You Guys Did It Again

LoPa Art was a project started by three adoption-orphan care-justice crazed women who were looking for a way to serve the least, the last and the lost of Ethiopia. The three of us were broken at different times, but all in the same way-we desired to use our talents to see restoration and grace permeate the people and the hearts of people we had grown to call family.




The basis for our business was simple. Buy fair-trade, handcrafted art work and leather goods, sell them to you beautiful people and fund a non-profit education and feeding center on a trash dump in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The three of us receive no salary, no percentage of the profits. We wanted transparency to be a clear as our passion.
Three years ago, we had over 100 kids in our program. We partnered with Children's HopeChest to find individual sponsors for our kids so that LoPa could focus more on funding projects to make this community sustainable.




This year we had over 210 kids accepted into our program and LoPa was able to re-focus on not sustaining the kids daily needs, but praying and funding their futures. Together with HopeChest we derived an amazing plan and a really lofty goal: Raise $60,000 to put our older aging-out boys to work in the construction business. We called it the Korah Brick Making projects.
HopeChest did the logistics of a website and we three LoPa girls hit the streets. And the boutiques. And the craft fair venues. And then we hit our knees.




We blogged, facebooked, tweeted, and held shows all over the country. We networked our social circles and brought you all beautiful jewelry and art work from our favorite artists and artisans.




And YOU all responded. By leaps and bounds you all have helped us spread our mission of love and justice for yet another year. We couldn't be more grateful. And today we are humbled and honored to announce that the LoPa Brick Project is 100% fully funded! We are over the moon and over joyed that God has used three women's lives to bring His glory and His justice. We simply cannot thank you enough.




We are in full swing preparing our 2013 calendar and praying over our next project. Please join us in praying His will over our mission and asking how you can further be involved. If you are interested in hosting a home show, please hurry and email us so that we can make arrangements. Our calendar is almost full. You can reach us at lopa3moms at gmail dot com





- Hugs n Love,

Lindsey

I'm With You

The Hero and I didn't know much about soccer until the arrival of our two Ethiopian angels. Oh, we had heard the sport referred to as "football", but never really gave it much more thought. Since having the The Angel and The Dinosaur introduced into our lives, soccer has become part of our routine. While The Hero and I are doing our best, we're American football fans first and some times soccer doesn't compute to our language.

Based upon comments and stares we receive at the soccer field, The Angel and The Dinosaur appear to be some sort of soccer phenoms. While I think this is an amazing gift that my kids have been given, I am not a parent who believes that the future of my children solely rests in their athletic ability. If my babies want to love Jesus and play professional soccer or love Jesus and becoming starving artists, the only part that matters to mama is that they love Jesus and use their gifts to honor him.

The Angel asked me a few days ago if she could quit soccer and just play basketball. We talked about finishing some thing once you start it and being a person who is honorable to their word. At the end she asked me if I cared whether or not she played soccer.

I've been reading the kids a book by Bob Goff called Love Does. The first chapter of the book is entitled "I'm With You." The premises is based on an experience Bob had in high school with a friend who during an adventure told Bob he didn't care what choices Bob made because "I'm With You." This stuck with me. I think it makes a great parenting principle. And that's what I told The Angel. I told her that as long as she was true to herself and that she didn't go back on her word, whatever she chose to do, I would be there screaming on the side lines because I'm with her.




- Hugs n Love,
Lindsey