education spesial for children: October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

What we're learning

My big kids are studying Ancient Civilizations, this year. It is great timing (God's timing) that we would be reading so many great books about Ancient Egypt and the other ancient civilizations. Why? Well, we're all learning that many of the Pharoahs were from the land of Nubia/Kush (Ethiopia and Sudan). It's fascinating, that this country, that we've come to love, once ruled the ancient world. We're currently reading, "The God King," about Taharka, a young Nubian Pharoah (who happens to also be mentioned in the Bible). Gavin gets so excited when we tell him that this King probably looked a lot like him. It's also fun for us then to look at movies, depicting Ancient Egypt and see that the actors are all white and their slaves were black-- WRONG PEOPLE!! Anyway, God has truly opened our eyes in so many ways this year, and is now using our Sonlight books to bring us closer to the country of our son's heritage.

If you've adopted from Ethiopia and want to encourage your children with this history, we are using Sonlight Core 6. You can leave a comment if you have some questions for us.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

My passions- keeping my kids healthy and orphan care

As a Mom of several kids with allergies and asthma, I'm always looking for new prodcuts to help them improve their health. About one month ago, I was introduced to Shaklee products. (They're not new, Mike said his Mom has used the products since he was little). After a little more research and test-driving some of the cleaning products I became hooked. The products are completely safe, non-toxic, economical and work really well. The best part about them is: I don't have to worry about Elli having an asthma attack after I've CLEANED the house-- have you read the warnings on the back of some of your cleaning products? You're actually supposed to wear a mask when using them-- I know because when I didn't, I would cough...hmmmm

So, I KNOW you're wondering how this helps with orphan care. Let me fill you in.
As a distributor with Shaklee, I can help non-profit organizations set up their own website. It's free and the non-profit then makes the money off of all products sold from their website-- It's a win-win: people switch from using common cleaning products (or supplements- as Shaklee has amazing supplements), purchase their products from the non-profit and then the non-profit is able to fundraise without much work. I'm hoping that those of you who have non-profit orphan ministries will sign up to give your organization a much needed boost in this economy!!

Finally, the girls and I are planning to return to Africa within the next 1-2 years on the first of many orphan care missions trips. The money we raise personally, from being distributors for Shaklee will help defray the cost of these trips--BENEFITTING ORPHANS again.

Please visit: sweeneygreenclean.myshaklee.com If you have any questions please shoot them my way. If you're working with a non-profit to help fund your adoptions, I'd love to visit with you more.

Friday, October 23, 2009

He's coming home!!!

Thank you prayer warriors! Sweet Kasheku passed court and will be coming home soon!!! Praise the Lord!!!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Tonight's the night!

If you've followed our blog for awhile, you'll remember us asking for prayers for a wonderful little boy K***, who was Gavin's best friend at the Transition Home. We met him while we were there and ached to bring him home with us. Tonight, while we sleep, his case will be before a judge in Ethiopia. PLEASE PLEASE pray that this little boy will pass court and be united with his forever family soon!!! Karen and John Mark, we are praying for you too!

Hope to be posting great news tomorrow--you may hear us scream all the way from North Dakota if he passes!!

The area that Gavin comes from is being hit by a SEVERE drought. This is reality and many, many families can't feed their children. His village is in SW Ethiopia, right by the Kenyan border. He has often told me, "Mommy, in Benchi, I so, so so hungry." Keep that in mind, when you read the following article and look at the map in the article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33433935/ns/world_news-africa/

We, as a church, can be doing so much to bless these people!

Ex-aides charged for abuse of autistic boy | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune

Ex-aides charged for abuse of autistic boy greatfallstribune.com Great Falls Tribune

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Hot Sauce

We had a glorious first full weekend in Williston. We're in a great neighborhood, with lots of kids--most of whom ended up playing in our driveway yesterday. The big kids got to go to a Hay maze with a local youth group and then we tried out a new church this morning. People, overall, are VERY friendly and welcoming. We also love that we are 5 minutes from everything again.

Now to the hot sauce-- I had read on another adoptive Mom's blog that her daughter loved to pour hot sauce on everything. Ethiopian food is extremely spicey (Sweeney food is not). Gavin had eaten almost everything we put in front of him, but now that he has his own jar of hot sauce sitting next to his place-- He eats at least twice as much!!! He wasn't enjoying the tomato soup for lunch today--so, we had him pour some hot sauce in it and got the desired, "UM, Mommy this is yummy!" We've done hot sauce on potatoes, sandwiches, eggs, you name- it's been hot sauced!

For all you soon to be adoptive parents out there-- GET SOME HOT SAUCE!! It will make everything so much easier- now, if we could only get him to like chocolate!

Monday, October 12, 2009

We made it!!!

We made it to ND in really good shape..had lots of help from people at home and Mike's crew here. Layne got pretty sick Saturday, but is doing much better--Praise the Lord!!

Before we left, we had our first family photos taken by Alissa Ferullo. She did an incredible job, was so fun to work with and turned our session into great pictures. If you want to see them, check out her blog: alissaferullophotography.com. She just posted our pictures to her blog.

We get internet at home tomorrow!!!! Thanks for your prayers with regards to our move.