Excitement Abounds!

This is going to be an exciting week for Altynai's Fund and for many of the waiting "Kyrgyz 65" so I want to bring you up to speed!  

First up.  On December 7th, Jim Umberger, one of the waiting father's has been given the opportunity to tell the story of the Kyrygyz 65 and Altynai's Fund at a marketing-business conference.  Odd sounding, I know, but it is wonderful!   Jim and his wife Stephanie, have three beautiful adoptive children and one precious little boy waiting for them in Kyrgyzstan.  Jim works in marketing and at a meeting this fall, he and another associate realized that they were both adoptive father's and subsequently spent some time sharing their stories.  Shortly thereafter, Jim was caught off guard when he was invited to give a presentation at one of their upcoming seminars.   The focus of that portion of the conference is on story telling using today's technologies.  Jim will be showing real life examples of how the 65 waiting families, from across the States, have formed not only a close knit family but also an amazing advocacy network by using the internet, social media and Skype.  Several presenters will speak before Jim, including a gentleman from CNN, and then the session will end with Jim, telling his family's story, the story of the Kyrgyz 65 and the story Altynai's Legacy Adoption Fund.  What amazing stories to tell!  I have seen Jim's presentation and there is no way that his audience is not going to be in moved by what he has to tell them and show them.  I am just hoping and praying that good things will come from this event.  Of course, I would love it if several members of the audience would be moved to donate to the Fund, but I would be even more excited if someone was moved to adopt or become an orphan advocate.  


December 8th - 11 pm PST, the HO, HO, HO Holiday Auction will come to a close so there are still several days left to bid.  The auction is in full swing with a total of 35 items now available and more to post tomorrow.  Eleven items are active and the other's are just waiting for someone to make a move on them.  I promise that I won't whine for long but for the life of me, I can't get Blogger to let people leave comments!  No worries, if you want to place a bid, just email me directly at scbilyeu@gmail.com.  I know that it is an extra step but I would greatly appreciate it.  If I ever do this again, I will have to figure out a more efficient way of doing an online auction.   Just like everything else with Altynai's Fund, it is steep learning curve!  ***** UPDATE 12/7:  BLOGGER IS ALLOWING POSTS.  You can bid in the comment section of the auction page again- just leave your email and bid!  I will moderate the comments so that the emails are kept private.





December 8th is also the last day to participate in the Thirty One Online Sale, that is being put on by a waiting mom, Ann Bates and her friend Heather.  The link to the sale is www.mythirtyone.com/70174 and just click on Place an Order to get started.  If you aren't familiar with Thirty One, they make some amazing bags.   They are high quality and super cute.  I actually have several thermal totes and we love them at my house.   Twenty percent of the proceeds will go back to Altynai's Fund, so please check it out. 


Last but not least, Saturday, December 10th, John and Julie Wright, our favorite Kyrgyz missionaries, will be guest of honors at a fundraiser that is being sponsored by the Littlejohn Family in New York.  John wrote an amazing post today asking for support and I was literally moved to tears because this was completely unexpected.  To read his incredibly kind words, please check out his post about Tilek and Altynai's Fund on his blog  at http://actofkindness.blogspot.com/2011/12/helpkg65com.html .


All the events that I mentioned have the potential to be phenomenal so if you can, please help in some way.  Prayers, a donation or telling a friend is what we need!