Ella and saba Oddi in the car

Ella's food

here's a list of Ella's foods. the number next to each item is its score on a scale of 1 to 5.

fruits and vegetables (mashed):
* bananas 5
* prunes 5
* plums 4
* mango 4
* sweet potatoes 2
* potatoes 2
* butternut squash 2
* pears 3
* apricots 4
* peaches 4
* applesauce 3
* carrots (but may be causing constipation?) 2
* peas 2

other:

* mashed chicken/beef/turkey (gerber jar) -1
* rice cereal/oatmeal 2
* whole-wheat crackers 5
* rice cakes 1
* MultiGrain cheerios 5
* various Gerber veggie puffs (star shaped) 5
* "crunchies" (whole grain puffed corn) 5
* "wagon wheels" (puffed grains) 5

* ice cream 8

Short Coffy update

I'm blogging so hard for Coffy that i forget to update here.
Coffy and his parents are at the Dominican republic. we got some bad news on Sunday: his mother isn't doing well, she is very ill. Now Coffy is trying to find medical help for her, and possibly find a way to bring them back home with him as a last resort. Yakini has asked our help in wording an appeal to the governor or senator to help them grant Coffy's parents temporary visas to fly them to Chicago. She's also looking for doctors who will treat Coffy's mom 'pro bono'.

look at this video that i just uploaded. it's pretty crazy. coffy is so positive, so optimistic. you gotta love this person.

There's so much to this story... it's overwhelming. i stay up at night (like now) and think about it. i hope that everything comes to a happy ending.

I am also having a warm fuzzy feeling inside, because of all the support and donations that Yakini tells me that she gets from our side. from our friends. the other day she said "we even got a donation from Germany!"... and I know who that is!
i'm flabbergasted by the response and the generosity of our friends, family and acquaintances who reached out and reached DEEP. i just want to hug so many people.

Happy birthday Ben!

We love you

Good news - Coffy found his parents!

i just got a confirmation from Yakini this morning, that Coffy found his parents and they are OK!
i don't have many details right now, i will know more later when she sends me his notes etc.

she said that Coffy's mom and dad were waiting in their back yard, living on a pack of crackers. they thought they were left there to die. they only survived because their roof wasn't concrete. when Coffy showed up his mom thought she was dreaming, and asked to smell him so she knows he was real... she couldn't believe that he came for them.

Please Help Coffy

there's still no word from Coffy's family in Haiti, but we hope that "no news is good news".

we set up a website and blog to help Coffy and Yakini raise funds. In the short term, the money will go to helping Coffy locate and transition his family. In the long term, they hope to start a non-profit organization to help Haiti.

if you're looking for places to put your money, please help Coffy. You will know that your money is going directly to helping a family in need.

Follow this link to the website,
or this link to donate (credit card - through PayPal)


...and you'll helping our family too -- Ella misses her teacher and so do all the other kids at daycare, and we want him to come back soon with good news.

Haiti update

We just got a message from Coffy, Ella's teacher. He left on a flight to Santo Domingo (in the Dominican Republic, on the same island as Haiti) and he's trying to reach Port au Prince by buss. We all keep our fingers crossed that he finds his parents and five brothers.

They are going to raise funds to help the people with needed supplies etc. -- we'll keep you updated.

links:
an ad that Coffy published in order to find the location of his parents. (No responses yet).

a newspaper article from the tribune. Yakini and Coffy were featured briefly, and the experience that helped him make the decision to go to Haiti. (last 3 paragraphs)