Are things “meant to be”?

Every year up until 2008, LWB doubled in size with its programs and donations. Last year, however, our donations declined just a bit. We reflected on the reasons behind this and one thought we had was that our largest support group has always been adoptive families from China. With adoptions slowing…maybe our donations were going to slow, too. We thought long and hard about our future plans, and we knew that one of the ways to help more children in need was to get our message out to people outside of the adoption community, while staying loyal to our core donors of adoptive families.

Then comes a night in December that I will never forgot….I was just finishing up my emails for the night and came across an email that another LWB volunteer had forwarded to me. It was about a contest in a magazine geared to moms….Cookie Magazine’s Smart Cookie award. It was past 9:30pm CT and the contest closed at 11:59EST. I thought about blowing it off, quite honestly, but it was 250 words or less on a mom who was making a difference and I thought I had nothing to lose. My first attempt writing about Amy was over 750 words…it is actually really hard to write about someone in just 250, especially Amy. I chopped up my entry as quickly as possible and pushed send. Never in a million years did I expect to hear anything. Amy had just told me the week before that we needed medical money, and this contest came with $35,000 in prize money for the charity. I knew that would help so many children, and was astounded when two days later, I got a call from Cookie magazine. Amy had been chosen as one of the five finalists, and of course LWB went on to win the donation from CITI. Baby Tai, above, will now have surgery because of this money.

We had all prayed and prayed for a way to help even more children, and I never would have thought that way would have come into my inbox through a magazine contest. I can’t help thinking that it was truly “meant to be”. So what do you think? Do you believe things happen for a reason?

Karen

The Economy and Charitable Giving

It goes without saying that just about everyone knows our economy isn’t in a good place right now. People are putting off buying a home or purchasing a car and are trying to save as much as possible. So where does charitable giving fall into that mix?

Just about every charity director I know has told me that their donations are markedly down this year while requests for help are way up due to the harder financial times. One of our LWB volunteers works in a local food pantry once a week, and she told me that the number of families applying for services has doubled. As I speak to groups about helping orphaned children in China, more and more I am asked directly, “why should we help in China when so many people right here in the US are hurting now?”


I believe so fully that a child is a child is a child, no matter where they happened to be born, and that any child who is hurting deserves to be loved and helped. Children who are orphaned have a very special spot in my heart as well. During these hard times, I still recommend LWB enthusiastically to people as a charity to support because I know the dollars are going exactly where we say they are, because I know we produce results and change lives with those donations, and because I know our amazing volunteers are thanking donors and keeping them informed of how their donations are used. But I am wondering what the rest of the world is thinking.

In our current economic crisis, do you think each country needs to care for “their own” first and foremost? Or do you still support international giving? Has your family had to make the decision to not give as much this year due to shrinking 401Ks and job instability? Let us know your thoughts. And as always, let us know if we need to be doing anything different to show our gratitude. Every morning I get up and give thanks for everyone who chooses to make a difference in the lives of children in China. We absolutely couldn’t do it without you.

Amy Eldridge
Executive Director
Love Without Boundaries Foundation
“Hope and Healing for Children in Need”