The House That #LoveForEli Built

Right around the new year I woke up to find several notifications from paypal telling me that my friends had sent me money. My groggy brain had no idea why, and at first I thought it was a mistake. Then I realized it wasn't one friend, it was several. What in the world was going on?
I also had about a thousand facebook notifications. Which after taking about a month off of social media at the end of 2016 was pretty fishy.
What could possibly be making my phone blow up like this?
I discovered the intervention of the one and only Jennifer Richardson. She had posted the following on facebook and had gotten quite a reply in a short period of time:

You might have heard of my friend, Lisa Watterson. If you have, you know that she's chosen love in the face of horrible tragedy again and again. This is a beautiful, life-affirming choice, and I always want to be the kind of friend who cheers this on.

She has partnered up with the amazing Rebecca Akridge to do some fundraising for a children's home and school in Haiti, and she now has the opportunity to go there!

However, as I'm sure you are aware, going anywhere and doing anything costs money, and guess what? The Wattersons will have massive hospital bills for life. So let's help Lisa raise $800 in less than a month. If 16 people can offer $50, we're done here (post your name and pledge amount on this thread or in a private message). I know Lisa is also going to make some crochet earrings and crafts to sell if you're interested.

Finally, I have posted this without consulting her or asking her permission at all. 😂 So if you happen to be offended or annoyed, feel free to direct that at me.

Such sweet words, and so typical of her to just do something without asking. ;)
What ended up happening was this: somewhere in the comments someone had the idea to try to get the trip funded before I woke up. Since I am not a morning person and make my own schedule, they had a little bit of leeway...but they did it! By the time I was up and trying to figure out why people were sending me money my trip was fully funded! Simply incredible and incredibly humbling.

What Rebecca and I had done in the fall was organize an online auction to raise money to finish funding a home for a little girl in the scholarship program through The Mission Haiti, whose home had been damaged beyond repair in Hurricane Matthew. There are 53 students in total from the scholarship program who truly need new homes. Many had been sent to be restaveks, child servants, in other people's homes in exchange for food and shelter. Most of them are still serving as restaveks until a home can be sponsored for $4400 for them. There are no safety nets in Haiti.

What happened next was even crazier. More money was pledged than I even needed to go to Haiti, so another friend, Amy, suggested the fundraising keep going and a house be built in Eli's honor. People got behind this idea immediately. Amy and Rebecca connected with the people who run The Mission Haiti to match the idea of Eli's House with one of the student's families. They picked a little boy named Jolixson. He is 5 years old, which is how old Eli would be now. Jolixson's mom died last year. It's been hard for his dad and sister. Their home is now uninhabitable just months after losing their wife and mother. So now we have a little 5 year old boy without his mom, and a mom without her 5 year old boy (me). My son isn't here for me to care for, but I still have this love and I will use it for the rest of my life. We are building a house for Jolixson!

The cost of a small, concrete block home in Haiti is $4400. There is a difference between raising $800 and $4400. We are most of the way to funding Jolixson's house. The permitting process has already begun. It is really happening! But we need to raise the rest of the money.

I put together a T-Shirt campaign because it is a fun and accessible way for people to be involved, and also because I have been asked over the course of months about doing more #LoveForEli shirts. This new design is completely adorable. Jennifer's husband did this design to include the E that my sister-in-law created originally. I think you'll love it. The campaign closes on Sunday, February 5th, so you have until then to order a shirt if you are interested.

If you want to give directly to Eli's House, you can do that here.

To order shirts with a % going to fund Jolixson's house, go here.

Here are photos of Jolixson, graduating from PreK, and Eli with his big brother Ty about a month before he got sick, age 3 1/2.

Thank you for your always and forever #LoveForEli