In Memory of "Judy" Pong Sun

My mom and my sister.

My family, my friends, my heroes.

My mom lost her battle with breast cancer in 2005.


This Sunday is the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Northwest Ohio

In Memory of my mom, Judy Pong Sun -I am part of a team my sister organized and raising money for the cause.....I will be sleepin in on race day-not able to travel to be there in person this time, but my sister and friends will be there. I joined the team and am supporting the cause. I am almost to my fundraising goal, can you help?

$5 or $10 or $20 will get me there.....

I also support this cause in honor of my friend, Marilyn who is a breast cancer survivor.

She will be there on race day.


Go here to make a tax deductible donation

https://www. kintera. org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=281697&lis=0&kntae281697=022CB3C3337C407D9928828FFD7D73EF

Click Here to Donate

Book Review-The Adoption Decision

Book Review by Lena Wright
www.ConnectionsWellnessCenter.com
September 22, 2008



I recently read The Adoption Decision by Laura Christianson. This is a book that I highly recommend for people considering adoption, those already in the process of adopting and even those who have already adopted.

The subtitle of the book is 15 Things You Want To Know Before Adopting, and Laura does a great job of using humor and real life stories to convey serious issues that need to be considered by prospective adoptive parents. I appreciated the author’s use of scripture and her decidedly Christian world view. It helped me to focus in on what is important to God. Most of the books about adoption I have discovered so far do not address the issues from a Christian perspective.

Mrs. Christianson includes a segment on ‘Adoption Lingo’ that is helpful for people just getting started in researching adoption. Her wealth of experience as an adoptive mom, educator and mentor are evident throughout the book. Laura also shares the stories of many different adoptive families and this adds a depth of experience-both positive and negative to the book. I think that Mrs. Christianson provides a realistic picture of adoption so that readers can go into the process with their eyes opened to some of the challenges. At the same time, I did not experience the book as discouraging or negative toward adoption. She managed to strike a healthy balance between the reality of adoption and the fantasy or naiveté that prospective adoptive parents may have at the beginning of the adoption process. The author does a good job of asking thought provoking questions and sharing real life experiences of adoptive families.

I found The Adoption Decision to be clear and concise, which makes for easy reading. Mrs. Christianson challenges many myths and offers multiple points of view. This book helped to stimulate discussion between my husband and I on many topics related to adoption. I liked that that author not only pointed out things I hadn’t thought of, but she also offered some solutions and ideas for how to handle different situations. She didn’t offer ‘pat’ answers or easy solutions, but she did get us thinking about situations we may encounter with our adopted children. This will allow us to devise our own strategies for dealing with the challenges that we encounter as an adoptive family.

The Adoption Decision also included discussion/reflection questions and a good list of resources. I found this book to be highly useful, user friendly and thoughtfully written. I believe it will be a valued resource as we continue on this Adoption Adventure! I highly recommend The Adoption Decision.

Help Orphans in Haiti

Image by glasshalffull91 via Flickr

This is a personal post.

First, our boys (we are adopting 2 brothers from Haiti) are safe and they have food and shelter and caretakers/nannies providing good care.......

but........

This is a heartfelt and somewhat desperate plea from us, as waiting adoptive parents thousands of miles away from our children who still live in Haiti......

We're feeling pretty worried and concerned.......At this time, our boys are safe from the storms, but it's the after effects we are praying about and feel we must DO SOMETHING.

Watch this heartbreaking video called http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/slideshows/090808_haiti_floods/

Please pray for Haiti. our kids are safe, but the impact from these storms is only just beginning. It is such a poverty stricken place. The storms have wiped out what little crops there were. the supply and demand for food and clean/safe drinking water causes increases in prices, shortages, and sometimes, riots and violence. There were riots and a coup in April of this year...over the increasing prices. These storms are only making bad things worse.


I got an email from the Orphanage today, and they are seeking to stock up on food (rice & beans, mostly) to help them get thru the coming months. The volunteer/administrator is worried and shared her specific concerns and needs of the orphanage with us as adoptive parents.

Please consider making a donation to the orphanage where our kids (Steeve and Jean Baptiste) are at. They live in Port au Prince at Three Angels Children's Relief.


You can make a one time donation....of ANY amount by visiting Three Angels Children's Relief

Or you can sponsor a student at Three Angels Christian Academy for only $27/month by going to the student sponsorship page

School was supposed to start this week-Sept. 8th. But with the storms, the Haitian gov't moved the start of school to the first week in October. The entire country is impacted by the devastation of these storms.

Or

mail your tax deductible donation to:
Three Angels Children's Relief
82 Rivertrail Drive
Palm Coast, FL 32137


Please pray for Haiti. the boys are safe, but the impact from these storms is only just beginning. It is such a poverty stricken place. The storms have wiped out what little crops there were. the supply and demand for food and clean/safe drinking water causes increases in prices, shortages, and sometimes, riots and violence.

I got an email from the Orphanage today, and they are seeking to stock up on food (rice & beans, mostly) to help them get thru the coming months. There is much uncertainty in Haiti.

I have been to the orphanage and met some of the people involved/in charge. You can trust that this is a nonprofit in Haiti is actually helping the children...they take good care of the kids, and they do ALOT with very little resources. your gift will make a difference!

For another simple way to help, check out my fellow adoptive mom, Cara's post called Rice and Beans Night

This is a GREAT and SIMPLE idea we are going to implement right away. Check it out. Talk to your kids about poverty and living conditions. Teach them all that we all have to be thankful for. Teach them about helping those less fortunate than we are......

Thanks for your time and consideration, prayers and ACTION.

Perhaps your church or school or workplace could collect some loose change.....it really can make a huge difference.....I'm putting a milk jug at my office......or maybe hold a raffle or sell some unused stuff around your house....100% of what is donated goes directly to the children-the administration takes no pay-they are all volunteers.

Please pass this along/forward to anyone you think may help.

We are not asking you to do anything we aren't willing to do. If you normally buy us birthday or Christmas gifts, DON'T! Do this instead. Seriously. Nothing would make us happier....and isn't that what gifts are supposed to be about, anyway? Making the recipient happy?

EVERY penny helps!!


Sincerely and prayerfully,

Lena & Bob

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• Clinton named UN envoy to Haiti (cbc.ca)
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• In Haiti, patients despair of adequate health care (cnn.com)
• GuardianFilms: Haiti's Lost Girls (guardian.co.uk)