An Ode to My Friend and a Chance for You to Win Something

Way back before we'd come home with Abe, I started reading this cool blog by a lady who was in the early stages of adopting from Ethiopia, and we discovered that we lived in the same part of town. So just a week or so after we got Abe home to Portland, we met in person for the first time. After over two years (!), I can say that Autumn is one of my best friends in Portland and one of my favorite people ever. I call her sometimes the "real deal" because that's exactly what she is. More on that later. For now, a story in pictures:

After just a week or so settled in at home, we go visit our new blogging friends at their house. Abe immediately felt comfortable with this lady, who would become a regular babysitter. As soon as he could talk, he christened her "Aw-aw" in lieu of "Autumn." It was a sad day when Abe starting saying her name 'right'.

For Abe, it was love at first sight upon meeting the then 3-year-old Rhett. Abe's face in this photo shows exactly how he has always felt about his friend.

Rhett was always so very patient with little Abe, two years his junior. Abe always wanted to lean in to wherever Rhett was sitting.

This is maybe my favorite photo of these two. Rhett is eternally patient with his groupie, and Abe is so incredibly proud to be getting this hug from his hero.

Abe turns two and still often is found leaning into Rhett.

Another year passes, and Abe still wants to do whatever Rhett is doing.

That is when he's not too busy trying to make out with Rhett's little sister.

Now to the "real deal" part. Back in the spring when all the waiting families in the Ethiopia program found out about the new "two trips" rule for adoptions, we were thrown for a loop much like everyone else. We had calculated our finances as best we could, but we knew at that point that we would have to do some fund-raising for these extra travel expenses. Neither of us are good at asking for donations. I might go so far as to say it is torturous for us. While discussing all this with Autumn one night (there is very little I don't discuss with Aw-aw), she generously offered one of her dolls for us to use for raising funds for our travel expenses.

Like I said, she's the kind of friend you want in this life. The. Real. Deal.

So on to details. In case you aren't familiar with her work, you can check it out at her etsy shop here.

She makes things like this banner, which she gave Abe for his 3rd birthday.

She also spent hours helping me make this Max costume last Halloween. It was so adorable that I felt a little sorry for the other kids who didn't get all the 'oohs and aahs' that Abe got that year.

She also whips up these nifty birthday caps as party favors for all the guests at her daughter's birthday party.

Autumn has donated one of her custom dolls towards our fund-raising. The winner of the doll gets to order the doll according to requested skin tone, hair, and initial. These custom dolls are incredible.

As you can see, Abe loves his Abe doll.

You can click on the PayPal donation button in the right hand column of this page under "Fundraising" and contribute $5 for a chance to win one of these custom dolls valued at $52. If you donate $5 and post a link to this on your blog, you will get your name in the drawing another time for free.

With the holidays coming up, along with knowing you're giving someone a great gift, you can feel good knowing that you're helping our family get a step closer to bringing our daughter and sister home. Thank you.

(After finishing this post, I realized the lack of photos of me and Autumn. I should try to fix that

Also, more on "The Call" soon)