Check out the new shirts!!

We are SUPER EXCITED about the arrival of our new shirts!  They should be in sometime next week. The shirts will be a sturdy structure, cotton/poly blend of great quality.  We'll stock the full range of sizes for adults and some kids sizes.  The chocolate color will be one of the colors we stock.  We're still trying to figure out what other color we'll provide.  If you have a suggestion we'd love to hear.  The shirts will cost $20 each.  Again, 50% of all proceeds will go to Feeding the Orphans.  We're teaming up with them to provide food and essential items for women and children in the Volta Region of Ghana - which is where Mighty and Agbesi's tribe is from.

Our adoption has opened our eyes and has become much more than bringing our kids home.  We've caught just a very small glimpse of how much our Father in Heaven loves and cares for the fatherless and the widows.  We're also becoming very aware of how common it is for Him to answer the prayers of his children through other people.  We never want to miss an opportunity to be in His service and help answer someone's call for help.  We invite you to answer that call as well.

We'll have our second shirt design out in the next couple of days.  If you'd like to reserve your shirts please email me (boswald@live.com) to tell me your size and quantity.  Once we actually have the shirts we'll put up an order button on the site.

Special thanks to Brad for awesome designs and for all the help.  We owe you big time!

Shirt #1

Shirt #2

Thank you!!

Those of you who helped us out with the yard sale and fundraiser this last weekend need to know how grateful we are to have the best friends in the world!  The HUGE success of the weekend could not have happened without all of you (and the little angels who brought people to the sale all day).  Aside from the money gathered in, the thing that meant the most to us was all of the people who showed their support of our efforts.  Truly a humbling experience.

Everyone from the family was able to help out in some form or fashion.  Brandie and Brinley were the two who did the most work, without question.  Brandie, Heidi Perry, Angie Peterson, Anne Oswald (no blood relation, but she IS family!), April and Kielli Satchwell, Britney Howell, Leslie McDougal, and Melissa Beswick manned the sale and cash registers.  Brinley, Ashton Peterson, Walker Peterson, and Gage manned the baked goods sale cash register.  While McCall Peterson was painting kids faces at the the face painting booth.  We had some baked items donated, but Brinley actually stayed home from school on Friday to bake ALL DAY so many yummy treats - she was so excited to see her hard work pay off and know that she'll be able to use the money to feed hungry children!

Here are some photos from the weekend.  All in all, we made just over $2,000!!!  That means we'll be able to donate right at $1,000 to our charities that will feed hungry bellies!  What a huge blessing!  Thank you to everyone who helped out.  We hope you felt the same spirit of service we did over the weekend!  May God bless your efforts and good intentions!

Win $1,000 Sofa and Loveseat for only $20!!

UPDATE - April 30th, 2011 - WINNER ANNOUNCED!!
Congratulations to Linda Oswald (my wonderful mother) who won this couch set!  At the interest of some thinking we 'fixed' the drawing, we actually had an un-biased third party draw the winning ticket.  Additionally, your chances go up CONSIDERABLY when you've purchased over a third of the tickets!  The funniest thing about this is a) she doesn't need the furniture and b) she lives 280 miles from the store!  Sorry Mom, delivery charges are NOT included with the winning ticket!



You all know that Graples Home Decor is the hottest store in the Treasure Valley when it comes to home decor. That's because they have the absolute best products around for the best prices around. It also helps that they have an unbelievable staff too (and I'm not just saying that because they're helping us out with our fundraiser either - although it DOES help!! *smile*).

Look at this AMAZING sofa and loveseat you could win in our latest raffle!
This leather sofa and loveseat is valued at $948 and could be yours for just $20!!  Wouldn't it be cool to tell your friends - while sitting on your new sofa and loveseat - that it only cost you $20 little bucks to buy???  If you want to up your chances to win then buy more tickets!  Buy $100 of tickets and we'll throw in 2 more for FREE!!  You can go by Graples today or next Thursday (April 28th) to see the furniture.  You can buy tickets here on this site or there at the store!  The drawing will be held on Saturday April 30th.  You do NOT need to be present to win.  And remember - 50% of the proceeds of this and other fundraisers will go to Feeding The Orphans - a NPO that helps vulnerable women and children have food in their bellies.  Help feed a child and win a cool furniture set at the same time!!



Here are a couple of photos.

M Kay Photo Shoot Raffle Tickets!!

Emily from M Kay Photography has donated a professional sitting fee for our fundraising!  Don't know who M Kay is?  Do yourself a favor and check out her site by clicking HERE.  Then, go to her Facebook page by clicking HERE and 'like' her page.  She does amazing work!  Anyway, this is a $249 value that your grand kids will thank you for spending a lousy $10 to win.  50% of all our proceeds will go to FeedingTheOrphans.org to help feed underprivileged women and children.

Raffle ends April 30th and the winner will be announced then!

Buy your tickets now!

Tickets/Prices

1 Ticket $10.00 2 Tickets $20.00 5 Tickets $40.00

Fundraising is started!

We're guessing that we'll be traveling on our first trip to Ghana in less than 45 days. With that, one of our family's goals has been to raise enough money so that we could feed lots of kids while we're there. We're partnering with a NPO called Feeding The Orphans and the Ripley Foundation (through Adoption Advocates International) to help with some of their humanitarian projects.

This Saturday will be our first fundraiser. We're putting on a HUGE multi-family yard sale together (with the HUGE help of some of the best friends in the world!!). Ohhh, but this isn't just your average, run of the mill yard sale. We're going to have face painting, a jumpy jungle, a baked goods sale, lemonaid stand, and a couple of super cool raffles.

Raffles
One is a complete Family Room Set donated by the awesome people at Graples Home Decor (pictures soon to follow). This is a Family Room Set is valued at $1,000 and we're selling raffle tickets for $20 each or 7 for $100.
The second raffle is from MKay Photography. Emily has generously donated a professional setting from one of the most gifted portrait photographers in the area. This is a value of $249 and the raffle tickets are $10 each or 5 for $40. So, stop on by the Oswald yard Saturday, April 23rd between 8 and 4. Don't miss out on all the fun!!

Mighty has new hair!

So, we're not supposed to show full pictures of the kids until after we've been to court...but they did say we could post 'parts' of the kids. Brandie and Brinley were so excited to see that Mighty had gotten extensions put into her hair. Our new friend Emily sent us a picture of Mighty with her new pretty locks! Even though you can't see her glowing smile we thought we'd show you her new pretty hair.

Welcome! What in the world is Fufu??

Welcome to our family blog! It is here we'll continue to document the happenings of 'life' as we progress bringing our new little ones home. Along the way, we'll be updating the timeline to the right of the blog roll, giving information on Ghana, fundraising for the orphans, or any other information that seems reasonable. More than anything, we feel so blessed to be part of this trip and wanted to share our experiences with those who are close to us.

We are a family of 6 that is responding to a prompting Brandie received over two years ago. She felt inspired that adoption is something we needed to look into. It took her just over a year to muster up the courage to talk with me about it. To her surprise (enjoyment) I was open to the idea. The rest, as they say, is history (in the making). I'll try and either import some of the postings from our other personal blogs or make several posts to give more detail of our whole process. Either way, we're excited that this year we'll have Mighty and Agbesi home forever.

What's with the blog name???

Fufu originated from Ghana, where it is pronounced "fufuo". The word fufu comes from the Twi language. It is eaten with light (tomato) soup, palm nut soup, groundnut (peanut)-abenkwan soup or other types of soups with vegetables such as nkontomire (cocoyam leaves). Soups are often made with different kinds of meat and fish, fresh or smoked. Fufu is basically pounded cassava or pounded yam or pounded plantain. It is eaten with agussi soup or stew in Ghana.