A Basket of Hope

Just yesterday, I learned about a couple named Sherry and Craig. I have no idea where they live, although I imagine it’s somewhere in the United States. I’ve never met or even spoken to them, and likely never will. My link to Sherry and Craig is a tenuous one, provided by Sandra, the author of a blog called Nailing Jello To A Tree. In truth, I don’t really know Sandra, either. But through the special weirdness of blogging, you and I now have the improbable opportunity to help Sandra as she tries to help her friends.

Improbable — but very possible — because it would take so little.

Sherry and Craig want to adopt a child. There’s nothing especially startling about that. Millions of people are trying to do the same thing, or have done it. Further, the child lives in Uganda, a landlocked nation in Africa where the population is exploding. The number of Ugandan children who are orphaned, homeless, or infected with HIV grows by the minute.

And yet, as so many hopeful parents know, the adoption process involves a long wait, and a lot of expense. That the desire to make a difference turns into such a challenging, costly, and frustrating effort may be the topic of another post. For now, I just want to introduce you to one couple, and the little boy they’d like to welcome into their family.

Sherry and Craig are trying to change the future, not in some earth-shaking manner, but for a single child out of millions. That child could stay right where he is. Or he could start a new life in a place where he has a better chance to be healthy and safe, and to live beyond the average fifty-four-year lifespan of Ugandan citizens. In the grand scheme of things, the world won’t care either way. There’s so much pain and heartache. Really, what difference will this adoption make?

We don’t know, but we can find out. Sherry and Craig need to raise a lot of money in a short amount of time. One way they’re doing that is by raffling off a basket filled with hundreds of dollars’ worth of gift cards and other items. Every five-dollar donation you make toward their adoption effort will get you an additional entry in the gift basket drawing. And, as the funds raised reach certain levels, Sandra has offered to add still more gift cards to the prize. She’s doing that in order to help her friends, but it also reflects the kind of people – and the kind of power – blogging provides.

As I said, I don’t know Sherry and Craig. Their Christian faith is strong and fills their lives. I don’t share that faith, and were I to spend a lot of time with them, that enthusiasm would probably drive me crazy. But when I filter out the talk of God and Jesus, what’s left is a message that seems irrefutable: If we want to think of ourselves as moral people, we are obligated to be aware of the suffering of others, and to do what we can to ease that suffering.

Sherry and Craig’s desire to help another human being should be universal. Easy to say, I guess, and we’d all like to think we’d do something if we could. Here’s a chance to prove it.

Please click here to learn more about this special family, the plight of children in Uganda, and how you can help – and possibly win a basket full of gifts at the same time.

Feel free to reblog my post, theirs, or Sandra’s. If you can put a link on your Facebook page, or do anything else to get the word out to your friends and colleagues, that would be equally helpful.

And if you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this week, please be safe and have a wonderful day.

Tagged: adoption, Africa, Christmas, gifts, HIV, orphans, prizes, Thanksgiving, Uganda

Posted in: Uncategorized