two sides to everything. two months waiting.

today marks 2 months on the waitlist for little brother. . . so i thought i'd talk about something having to do with TWO.

if there is anything that i have learned so far in my life, it is that there are always at least two sides to everything.  no thing is all good or all bad.  there is ALWAYS a tradeoff.  always. . . now i know this might seem cliché or obvious, but i think we can all get caught up in thinking we know what is right, and that other people are either wrong or have bad information or just don’t care.  but what really happens, i think, is that we are simply weighing the ‘tradeoffs’ and ending up on different sides. 

 

for example.  look at this ‘genital autonomy’ doll i made.  its pretty cool, right?  well it has two very different sides. . .  i got the idea from the logo of this british charity: http://www.genitalautonomy.eu/# ...  their organization works with groups seeking to end non-therapeutic genital surgery on children whether they are intersex, female or male. . . . i like their message.  and i especially liked their logo.  it definitely catches your attention.  and is a great conversation starter. 

before i was a mom, i hadn’t thought too much about circumcision.  then, when we were waiting to adopt our son, i started to think more and more about it and do some research.   in the end, we decided not to circumcise.  we don’t judge folks who do.  and i understand the many reasons why people decide to circumcise.  it just wasn’t right for us. . . which brings me to the interesting thing i discovered about circumcision: it gets people fired up!!!! i brought it up in casual conversation one evening at a local bar in San Francisco and within minutes, the entire bar was yelling and screaming at each other about it.  interesting, huh?  anyway, that has always fascinated me about circumcision.  so i made this ‘genital autonomy’ doll. . . it’s kind of like a weird coffee table book – its a great conversation piece.

i’m planning some more blog posts to share more about the tradeoffs of other things that i find interesting.  so stay tuned . . .

art for sale!!!!

check out my new paintings for sale. . .  all profits from sales are sent to organizations that support the education and empowerment of impoverished children in Ethiopia: The Tesfa Foundation, Ethiopia Reads, or The Fregenet Foundation.  here are some examples of what is currently for sale.  please visit my art blog for more details.

and please, if you haven't yet, donate 5 bucks for famine relief here...

sugarhigh 01   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 02   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 03   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 04   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 05   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 06   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 07   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

sugarhigh 08   14"x17"  mixed media on paper  $100

a hungry child can't wait: ask 5 for 5

Guest Blogger: Sarah Lenssen from #Ask5for5

Family photos by Mike Fiechtner Photography



Thank you "ocho n waffles" and nearly 150 other bloggers from around the world for allowing me to share a story with you today, during Social Media Week.



A hungry child in East Africa can't wait. Her hunger consumes her while we decide if we'll respond and save her life. In Somalia, children are stumbling along for days, even weeks, on dangerous roads and with empty stomachs in search of food and water. Their crops failed for the third year in a row. All their animals died. They lost everything. Thousands are dying along the road before they find help in refugee camps.



At my house, when my three children are hungry, they wait minutes for food, maybe an hour if dinner is approaching. Children affected by the food crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia aren't so lucky. Did you know that the worst drought in 60 years is ravaging whole countries right now, as you read this? Famine, a term not used lightly, has been declared in Somalia. This is the world's first famine in 20 years.12.4 million people are in need of emergency assistance and over 29,000 children have died in the last three months alone. A child is dying every 5 minutes. It it estimated that 750,000 people could die before this famine is over. Take a moment and let that settle in.



The media plays a major role in disasters. They have the power to draw the attention of society to respond--or not. Unfortunately, this horrific disaster has become merely a footnote in most national media outlets. News of the U.S. national debt squabble and the latest celebrity's baby bump dominate headlines. That is why I am thrilled that nearly 150 bloggers from all over the world are joining together today to use the power of social media to make their own headlines; to share the urgent need of the almost forgotten with their blog readers. Humans have the capacity to care deeply for those who are suffering, but in a situation like this when the numbers are too huge to grasp and the people so far away, we often feel like the little we can do will be a drop in the ocean, and don't do anything at all.

When news of the famine first hit the news in late July, I selfishly avoided it. I didn't want to read about it or hear about it because I knew I would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable. I wanted to protect myself. I knew I would need to do something if I knew what was really happening. You see, this food crisis is personal. I have a 4-year-old son and a 1 yr-old daughter who were adopted from Ethiopia and born in regions now affected by the drought. If my children still lived in their home villages, they would be two of the 12.4 million. My children: extremely hungry and malnourished? Gulp. I think any one of us would do anything we could for our hungry child. But would you do something for another mother's hungry child?

My friend and World Vision staffer, Jon Warren, was recently in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya--the largest refugee camp in the world with over 400,000 people. He told me the story of Isnino Siyat, 22, a mother who walked for 10 days and nights with her husband, 1 yr-old-baby, Suleiman, and 4 yr.-old son Adan Hussein, fleeing the drought in Somalia. When she arrived at Dadaab, she built the family a shelter with borrowed materials while carrying her baby on her back. Even her dress is borrowed. As she sat in the shelter on her second night in camp she told Jon, "I left because of hunger. It is a very horrible drought which finished both our livestock and our farm." The family lost their 5 cows and 10 goats one by one over 3 months, as grazing lands dried up. "We don't have enough food now...our food is finished. I am really worried about the future of my children and myself if the situation continues."

Will you help a child like Baby Suleiman? Ask5for5 is a dream built upon the belief that you will.



That something I knew I would need to do became a campaign called #Ask5for5 to raise awareness and funds for famine and drought victims. The concept is simple, give $5 and ask five of your friends to give $5, and then they each ask five of their friends to give $5 and so on--in nine generations of 5x5x5...we could raise $2.4 Million! In one month, over 750 people have donated over $25,000! I set up a fundraiser at See Your Impact and 100% of the funds will go to World Vision, an organization that has been fighting hunger in the Horn of Africa for decades and will continue long after this famine has ended. Donations can multiply up to 5 times in impact by government grants to
help provide emergency food, clean water, agricultural support,
healthcare, and other vital assistance to children and families suffering in the Horn.



I need you to help me save lives. It's so so simple; here's what you need to do:

1. Donate $5 or more on this page (http://seeyourimpact.org/members/ask5for5)


2. Send an email to your friends and ask them to join us.


3. Share #Ask5for5 on Facebook and Twitter!

I'm looking for another 100 bloggers to share this post on their blogs throughout Social Media Week. Email me at ask5for5@gmail.com if you're interested in participating this week.



A hungry child doesn't wait. She doesn't wait for us to finish the other things on our to-do list, or get to it next month when we might have a little more money to give. She doesn't wait for us to decide if she's important enough to deserve a response. She will only wait as long as her weakened little body will hold on...please respond now and help save her life. Ask 5 for 5.



Thank you on behalf of all of those who will be helped--you are saving lives and changing history.





p.s. Please don't move on to the next website before you donate and email your friends right now. It only takes 5 minutes and just $5, and if you're life is busy like mine, you probably won't get back to it later. Let's not be a generation that ignores hundreds of thousands of starving people, instead let's leave a legacy of compassion. You have the opportunity to save a life today!

Enkutatash.... Ethiopian New Year!!!!

anybody read this anymore??? i don't blame you if you don't since i haven't really done much with it.  but that is going to change.  things are going to start happening on this little blog.  exciting things! i promise! like selling art to support ethiopia!  that is exciting, right???? so go on and put your email in the "follow ocho n waffles by email" in the top left margin of the blog.  that way you can get an email whenever something new is posted here. . . .also, if you are in the mood to acquire some new art and support some good causes in Ethiopia, click on the toolbar above to find out more.  or just go to my art blog and have a look:  Salty Chica Art for Ethiopia!!!

tonight is new year's eve in Ethiopia!  tomorrow it will be 2004! i was thinking back to 2004 here in the US.  it was a really good year.  i finished my master's at virginia tech.  we traveled to Burma (Myanmar) for a month.  i got engaged on the Irrawaddy River (on a very VERY slow moving river boat which allowed for lots of time for me to finally ask the boy and then still had lots of time to celebrate via tiger beer ).  and  then we loaded up our little honda and moved to Oregon where i started my phd.

we are officially DTE

we are in the process to adopt from ethiopia again. . . a little brother for our Big Lou. we are officially on the wait list and our expected wait time, as of right now, is about 12 months for a referral. so it will be a while before anything 'exciting' starts happening with that. in the mean time, we are so happy to have finished our dossier, which is no small feat! and we are celebrating the fact that we are on the wait list! if i've learned anything from our previous adoption it is this: celebrate when you can. international adoption is a bit of a roller coaster, to say the least -- and sometimes the small victories seem to be trumped by the confusion, the chaos, the uncertainty. . . but it's all part of the adoption bag. adoption is a function of the dueling processes of loss and gain--and so we should expect exactly that.

so with open eyes, we celebrate that we are in the process to adopt again. and we celebrate that more travel to africa is in our future :)

and here is a picture from our big trip this summer up to lake superior. it was heaven! obviously:

Bike Happy!

Taipei TAIWAN

check out our pictures from our trip:

http://ochonwaffles.shutterfly.com/pictures