We have been so blessed to hear about the different creative things people are doing to help support the kids at the orphanage. I heard about something really neat that a couple who internationally adopted last year did and wanted to have them explain it to you in their own words. This is Erik and Allyson and here is their story!

December 3, 2009 marked one year from hearing my husband say, “Ally, we’re not going to be home for Christmas this year”. We passed court in the country we were adopting from and Samuel was officially our son. We had started the adoption process 14 months earlier. He has now been our son for a year. We marked the day by starting a new tradition. We decided to do something to give back to the country. There are so many days to celebrate in adoption and we decided this day would be a perfect one to give back to the country as it is the day that it gave us an amazing blessing in our child. As Sam gets older it is our desire that he will decide what we do, but for now, we had to come up with something he could do with us to give back. So… we had a stroller-a-thon to raise money for an organization we wanted to support who cares for orphans in the country he is from. We chose the project that we have been following as a family for many months. We first saw the story of these children on another families adoption blog. Family and friends pledged money for our goal of making it 3 miles or 27 laps with Sammy not melting down. It went great! And the best part is that on the 27th lap Sam completely melted down. It’s like he knew he had made it:) Lastly we walked a victory lap as a family:)