Here is where it all began, sitting at this table in our kitchen one afternoon this winter.
All the kids are coloring, just a typical afternoon when Ethan asks: "Mom, when we go to Ukraine are we going to bring any kids home with us?"
Wow did this catch me off guard. What I'm thinking is YES, I would love to!!! (Justin I know you're thinking I'm crazy as you are reading this.) What I say is "No honey, not this time."
So a few seconds of silence and then Jax says: "That's going to be really sad isn't it?!"
What more could I say except "Yes".
Now Jax has made it perfectly clear time and time again that he wants NO MORE CHILDREN in this family! We are big enough, in fact he thinks we were big enough when we were a family of 3! Ethan, however consistently declares that he is going to have 10 kids when he grows up, and if you've ever seen him around Cullen you'll understand why I don't doubt this to be a true possibility. But regardless, they both were struck by how hard it is going to be to visit the orphanage, possibly see some of the kids there, and know that they don't have families yet and may not ever. So sometime soon after that ever so brief but profound conversation Jax decide that he wanted to take a donation to give to the orphanage to help the kids there. Have I mentioned his huge heart yet?!
We were totally supportive of this idea, of course, but told him that he had to do something to raise the money, he couldn't just ask for it. After throwing around a few ideas it was no surprise that what he decided to do was related to food. JAX LOVES FOOD! And food was the thing he missed the most when he lived in the orphanage. Just for some perspective, he was 14 months old and weighed approximately 13 pounds when we adopted him. He had never had a single bite of solid food. The kids who were eating solid food primarily ate a mush type porridge and got protein only once per week. So it is no surprise that food is a big part of his daily consciousness now.
So he wrote this letter and sent it out to our friends from church:
I am trying to raise money for a donation to an orphanage in the Ukraine. We are going there this summer and the money I raise will really help the orphanage and the children there. I am selling meals for it. The meals are 15 dollars, serves 4 people big and small! EXTRA DONATION APPRECIATED Jax Lassiter
He prepared a different meal each month for three months, Sloppy Joe Meal, Gourmet Mac'n'Cheese, and Yummy Chili (these are his names - there's clearly an inner salesman here). Each person got to pick two sides from a list of six, and they got a surprise dessert. He planned the menus, did all the tallying of orders, did the grocery shopping with me, and cooked all the food - including freshly baked bread, from scratch. There was only a little bit of shock in his look when I told him we had to start cooking on Thursday! I'm not sure how he thought we were going to cook 14 complete meals (each to serve 4 people) in one day! I'm not even sure how I thought we were going to do it in 3 days! And I take no credit for the first meal being such a huge success since I bailed on Friday, took Cullen and headed out of town for a baseball tournament. Jax and Justin got to manage the final cooking and distribution on Saturday, plus the daily craziness of a typical Saturday with the kids, quite heroic.
Here are a few pictures of the food prep...
Note that the Mac'n'Cheese meal was not done without help from a great friend and the teaching kitchen at the college that has 8 ovens and tons of prep space, this was critical when trying to prepare 12 pans of mac-n-cheese in just a few short hours.
When we started the fundraiser his goals was to earn 100 dollars to donate to the orphanage, this would convert to approximately 815 hyrivna, the local currency in Ukraine. After his first meal he had raised over $400, wow! Our friends were so generous and Jax was so amazed. We are blessed to have an incredibly caring and supportive church family, and Jax has been blessed by them - both by donations and constant words of encouragement. He will now be able to bless the kids at his orphanage. Stay tuned for a final donation amount and pictures from that great day (July 18) when he will actually get to hand deliver the donation to the orphanage!
