Cinnamon Rolls... I can DO!

This week marks five months for us on the waitlist for Penny.  I've purposefully put off blogging in the past few weeks because every time I have gone to write, it has come out as grumbling and I have had to check my attitude and my heart.  In the meantime, I have been getting a stirring within my spirit to do something more than just pray and wait for what is to come.

I want to do something that will make a marked difference in the lives of orphaned children in Ethiopia in a lasting way.  Not just for our dear Penny, but for the countless of others that are abandoned through famine, HIV, death or other tragedy but do not get the opportunity to run into the arms of a loving family.  The agency that we are using for our adoption, Christian World Adoption Agency, is undertaking a project right now called Acacia Village which, once completed, will be a beautiful place of hope and renewal for orphaned children and will allow community training for hundreds of men and women in the surrounding villages.  The children's building has just been completed and once we have received our referral of Penny (once we get her picture and medical/ background information and accept her placement in our family), she will be living in Acacia Village for atleast 2 months, maybe longer, until we are finally able to bring her home.  I want our family to leave a legacy of love in that building and in that place.    So here's my "big dream"...

I make cinnamon rolls every year for family and friends.  In fact, it has been a family tradition for my mom and I since I was in elementary school.  I can remember carrying a stack of cinnamon rolls taller than I was into school in 7th grade after convincing my mom that I wanted to give them as gifts to every one of my seven teachers (and the principal)... You might assume I was a bit of a brown-noser and I think my husband, Dustin would probably agree - we went to junior high together.  There is no getting away from my past.    But that wasn't the end of our cinnamon roll escapades.   I made 45 pans of cinnamon rolls the first year we were married because we were fresh out of college and had little disposable income for gifts.  So, needless to say, anyone on our gift list that year received a pan of the rolls.   And until I moved to North Carolina five years ago, every year I would drive a pan of those sticky, deliciously gooey and sweet pans of rolls to my high school choir director's house because once I started the tradition with him in 7th grade, he requested them every year after that.  Mr. Lindfors had rolls delivered to his home for 15 years.

And it got me thinking... what if I took orders from friends and family for cinnamon rolls and gathered all the proceeds to go to the building of Acacia Village?  And the bigger dream I have is for years to come - each year we can continue to take orders and create a legacy of love at Christmas time for the children of Ethiopia.

For those of you who know me well, this new fundraiser combines two of my favorite loves of all: Africa and Sweets.  I'm in the beginning stages of planning how I'm going to put this whole project together: thankfully my amazing mom flies in from California tomorrow and is going to help me plan and prepare.

So, I'll keep you posted... and if you have any suggestions on how to make a fundraiser successful or how to publicize or how to start up a paypal account or any other advice, please leave me a comment.

I'm super excited to be "doing" something in this wait time ... and cinnamon rolls... i can DO!!