem pole usually lowers her seniority in the household, but her status is usually more favored with the husband. Weird to us Americans, but the Africans understand it. No, women do not like the system. In fact Rakieta’s mother has been very open to her daughters’ becoming “Christian”. Burkanabes are either Muslim, Christian, animist or some sort of combination. All factions get along very well and in fact go to each other’s celebrations.

Rakieta’s family is very poor and has struggled a lot over the years. Many years ago when times were particularly tough she was sent to live with an uncle in Ghana to become a servant. Rakieta was 7 or 8 years old. Before you gasp at this, please understand that if you are a poor village person with few options, your sending a child to a more populated area with a relative is actually a chance at a better life for the child. Many village children/teens have gone to the city and receive a better education than can be gotten out in the bush and have more luxuries. We, in the west, can’t fathom this, but it is a harsh reality in Africa.

During Rakieta’s stay in Ghana, she accidentally spilled kerosene on herself filling a lamp. Being so young she just didn’t realize the danger. As she lit the match her skirt caught fire and her legs were consumed in the fire. She was treated in Ghana. While the care was rudimentary, they were able to save her life. She was sent home to Burkina to be with her family. In Burkina, she was cared for at the clinic. The social worker for her neighborhood became acquainted with her and tried desperately to help her proper care.

Eventually a group agreed to bring her to the US. Rakieta was then 13. We were her host family. Unfortunately the group was very young, not real responsible and not real honest. Shortly after her arrival, our family was pretty clear that we were all in over our heads. We refused to allow the group to mishandle her any further than they already had and we were able to successfully complete the proper treatment on one leg. To circumvent us, the group leader sent her back to Africa as we were required to return the child upon completion of care. To regain control of Rakieta legally the woman terminated her care. Rakieta’s parents allowed her to be promptly returned to the US by the group against our advice and the advice of the social worker. She “hung out” in the US for almost another year. Eventually she did go in for some treatment of the other leg. Unfortunately something went terribly wrong with the initial surgery and she was forced to endure 4 amputations of the leg. It was a terrible time for her both physically and emotionally.
She was returned home to her family several months later broken in spirit and physically no better off than before she came to the US.

Once we knew she was safely home, we initiated contact. The family was also initiating contact with us. Now things move pretty slow in Africa, but within a few months we were all back in contact with one another, had heard the stories and were figuring out where to go from there.
We tried to bring Rakieta back to the US one more time to get her poorly fitting, now completely falling apart prosthetic replaced, but she was refused due to her age, financial instability of the family, and her length of time already in the US.

What to do next? Well, our family started getting it’s act together to go into Burkina to visit and the Ambassador had recommended a prosthetic clinic in Ouagadougou for us to try. After several months of searching for someone who could communicate with both our family, Rakieta and the doctors we were successful and Rakieta was able to get the prosthetic fixed. Eventually she will need a repalcement, but we will deal with that when we go over. In the meantime, she moved in with the social worker where she could take better care of herself as an amputee and through our sponsorship she has been attending sewing school.
We talk several times weekly and in fact do school work also by telephone. Rakieta is very happy and healthy at this point. Her “family” in all it’s entirety is very connected to our family and community in Michigan and many wonderful friendships are being formed. I will talk more about that later.

To us, Rakieta is remarkable for her ability to not only persevere through all her tragic circumstances, but she is able to keep a wonderful sense of humor. Within hours of meeting us, we all knew what a special bond there was and adversity and oceans could never break it. Rakieta is a wonderful ambassador for her whole country. Her deepest desire is to return to Imlay City, Mi. We are trying very hard to help her reach that goal. However, wherever she ends up, she will make a big difference in the world.

Olga

Olga is our oldest sponsored child. She is now 19. We have been involved with her the longest. It all started when we hosted a little girl from her same orphanage. We did not adopt the little girl but continued to correspond with her. In May of 2003 we received a letter addressed to "TINE" which is Tina in german. Well, years before that we were very closely involved with a girl from Germany named Tine. In fact, it was she who convinced us to get involved with hosting programs and possible adoptions. We had so much fun with her and we came to realize through her and the next couple of foreign children in our lives that we were pretty good at loving children from other cultures who usually have a pretty big history to bring with them.

Anyway, back to the letter. Upon opening the letter, imagine our surprise to find written in English-a very difficult task for an orphange kid-a letter from a young girl from the orphanage asking to be our friend. She was available for adoption. However she was already 15 1/2 and we were very inexperienced and were in no position to try to rush to get her adopted before her 16th birthday which is the deadline for American adoption of foreign children.

So we started a correspondance which has lasted all these years. Many times it is frustrating because the only method of communication we have is by traditional mail. So communication is very slow. I am happy to report that she has finally sent an e-mail so now we have an e-mail address to also work with.

Olga lives in Cheboksary. It is a small city in Chuvashia. Chuvashia is an independant federation within Russia proper. So it is part of Russia, but it is independant to some degree. It is south of Moscow and along the Volga River.

Olga is very bright and has stayed out of trouble. So she was accepted into a program where she attends accounting school and has remained under the protection of the government after the age of 16. Most orphanage children are turned out at 16, creating a terrible problem with street teens. Unfortunately she will graduate this spring and then she will lose all government assistance. We haven't been able to help her as much as the other girls because communication is just not good enough. However, we do correspond several times a year and have found a good way to put her on a small allowence like the other girls as soon as we receive a letter from her telling us that she received the last letter which explains the plan.

Olga is very serious, perhaps even a little meloncholy, but very bright, seems to make wise choices and is very logical. She is very artisitic, and has strong perserverance. I do believe she will accomplish her dreams. We want her to know that she is very loved in America and she should never think she is totally alone.

Jeni

Jeni and Sweetie. Sweetie came home to us when she was just a couple months old. At about a year, she suffered a severe injury. Between thinking of our family as parents and being babied through the injury, she really is a housepet and most certainly considers herself an important member of the family!

Jeni is our second child and loves being the baby. Although now that she is an adult herself , she has gracefully given the title to our youngest little girl Stephanie. Jeni is full of life, giggles and mischief. At a slumber party Jeni was the one who didn't go to bed all night. In a car full of girls, Jeni was the one keeping everyone entertained. She truly bubbles from the time she wakes up until she heads off to bed. Jeni is now in her first year of college. She also attends Mott Community College. She isn't real sure what she wants to do with her life, but is working towards communications for now. Jeni is also an accomplished dancer and rider. She is one of those people who makes everything look easy.

She is just beginning her first real job (w-4). She will be doing housekeeping for one of the motel chains in town. The hours are fabulous for her. She'll be able to continue all her other endeavers without a hitch, continue to work for Just Dance, and most importantly, it won't interfere with her college classes.

Jeni, too, is very interested in travel and is looking forward to heading off to Burkina. Jeni wouldn't mind, someday, doing some service work in another country. Jeni is someone who makes people feel comfortable immediately. She will probably have many different pursuits in her life and all will effect people in a positive way. Jeni truly brings sunshine to the world.

Merry

This is a picture of some of the Just Dance performers from a christmas show from a few years ago. We chose this picture because Rakieta was living with us. We figured she might like to show this off. For more recent pictures of Just Dance, Please visit: www.justdancecompany.com

Merry is our oldest. She is the quiet steady hand in the family. She has always wanted lots of brothers and sisters and is very supportive of our "other family". Merry has been dancing since she was able to walk so it is no surprise that she now owns her own dance program. The group is growing and growing and it is a lot of fun for both the students and Merry. Please do stop into the group's websight to find out more about Just Dance. www.justdancecompany.com Just Dance is always welcoming new students.

In addition to dance, Merry's interests are travel, flowers, mystery and intrigue books, tv and movies and hanging with friends. She is a student at Mott Community College and is pursuing a "back up" career in administative assitant/secretary and works part time for one of the local accounting firms. Merry is a quiet but strong young woman who is loved very much by both her family and community.

Our Girls

As many of you already know, we are very proud of all of our daughters. Each is unique, but each one is working very hard to make her corner of the world a better place. Now I'll take the time to let you get to know each one a little better.

Home Base

Daisy, one of the calves born on our farm, sunning herself.
Our ducks on a daily stroll
a view from the barnyard

Our family lives in the thumb of Michigan in the heart of celery and carrot country outside a farming community. We have lived in the area for 17 years and in our cosy farmhouse for 15.
We have 4 horses, all raised pretty much from babies at our place, a mini pony, an ewe to keep the pony company, chickens, ducks, fruit trees and a big garden. We have a mini farm or gentleman's farm.
Matt works for GM as a modelmaker and I am a homemaker. However, I stay very busy. Between the farm, tutoring and caring for the girls overseas, managing our oldest daughter's dance program which includes making costumes, and caring for my family here, I don't sit around much.
The farm is really my baby, but everyone loves (and hates) different aspects of it. But at the end of the day, we all get a lot of happiness and satisfaction from being out with the critters, working in the yard or barn and picking the fruit, veggies from the garden or collecting eggs.

Hello Everybody!

Hello,
This blog is being created as a way for our family and friends in the US to be able to keep up with our mission oriented activities overseas and for our family across the globe to be able to feel connected and up to date with us here in Michigan.
Our family consists of Matt, myself, our 2 birth daughters 22 and 18, 3 girls, 17, 13, 9 and their families from Burkina Faso, W. Africa and one girl, 19, from the Chuvash region of Russia.


This blog will hopefully help everyone understand the culture and needs of Burkina and Chuvashia better and also give our kids and their families across the ocean an easy way to see pictures and post to all of us.

Have a great day.
Cyndy