Yesterday morning I was mostly awake from 3:00 a.m. on. Needless to say, I woke up crabby. I went about my morning and then I got to the email portion of my day. This was waiting for me in my inbox.
Dear Lisa and Derek, hello. Today I have sent to your address a package: 2 grateful letters from Slavjanka and from the director of Orphanage; photos of children and of the doctor, entrance to the building of Orphanage and things, which have bought: the clothes, footwear, some medical equipment, vacuum cleaner, camera (now director can photograph children per day of their birth and other holidays). Slavjanka (on her money) decided to buy photoalbums and to present to each child, that child collected the photos. And certainly director has bought chocolate and has handed over children. Slavjanka decided to take patronage above this Orphanage and to address to the rich people to help Orphanage. I am a little ill and I shall be in hospital till February 15. When I shall come home necessarily I shall send e-mail.
With love, Galina
Now I’m trying to ignore that “I’ll be in the hospital” part. Otherwise the rest is pretty awesome. It so makes up for waking up at 2:55 a.m.
I have a once in a lifetime (ok, more doesn’t come around very often) opportunity this summer. The youth director and I are taking 3 teenage girls to China for 16 days. It is a mission trip with chinaconnect. We are partnering with two other Lutheran churches for one large youth event. I’m not sure if it is 30 people total or 30 youth going on this trip. I think it is 30 total. anyway, the goal of the trip is for our American youth to 1)experience different levels of Chinese culture (large city, Beijing, medium city, Xian and rural community, destination unknown) and 2)work alongside Chinese youth doing a servant project. The trip is quite involved, includes tons of travel, yet is quite reasonable in cost. However, the cost is still more than any one of us could shell out in one chunk. Therefore, we are doing a few fundraisers.
So I know this lady who makes great chocolate truffles and caramels so we asked her if she would be willing to organize a fundraiser for this China trip. Actually, she brought it up. She’s crazy like that.
Yes, I am nuts and I’m firing up my chocolate factory for one more go at candy. This time the money raised will help the 5 of us get to China. The total to get all 5 of us to China (including airfare) is $12,500. By the end of the month we will have paid our deposits leaving us with $10,000 to come up with. Now we know it is unlikely that we can fundraise $10,000, but we are going to do our damndest to get as close as possible.
I’m sending out a plea to those of you who love Sweet Hope truffles and caramels. I’m doing a limited selection of truffle flavors and have a few new box sizes this time. I encourage you to check it out and think of your sweetheart. I’m taking orders until January 29. All non-local orders will ship February 9 and local orders will be available for delivery or pick-up on the 11th. Hmmm, that’s just in time for Valentine’s Day. Imagine that.
You aren’t just helping me get to China, but 3 amazing youth too.
Would you look at that. Nary a Christmas letter to be found around here. I’m rather disappointed in myself about it. Um, not really.
The whole trusty family arrived in Washington on the 22nd and we have been on the go ever since. We haul the dog with us (she’s finally getting adjusted to riding in the car) and between her and the no-nap-kid it’s pretty much been a whine fest around these parts. This week isn’t looking much better.
So that whole Christmas wrap-up thing.
Visited the old people (my grandparents). We spent Christmas Eve at the trusty in-law’s house. We ate food and opened gifts. I think the boy was a little confused that his cousin received more gifts than he did. What he didn’t realize is that she got all of her gifts from her parents in addition to the stuff from the aunts and uncle and grandparents. The boy also didn’t take into account that his biggest Christmas gift was laying on the floor next to him snoring.
On Christmas Day we went to my parent’s house. Talk about the best Christmas ever. For the first time all three of my parent’s kids were in the same room. Little, Leo and Brian came. My step-brother Zac showed up and it was like we were a real family. Ok, we are a real family, but one that is so mixed. I think Zac got a kick out of these “new” sisters of his. Zac and I have been together at Christmas for the past 7 years or so, but this is the first time he’s seen Little and I together. What a riot. The old people joined us for dinner and I had the best time.
Christmas morning was quite magical for the boy. Amazingly, he slept until 7:20. The dog was up earlier than he was. We heard his bedroom door open and then feet running down to the family room. A few minutes later the running was coming back to us and he ran into our room and said, “MOM DAD! Santa brought me a new scooter!” Best Christmas moment evah. Especially since I had forgotten to put the scooter out the night before and did it when I put the dog out at 6:00. Santa also brought the boy a new guitar so he and daddy can jam. Derek and the boy gave me a new scarf, a sherpa hat and the third season of The Tudors. There was also a gift for me from Santa. The envelope said:
To Lisa:
For all your hard work to help those who have none. Thanks for working in my spirit.
All my best, Santa
I cried. Not because of what was inside, but because I spend so much time to raise all of this money for children who have nothing and I don’t ask for anything in return. This year I have felt like such a failure. I had planned on sending the money to Russia on the 18th or 19th of December. As of this moment, it still isn’t sent. I have never had such an issue with trying to give away money. The bank has given me problems, paypal wouldn’t confirm our account and when we tried to transfer the money into our personal account it took almost a week. The good news is the money is now accessible and we will go to transfer it this afternoon. I only hope that it will get there in time for the children to have a good New Year.
So what was inside the envelope? Tickets to the Cake concert on New Years Eve.
At 5:00 last night the postman knocked on my door and said, “are there really 70 there?” Yes. It would have been more, but I have a few deliveries and some people did deliveries for me. 78 orders in all. 396 individual boxes of candy. 2299 truffles and 2510 caramels. I would give you the financial figures, but that requires some math and additional clicking of things and I just haven’t had enough coffee for that yet.
What worked: the awesome help of my volunteers, the use of St. Mark Lutheran’s kitchen, a well planned out strategy.
What didn’t work: a fewer number of helpers on boxing day. It wasn’t that it didn’t get done. It’s just that I was working until 9:00 that night putting on labels. I appreciate the help of the ladies I did have that day.
What I would do differently: not get an 8 week old puppy during chocolate season. Especially one that has a serious case of worms requiring me to stop what I’m doing and take her to the vet.
Don’t get my wrong. I luuurves me my dog. She is too damn cute not to love. If I had my choice I would not have gotten a dog at this particular time. However, she was the last one available, the breed of dog we wanted (only with some added Mastiff) and an all around awesome dog. She’s just well… Busy.
The update on her though is that she weighs in at a little over 19 pounds (the size of the boy when we brought him home from Russia). She is 9 1/2 weeks old. She is going to be one big girl. The trusty husband, the vet tech and the vet were taking bets on how big she’s going to get. Derek says 65 pounds. The rest of us are thinking well over 80. That’s ok. We love her no matter what.
Now that chocolate season is done I actually have less free time than when I did during chocolate season. I have all of the work that I put off during those two weeks to finish, cookies to make, Christmas shopping to finish, a few remaining presents need to be made and finish potty training said 9 1/2 week old puppy.
The first two weeks of December are the single most busy weeks in my life. This year was especially busy because of the shear number of chocolates and caramels I had to make (1882 truffles and 2088 caramels to be exact). So far I’ve done 1941 truffles and 1804 caramels. I still have 216 truffles to make. And now you are wondering what public school I went to for that math. Extras people, extras. I have to have some kind of reward for doing all of this.
I will say that I could not have gotten as far as I have without the numerous volunteers that have helped so far. Last Saturday I had about 8 volunteers that did at least 4 days worth of work. The past 3 days I’ve had my girlfriend, Raissa, her to help. We’ve taken turns cooking dinner and it has worked out great. I have help tonight (none on Friday *hint*hint*) and a crew of people coming on Monday. I will get this done.
So with all of that work, I certainly did not expect to have other life things piled on top of it. Things like a puppy. Add to that a 5 year old and well… he’s 5. Enough said. Then he’s the 5 year old with some tactile issues (read: doesn’t like to touch the dog) and well… I need a little Prozac. Mom, can you hook me up?
Other than one “minor” incident yesterday when the dog decided it would be fun to crap allll over my bedroom carpet it hasn’t been terrible. It would be nice if we could get her to sleep in her crate at night, but she cries and wakes everyone up. She sleeps in there, but if we close the door it is like torture. Instead, the cats sleep with us (nothing new), dog sleeps in the crate and comes down to our bedroom to wake us up to go potty. We made it through the night last night without an accident. WooHoo! Of course this morning the cats both decided to simultaneously puke. One eats the Christmas tree and the other, he’s just a world class puker to begin with.
We are finally getting a rhythm around her. It includes closing the doors to every room of the house. It’s just better that way. The cats are also adjusting to the change. There is less hissing and scratching and they are not hiding in the bedroom anymore. I guess this is a good sign.
