Brayan & His Family~ AKA Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

A weight has been lifted for Brayan and his family. Thanks to some great people in this group, his mother will now have a business!

As stated before, his family is completely without funds. His child report stated $0 for the income. They were, also, being told they needed to get out of the home. The home is owned by Marlen's first husband, and he was ready to put Marlen and the two boys out on the street!

$540 was raised to give Marlen a business selling socks, underwear, t-shirts, pants, imitation jewelry, etc + a cart to move the items around in. This is a business that can not start soon enough! To make this happen, some strings & special circumstance approvals have been made- Brayan and his family will have the items they need to start the business today!!

Since they are, also, losing the roof over their heads, they will need to look for a new place to live. An anonymous donation was made to help them get a start on rent for a new home. $200 will give them shelter for a little while. That means that Marlen and her boys can look for a home & move today!!!

I know it is just unbelievable- What was such a scary situation has now been turned into a dream come true for Marlen. I wish I could be there to see the look on Marlen's face when the news is delivered. I imagine something like the faces of the people on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Have you ever watched that? You know when they start chanting, "Move that bus!" The bus finally moves and the family collapses in tears of joy and screams! What a sense of relief she will feel when she knows that she will have a home & a business! Wow!

I can not thank you all enough- You all made this happen, & you have saved a family from homelessness, hunger, and despair! You all are the best!!!

And it only gets better!

Due to popular demand, Sara S has donated another 15 dolls!! If you look around at our fundraisers, you will see that these dolls have already given $88 to the 3 present families being helped!! (that all happened in less than a 24 hour period of time!) Check out the webstore (The deadline to order for Chile and the Dominican Republic is a week from today 1/22/10!)

The total number of dolls that Sara has donated for the children are 25, and 11 are already sold. We have 14 left, and all available 1st come - 1st served.

I, also, had one other person as if they could donate some items. For that, I want to tell one and all- If you would like to donate items for the store, you may send them to:

Make a Change
c/o Heather McLaughlin
P O Box 847
Anna, TX 75409

As I receive the items, I will photograph them & get them added to the store. Other than a small international shipping fee to get the items to the children, all of the rest of the money goes directly to our fundraisers! Any items that are not too bulky or heavy & in new condition are welcomed & very much appreciated!!

Our children are going to have so much fun with these packages!! We are going to have fun getting the letters & photos!

Two more small notes for this post:
1. I will be providing a post about how you can help Make a Change soon, I promise! Right now, I have some other exciting posts that I need to get up (including one from Victor who is presently in Honduras).
2. If you decide to donate items for these packages, please let me know if you want your donation to be anonymous- otherwise, I will be thanking you loud and proud (so stop me, if you don't want that to happen- you have been warned. LOL!)

Our latest fundraiser

*Yellow shirt is available in sizes 2/4 & small
*Green shirt is available in sizes small, medium, and large
*Blue shirt is available in sizes 4/5 & small
*White shirt is only available in size 2/4

Something great will be happening in February. I am very excited about it. My biological daughter who is 4 will be on the CI home page. Her name is Jaden, and she is INCREDIBLE> I don't want to ruin the story for you, but let me just say this part. We have 4 sponsored children that have HIV/AIDS> It is very important that they keep their health at an optimal level at all times. Which means, they HAVE to take their meds at the same time everyday, take vitamins and supplements everyday, EAT everyday, get a good sleep EVERYDAY (etc.) So, Jaden decided (on her own) that she is going to buy a bed for all 4 of the sick children, so they can stay healthy. She has a jar of coins that she is collecting for the purpose. Plus, I helped her set up an Ebay fundraiser for the same purpose. She is selling Wiggles t-shirts. So, if you find yourself in need of a Wiggles shirt, look no further! They start in child's size 2/4 (2 & 3 year old size) to child's size large (about a 10, 11, or 12 year old size). This is the WORST time to sell on Ebay, so I hope there are some Wiggle fans out there!! The Ebay button is in the upper right hand corner of the blog. I will keep everyone posted on the progress on the fundraiser. Right now, she has a little over $30 in coins, and she is just starting with the shirts. One of the children only needs $116 to buy a new bed!! If you know of someone with small children who might be interested, please pass it on. You can, also, order them directly which would mean more money would go to the cause. Each shirt cost us $1.08, so anything over that goes to the beds. For direct buys, you can purchase the shirts for $5 a piece + $2 shipping. Each additional item is $1 for shipping. For every shirt sold, $4 will go to the purchase of beds!!
Here is the breakdown of bed costs:

Dulce~ $116

Diego~ $207

Jonathan~ $181
*we are waiting for a report back from CI about how much Leydi's bed will be, and if she needs one. This is the way that Jaden has it set up for bed distribution in the order of who will receive their bed first (according to Jaden):
1. Leydi
2. Jonathan
3. Dulce
4. Diego
However, if we raise the $116 before we hear back from CI, we will swap out Leydi and Dulce, so that Dulce can get her bed while we wait for word back from CI> But, that is not the way Jaden wants it done, so we will see if we can get a fast response.

Thanks everyone!