The Reason For A Blog.

I have been writing this blog for three years. First it was me blathering about loss and longing. Recently it has become me blathering about loss and having. I am 'having' a lot these days. So. Much.

My chairs are full.


I have two special someones tugging on my apron strings. I have become something that I didn't ever imagine myself being.

I have become a happy person.

There have been several guest bloggers on this blog. One of them wrote this:

Here is something I think about which falls a bit outside the usual discussion: whether adoptive families will in time become engaged advocates for Ethiopia. It isn’t sexy, the long term business of pushing for a democratic government or good US foreign policy in the Horn or advocating for infrastructure or the development of good farming practices. It isn’t nearly as clear-cut or gratifying as responding to a heart-breaking famine or loving a beautiful child. But Ethiopia desperately needs such advocates. I don’t mean to say that adoptive families have a special obligation – I know that decisions about what causes to support and how are personal ones informed by many factors. But if such families do help raise awareness about Ethiopia, or if they do become involved with these issues, then that, I think, would be a significant and very welcome consequence of adoption.

I think about this a lot. I have absolutely no idea how to help bring democracy to Ethiopia. I recently read an article about Obama putting pressure on Zenawi to clean up his human rights policies in Ethiopia. Zenawi basically told Obama to suck it. I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist of the article was that Zenawi is perfectly comfortable getting anything he may ever need from China, and really doesn't need the good U.S. of A to help him with anything. If Obama has no influence, how on earth would someone like me attempt to change anything? Someone whose concerns lie more in the mundane challenges like, "How do I get M&m to ingest one green vegetable this month?" Not bloody likely that I'll be able to do anything to help Ethiopia become more democratic.

Nine months ago I wrote an e-mail to another guest blogger, Jane Kurtz. I asked her if Ethiopia Reads would ever consider building a library in M&m's hometown. Fast Forward.

She said yes.

She said yes!

Ethiopia Reads will build a library in my son and daughter's hometown. I just need to raise the money.

If every person who hit this blog yesterday sent 50 bucks, it would be done. Just like that. Now I know that a lot of those hits were people Googling things like, "What kind of family picture should I absolutely NOT include in my homestudy?" and "What do you do if you accidentally feed your child spoiled sweet potatoes?" and that about sixteen of those hits were most likely my mom looking at these pics over and over, but nonetheless, it is worth giving it a go don't you agree? I know that folks are tapped out, and this is a terrible time economically. I know that everyone has their own cause too. That's why I don't imagine we will raise all of the money here on the eyes of my eyes site, but maybe we will raise some of it.

Last summer Meazi turned to me and said, "Mom, can you believe in Ethiopia I never even had one book?"

If you would like to make a donation to the Ethiopia Reads Library in Mudula, Ethiopia

Go HERE.

Scroll down to 'one time donation', pick an amount, and in the 'in honor of' field type- 'Mudula'.

And so we begin. The Reason for a Blog, Part I- A Library.