WE NEED YOUR HELP!

During our June trip, we will be distributing supplies to the families and children living in Pastores, Pueblo Nuevo, Guatemala and to at least one orphanage, possibly two. Each of these areas are in great need of even basic supplies and necessities. Fortunately, we have enough people traveling with us in June that we will be able to bring down all of the supplies then.

We are in need of your help! Will you look over these lists and let us know if you can help in any way. Whether you can send just 1 bottle of shampoo or can organize a supply drive in your community, at your school, at your job or at your church…every item contributed helps someone in Guatemala.

I am also including items that we are collecting for our October and December trips. More items will be added later…this is just the beginning of the lists for those trips, but if you’re planning on doing a spring cleaning of your child’s room soon, remember that we can use every new or like new toy, shoes and socks that you no longer need or want for our Christmas distribution in Guatemala.

All items (for the June trip) need to be received no later than June 1, 2009. You can mail your supplies to:

Across All Borders
P.O. Box 14086
Baton Rouge, LA 70898

We are asking each person that sends items to include a small monetary donation to help us get the items to Guatemala. It is going to cost a lot to bring all of these things down. Because we have enough people traveling with us, it will not cost as much as shipping them down beforehand, but it will still be a large amount of money. We are not requiring this and certainly understand if you only want to donate items and not include help for extra and overweight luggage fees, but if you could include $1, $5, $10, $20 or whatever amount you are able, we will be incredibly grateful!

Please include your name and email address on a note in the shipment so we can let you know when we receive it. If you have any questions, email me at terry@acrossallborders.org. Feel free to email or comment here if you plan to send items. We would love to hear from you and to excitedly await the arrival of your donations.

Items Needed for June:

Tylenol (adult, children’s, infant)
Ibuprofen (adult, children’s infant)
Pepto-Bismol (chewable tablets)
Immodium AD
Antacids
Adult cold medicine (in pill form)
Neosporin
Alcohol Pads
Hand Sanitizer (small, personal sized bottles)
Sanitary Napkins
Toothpaste (adult, children’s, toddler)
Toothbrushes (adult, children’s, toddler)
Bar Soap
Shampoo
Lice Treatments
Children’s soap/shampoo (no tears)
Vitamins (adult, children’s infants)
Thermometers (forehead strips)
Parasite Treatments
Fingernail & Toenail Clippers (adult, infant)

Infant’s and Children’s socks
Men’s & Women’s socks (basic white)
Boy’s & Girl’s Underwear
Men’s & Women’s Underwear (basic white)
Infant’s and Children’s Shoes


(*Note - All clothing should be new or in like new condition. If sending used items, please wash each article and place like items together in Ziploc bags labeled with what is included, gender and size.)



Items Needed for October (collecting now in addition to June):

Non-toxic finger-paint
Non-toxic glue
Construction paper
Crayons
Washable Markers
Colored Pencils
Art Canvases (variety of sizes)
Paint brushes
Stencils
No. 2 pencils
(*Art/Craft items are needed for this trip because many of the children living in the orphanages will be involved that week with a variety of art projects that will benefit the orphanages.)


Items Need for December (collecting now in addition to June):

Infant’s and Children’s Shoes
Toys (any variety including stuffed animals, action figures, small cars/trucks/etc, baby dolls, etc….new or like new condition)
Christmas stockings
Men’s & Women’s socks (basic white)
Infant’s and Children’s socks
Boy’s & Girl’s underwear
Men’s & Women’s Underwear (basic white)
Soccer balls
Twin sized sheet sets
Blankets
Backpacks
All items listed as June needs will also be needed in December

(*Note - All clothing should be new or in like new condition. If sending used items, please wash each article and place like items together in Ziploc bags labeled with what is included, gender and size.)

One more thing….you all were so helpful in spreading the word about our cookbook fundraiser. Would you help us spread the word about this, as well? You can use any of the above info that you want on blogs, Facebook, Myspace and any other outlets you have available to you. Thank you so much to those that I know will help with this!

We Have Winners!

The winners of the cookbook sale contest are........

1st place - Seegal

2nd place - Erin S.

3rd place - Holly B.

Congratulations! I will mail your gift cards no later than Friday. Actually...Sig, I'll mail your's no later than Friday. Holly and Erin....I'll get your's to you the next time I see you after Thursday. I've thanked you all already, but have to do it one more time. Thank you so much for your help with this! You all rock! :)

Our highest selling board member, Kori B. Murray, and her husband, sold 50 cookbooks! Unfortunately, board members were not eligible to participate in the contest, but we could't announce the top sellers without recognizing her. We are so grateful to have her on the Board of Directors (as we are all of our Directors) and appreciate her dedication to AAB.

Success!

The Across All Borders cookbook fundraiser was a huge success! In 2 weeks, 300 cookbooks were sold!!! Thank you to everyone that contributed recipes, that sold books for us, to those that helped spread the news on their blogs, facebook, by email and to their family and friends and to each person that purchased one or more cookbooks! The books will be ordered tomorrow morning and will be here by the end of Feb. or early March.

By request, I'm ordering additional cookbooks, so the sale continues until the extras are gone. I'm only ordering 60 extra books (already down to only 57 remaining) and once they're gone, they're gone. If you planned to order one, but forgot or if you'd like to order another one, please order now because I don't know if there will be any left once they come in. You can still place an order and pay online, as well as by mail.

Honestly, this fundraiser became bigger than I thought it would. As a brand new organization, we had no way of knowing how much support we would get from the start. I was afraid that we wouldn't even reach the cookbook company's minimum order of 100 books. My hope was to reach 200, though I was certain we would not get to that number. When we reached 100, I was THRILLED. When we reached 200, I was overwhelmed. As I visited blogs and saw people writing about us, my heart was full of joy. Several days, when so many wrote about us on Facebook, I was reduced to tears. Your support, encouragement, love and especially prayers for us, Across All Borders and our mission means more to us than you will ever know. AAB means nothing without YOU. We cannot do this alone. We cannot do this without YOU. Our prayers are being answered at an unbelievable pace. God is moving and AAB is quickly becoming what it is supposed to be. And it is happening because of YOU! We cannot thank you enough for the support you're giving and we thank you even more on behalf of the orphans and families living in Guatemala and beyond. We pray that the Lord will bless you as much as you are blessing the people of Guatemala.

This is only the beginning. In the next week, we will be updating the list of items we need to bring with us to Guatemala in June and listing more information about our October and December trips (get ready....starting next week, you'll be able to begin signing up...and we may be adding an additional trip for 2009). New fundraisers are in the works and we're close to committing to possibly 2 orphanages that are in great need in Guatemala. This is only the beginning, but what an amazing beginning it is!

By the way, the photo above is a picture I took during my time in Antigua and is being used as the cookbook cover.

Time is Running Out!

Tomorrow is the last day of our cookbook sale. If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, PLEASE do it today! The cookbooks are $15 each, including shipping, and contain about 250 recipes submitted by adoptive families and adoption supporters. There is an entire section containing authentic Guatemalan recipes (created specifically with my Guatemama peeps in mind because I know we’re always looking for authentic recipes from our children’s birth country). $15.…that’s it….can you spare it? $15 to help us cover ALL the fees that have to be paid in order to apply for our 501(c) status….$15 to help us purchase food for orphans and families during our trip to Guatemala in June….just $15 to start changing lives! Please, order today. Order several for your family and friends. Stock up on a few extras to give as birthday gifts throughout the year and for Christmas. If you’re a family that has been blessed by the miracle of adoption, by one for that special friend or family member that supported you like no one else through your process as a “thank you”. THANK YOU for your support and for being the change!

To place your order, click on the Across All Borders button on the side bar, or click HERE.

Behind the Name

With all that is swirling around in my mind these days, I'm trying to soak in and remember all of the tiny details of how things are now, why certain decisions were made a couple of months ago and basically just all of the beginning of AAB so that when I've very old...like 100...and still working around the world, I'll be able to look back at all of the small details and think, "Yeah...I remember that." instead of thinking, "Why did I do that?"

Choosing a name for the organization was challenging. Obviously, most of my ideas were good because they were already taken. Every time I'd think of something, I'd start looking to see if another organization was already using it and sure enough, someone else had come up with it first. For 2 weeks I thought about names and brain stormed with Danny...nothing. One day while Tommy and I were riding down the interstate, I popped in a SCC CD (of course...seriously...I DO love music other than SCC) and one of the songs that I had loved since it came out had a phrase in it that struck me. I didn't have a pen or paper handy, so I told myself that I would remember the phrase and research it when I got home. By the time we made it home, not only had I forgotten the phrase, but I'd also forgotten what CD was playing when I heard it. I didn't know who sang it, what genre it was...nothing. Great. The next day while Danny and I were traveling, I searched through every CD in the car to find THE song. Wouldn't you know that the CD I thought it wouldn't be on so I played it last was THE CD? Go figure! I still wasn't convinced until the song started and half way through...there was the phrase. That was it! ACROSS ALL BORDERS! I assumed it was already taken, but I wrote it down any way. That night I researched it and no other organization was operating under that name. THANK GOD!!

The song itself speaks volumes of what AAB is about, what we're doing and what is yet to come. I can't find a good video of it, but here are the lyrics. Now, I can't imagine AAB being named any thing else. So again, another huge thank you goes out to SCC. :)

"With One Voice"
by Steven Curtis Chapman

We come together with a holy purpose.
We come together for the highest cause.
We speak one language from a heart of worship;
Gathered to bring the song to the world
For your glory

With one voice
We will sing
Every tribe and every tongue
Raise a harmony
With one voice
We will bring
Heaven's beautiful melody
Down to this earth
As we sing to our king
With one voice.

Oceans divide us, but we sing together
Now what defines us, is our love of You.
From every nation and ACROSS ALL BORDERS
Gathered to bring the song to the world
For your glory.

....and it goes on, but you get the point. That's how our name was chosen...in case you wanted to know a little history of AAB that isn't even really history yet. ;)