Parenting the Parentless.

Where to go when you've nothing left

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:38:00 GMT

We got a phone call a couple days ago. A mother who had lost her home her husband and everything else. except her two children. One was 10 the other was just about to start college. She wondered if we could help. She wanted us to take care of the daughter. Instead we told her we would take care of both her and her daughter until she was able to do it on her own again.

Banking India Style.

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:36:00 GMT

One of those things you just kind of take for granted in America and never think twice about. When I first came to India 5 years ago I opened a Citibank account or to be more precise it was opened for me by my employer. Citibank was good their service was slow and if you ever needed to actually go to a counter it was a nightmare of long lines, angry customers and rude staff but at least they seemed reliable.

Recently we wanted to open accounts. One for the orphanage two personnal accounts one for my wife and I and one for the company.

So ICICI was the bank the company I worked for when I first got here used so we started there. A representitive came to the office I filled out all the paperwork etc. Weeks passed. Finally I get a response it seems my signature didn't match the signature on my passport. So we tried it again. Weeks pass again rejected because my signature didn't match. So again they came this time I sit for an hour practicing my signature to get it identical to how I signed my passport. We also issue a letter signed by a witness that this is my signature. Weeks pass. We get word they need a copy of my resident certificate. They said since I'm a foriegner I have to have a resident permit to be in India. In reality a PIO (which is the status I fall into) doesn't need a resident permit to be in country till almost 7 months after he arrives. But trying to explain this to them was impossible. So we went to a branch office over by home and attempt to open the account. Well the only person that knows how to give an account to a foreigner was busy so we'd have to come back. 2 days later we arrive back. The only person that knows how is still busy but she asks for all our paper work. We provide it he takes it to her and comes back asking for my resident permit. Ok if she's to busy to talk to us why is he talking to a middle man attempting to avoid this was the whole reason we came to the branch. We attempt to explain it we show him the page from the ICICI website that explains it. He disappears he comes back and says that she says that without a resident permit I have to get a NRA (Non Resident) account and they don't issue those at this branch we'll have to go elsewhere. Ok enough run around NEXT

Citibank seemed like the next best bet until we got to the business account. At which point they immediantly assigned us a very helpful young lady to walk us threw the process. Ok long sales pitch always means big price tag. So I was trying to figure out why a bank would be giving us a long sales pitch she went on and on about all the things Citibank could do for a growing company. Ok yes we are a company but I really don't see us "Growing" the way she was talking. Our point is to make enough to finance who we help. I already spend to much time on the "company" and not enough on the "parentless" so the big long sales pitch was really lost on me. We finally got to the end $10,000 minimum deposit. Ok goodbye thanks for wasting our time. NEXT

Next we went to a bank here close to the house Canara. We didn't know much about them but figured they would be ok (at this point i'd take a guy in a dark alley that took 10%). Went in filled out all the applications etc. they wanted phtotcopies of everything which we provided finally when it was all said and done they asked who refered us to them? Referal? no one refered us they are just close to the house. Thier response no refereal no account they only seem to accept accounts if you've been refered by another account holder. Ok thank you for wasting our time. NEXT

Mercy's mom had used a bank called "Corporation Bank" for years. I'm not exactly sure but from what I understand it's a privately held company contracted by the government to do all kinds of things. For some reason it always reminds me of Robocop. Anyway ok we'll try them. But instead of going through the whole 4 account mess again we decided we'd just get 1 in Mercy's name and then figure the rest out later. Well she's a citizen I never even went to the bank lest they might think there was any other issue. She got the account and everything seemed good. About a month ago I got my Tax returns add that with some money in my account and it's enough to rent a hall. We've wanted a hall to do some training at and we had finally found one over in a good part of time with a lot of traffic. So we put down $300 in ernest money and proceed to wire the rest from our account in America. We wire it to Mercy's account it was supposed to be here in 2 days. 2 days goes by call Corporation Bank. They tell us the systems are down call back in a week. A WEEK. A week goes by. We call the money hasn't arrived call back tomorrow. Next day - Call back Tonight. Tonight- The bank manager has gone home call back tomorrow. Tomorrow - We show no record of any transaction can we get the transaction number. On and on it goes. Still no money it's been almost 3 weeks now.

ICICI can't figure out how to give us an account. Citibank want's $10,000 minimum deposit. Canara won't give us an account without a referal, the only bank that we can get an account at looses our money.

On the first of every month there are long lines at every ATM in town as the employees withdraw everything out of thier account. They don't trust the banks I've told time and time again. now I know why. At this point it appears like everything we tried to transfer has gone up in smoke. Of course we still have an endless lines of people to be transfered to who I'm sure will all tell us the same thing. There's no record of your transaction we're sorry you probably need to talk to ...

Lies.

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:14:00 GMT

We have two contacts in the area where we went to get the girls that we thought were going to help us track down the children in the greatest need. Our first contact was the pastor of the local church. As Mercy's rented car drove onto the property, she noticed some changes had taken place since we were there the previous time. The church had been fixed up and there was a new house being built on the property.

Now one of the local men that was acting as a guide for Mercy had already tried several times to disuade her from going to see the pastor but Mercy insisted. He said the pastor would try to get us to take the children of all his relatives instead of children that really needed help. Well she insisted we've known the pastor for almost 5 years and though we don't know him well we knew him better than the villager. Mercy got down from the car and after formalities sure enough the pastor began to try to convince Mercy to take the children of his relatives. So they went to the village to meet pastor's relative who was a 16 year old pregnant women with a 2 year old daughter. According to the wife, her husband was struck dead by a demon when he walked out of the house one morning. As the pastor spoke to the 16 year old mother, she clutched onto her little daughter like a life perserver. One glance at the mother and you knew her only connection with her dead husband was the little girl clutching her knees. Her father felt though evidently that the child would be better off in an orphanage, the uncles all agreed but one glance at the women and you knew she didn't. So Mercy decided not to take the girl with her. Finally pastor started talking about his own granddaughter. We eventually found out that he was building a house for his daughter and her husband there on the property and felt he needed to send her granddaughter with us. Somewhere along the way the pastor had lost the point. We weren't here to take children away from parents that loved them and wanted to care for them. We care for the parentless. Children that either have no parents left. Obviously this was getting her nowhere so Mercy left. Determined that this "pastor" was no pastor at all if he was willing to abandon his own granddaughter.

The other contact we had in the village was one of the only other men with a cellphone. He also had a luna. What we would call a Mo-ped in America. Though a cellphone and a Mo-ped aren't much they give a man position and authority in a village. He guided Mercy around as she talked with parents and helped her select girls that were in greatest need. Mercy came to one house there were three girls all being taken care of by a very poor women or so we were told. The story seemed true enough three sisters all from the same family all with the same story. They had niether father nor more they were parentless. So we brought them to Bangalore. Yesterday though a mother showed up. This isn't abnormal. Some of the girls have 1 parent that is unable to care for them so we'll accept them. Occasionally the parent will come by and spend time with thier daughter we encourage this as much as possible. The odd thing though was she claimed to be mother to one of the three that we assumed had no mother. She also was mother to only one not all three "sisters". Eventually the truth came out. This girl wasn't actually related at all in fact her father was the man with the cellphone and luna. One of the leaders of the village.

The father assumed that once she had gotten to Bangalore and settled in we wouldn't send her away. He thought she would have a better chance in our orphanage than in his home. Pastor, Village Leaders how desperate a situation would you have to be in to be willing to send your daughter away with someone. There's a danger of providing so well for the girls that we end up splitting up homes instead of caring for those girls that have no home. I recieved a phone call middle of last week two girls to the north. No Mother No father and no one to take care of them, could we take them in. They had no food and no place to stay. I had no choice but to say no. We were full and funds were short already needless to say yesterday when the women came I was upset we had been decieved and the spot this girl was occuping could have gone to one of the two girls we had turned away. Comes back to that same old question who do we help. Who don't we. The girl is at her home today. Her spot is empty. Who do we help next?

20% of all orphans don't like Chocolate Icecream

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:46:00 GMT

Ok, well maybe my methods aren't exactly scientific; perhaps my sampling is a bit small, and my conclusion too general. However, were we ever in for a shock. Who ever heard of a child that doesn’t like Chocolate Ice Cream? It was their first night here at the Home, so we figured it would be good to get them out of the house for a treat. About four blocks from the house is an Ice Cream Store, so we all walked up and we got a scoop for each girl.
Well, I guess we kind of figured they might not have tried it before. But women always like chocolate, right? …and kids always like Ice Cream. So we figured it was a safe bet. Of the 10 girls, two of them took one bite, wrinkled up their nose and didn't want any more. OK, so what do you do with kids that don't know what a cartoon is, can't understand English and don't like ice cream, in order to get their minds off of what they have lost, what once was, and what could have been if only ...
Today we tried toys, a couple of jump ropes and some 2$ teddy bears. It appears to have worked, but we learned a new number. 100% of all orphan girls like jump ropes. Only buying 2 for them to share perhaps wasn't the wisest choice.

Short Listing

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:03:00 GMT

Back in the day when I used to look for a job, instead of looking for people to hire, I can remember getting emails that said I had been shortlisted. It's been a year since my Resume was active on Monster in the US, but I still get e mails that say I've been "shortlisted". Once I started my own company I realized better what that means. Recently I needed to hire a developer, so I posted an ad and got almost 1000 responses. Ok so we "shortlisted". But in the end, it never really changed my life to find out Microsoft or IBM or HP "shortlisted" me. In the end all it means is they actually read my resume instead of just deleting it.
Yesterday though, it was a whole new experience. Mercy went out to a village we had been in contact with. Looking for orphans or children in need. We pretty much already setup our guidelines. Full orphans we will always take, but single parents in desperate situations, we need to talk to and decide. Mercy started with a list of 13 children. She came home last night with 7. She had to shortlist out of the parents, relatives, and children asking to go. Desperate parents and desperate kids but we only have so many resources. We had no choice but to make decisions about who would have a life of hope and who had to remain in despair.
One little girl stands out in my mind from the story Mercy told me. She is perhaps 3 or 4, we aren't sure. When Mercy arrived in the village and got out of the car, that we had rented for the day, the little girl climbed up into the car unannounced and sat down. Mercy eventually came back to the car and asked her what she was doing. She said she was going to Bangalore. It seems her mother, before she left that morning, had told the girl Mercy was coming to get her. So when Mercy arrived, she climbed into the car and was ready to go.
Well, we had decided we would only take children with a parent if we talked to the parent. So upon finding out the girl still had a mother, we told her she couldn't go unless we spoke with her mother. But the little girl just plain refused to get out of the car. No coaxing, bribery, or scolding would do. At 3 years old she had made up her mind she was going and nothing Mercy said or did would change her mind. Physically trying to force her out of the car resulted in a fit beyond belief ( tears and screams). The mother, we found out, had already said her goodbye before leaving for work. Her situation so desperate she couldn't even take the day off to see her daughter off.
We'll get a portfolio up with the girls soon and Mercy will tell the rest of the story. In in the end, sure enough, that night she slept in Bangalore.
Oh, side note, some changes are coming to the site soon. The Children's home area is getting a bit out of control. So we will be reworking some things. Plus, of course, adding in the portfolio's of the girls.

Chai Anyone?

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Like any country to enter India you need permission from the government. Generally that’s a visa. However here in India there are two of categories of people allowed in. “Person of India Origin” and Ex-citizen’s.

There are three ways to be categorized a Person of Indian origin or (PIO) Your Parents were Citizen’s Your Grandparent’s were Citizen or your spouse is a Person of Indian Origin. Since Mercy is a Citizen of India I become a PIO based on her.

If you are on some types of Visa your entitled to purchase a vehicle, get a bank account, rent a house etc. as a tourist you can’t do many of these things. As a result a Visa holder to do any of these legal activities has to prove they are registered with the police IE a “Resident Certificate”. A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) only has to register with the police after 180 days. A Person of Indian Origin (PIO) is also qualified to perform any legal activity without being registered.

Ok now just try to imagine the looks I get when a 6’2” white guy comes up and claims to be a Person of Indian Origin. Needless to say trying to explain it to people has become an exercise in frustration. As a result almost everything is in Mercy’s name. The house is rented in her name. We purchased the bike in her name. We opened the bank account in her name. Last month my 180 days was up and it was time for me to go register and get my Resident Permit.

So just after my birthday last month I took off for the Registrar of Police to tell them I was in India. I had to do the same thing 4 years ago when I first came to India to work it was a nightmare then so I really didn’t have high expectations and was dreading a day of red tape as I walked in the front gate.

The guard at the gate directed me to the first desk. Where I signed in. After signing in I was directed to the inquires desk. After explaining why I was there I was directed to the side of the building. Walking around the side there where three doors the first said “restricted access” The next said nothing the third said “Employees only”. I figured the one that said nothing was my safest bet. Walking in I found a row of counters and a desk. There were either lines or no one at the counters and not knowing where to go next I figured I’d have to ask. There were two men sitting behind the desk not doing anything but talking so I figured I’d ask them.

I walked up and stood in front of the desk. The two of them continued to talk paying me no notice. Minutes passed. Still they talked. Finally one glanced up at me and then start shuffling papers on his desk continuing to talk. I had stood there for about 5 minutes now well past the point that they knew I was there knew I had a question and obviously had no intention of paying me any attention. So what next. The rest of the counters were all labeled. One said fire arms, one something else none seemed to pertain to anything. I thought about trying one of the other two doors but figured that was less likely so I decided to interrupt this pair in the hopes they would at least tell me where to get lost to.

“Addressing the man shuffling papers I apologized for interrupting their conversation but before I could ask if this was the right area and which counter I should approach he curtly replied” Can’t you see I’m working. Go have a seat I’ll call you.” Glancing around there was no place to sit. How exactly was he going to call me and how did he even know what to call me or why?

So I stood there for another couple minutes to at which he said “Go sit, sit”. Now there still was no seats and all in all it was getting quite ridiculous. I hadn’t even gotten started didn’t even know if I was at the right desk. The guy behind the counter is to busy talking to even verify if I’m in the right area. I said that’s ok I’ll stand and proceeded to stand there for another couple minutes while the two employee finished up their conversation.

Gradually a line formed behind me as more bewildered people gathered around. Seeing he was starting to get a line. He finally looked up. Pulled a piece of paper from under the desk and started telling me that I needed 3 copies of this and 2 copies of that he was down to about line 4 before I realized that I had evidently been standing at the desk I needed and he was explaining something to me. Around line 5 he stopped and asked me where I was working. I said Osprosys he said I would need a letter from them. I said I was on PIO not a work visa. He said it didn’t matter I’d still need a letter from them. I then told him I had resigned and only had 2 weeks left at which point he said “Come back when you find a new job”. I said I would be working from home. To which he told me to go register my company and come back as a PIO I had 30 days from the end of the 180 to get registered so go get the company registered and come back.

I attempted to ask him how I was supposed to register a company in 30 days but he was to busy brushing off the next guy in line to pay me any more attention. That was it 2 minutes and I was back out the door on my way home trying to figure out how we would get registered in 30 days.

Day 1 Get in touch with an accountant. Get an appointment

Day 2 Go in and talk to him.

He tells us it’s no big deal all we need is a bank account. Go to the bank get an account and then we’ll register the Company.

Day 3 Go to the bank. They assign us an account rep. The account rep schedules an appointment.

Day 4 – Weekend

Day 5 – Weekend

Day 6 – Appointment with account rep. The Bank wants $6,000 minimum deposit to open an account.

Day 7 – Contact next bank. They don’t need a deposit but they do need a copy of our “Shop and Establishment”. Ok whats that.

Back to the Accountant. What is a Shop and establishment? That’s a legal formality nothing major it’ll take one day. Ok how do we get started? They need my passport, Visa and a copy of my resident certificate. Ok I attempt the I’m a PIO explanation and get nowhere so I explain that the whole reason we need the Shop and establishment is to get our Company registered so we can get our Shop and establishment. Ok well nothing he can do then. Well how about like everything else we put it in Mercy’s Name. Sure he just needs her PAN card. PAN card is kind of like a Social Security number.

Well unfortunately Mercy lost her PAN card somewhere along the way. Last time she saw it was 5 years ago. Ok well then we’ll need a duplicate. How do we get a duplicate?

Need proof of address with a picture on it and a police report stating we lost it.

Day 8 – Police Report Ok first things first Police report should be easy enough. Go to the local police station report the card lost and get a copy of the report. However upon arrival the police inform us that if they filled out a report for everything someone came in reporting lost or stolen they would never get anything done. Of course pointing out to them that they never get anything done regardless unless they are paid under the table wouldn’t of help the situation any. Looks like we’ll eventually have to pay them to get them to work but we’ll skip that for now and go to the other item Proof of address with a picture.

Day 9 – Search the internet trying to figure out what will qualify as Proof of Address. We eventually come across the PAN website and find the instructions to apply for a duplicate. No police report required. No picture required any bill will do. Ok well so much for the accountant.

Day – 10 Off to the PAN office. Stand in line submit papers stand in more lines fill out more papers. Finally it’s done PAN card is on it’s way should arrive in 2 to 6 weeks. Hang on hold the phone 2 weeks would work but 6 weeks won’t. Call the accountant make an appointment for Monday.

Day – 11,12 Weekend

Day 13 - Since we have the number that will be on the card we can go ahead. Next Company Address? Ok simple enough I’m working out of my house.

Rent or Own? Rent.

Oops next problem if we are renting we need to get a letter from the Landlord on 20 rs stamp paper saying it’s ok to have a business.

Ok before I go any further. Anyone from America reading this will have no Idea what “Stamp Paper” is. Well folks that’s because almost 300 years ago a bunch of men dress up as Indians and had a tea party on a ship in Boston Harbor.

In order to process any legal paperwork you have to have “Stamp Paper” to do it on. If it’s written on stamp paper it’s legally binding otherwise it means nothing.

Day 14- The quest for stamp paper. Spent the better part of the day trying to track down stamp paper found out it’s available a particular bank. Went to the bank and they don’t have any 20 rs. Papers more will be in tomorrow.

Day 15 – Stamp paper day two. Bank is still out however another branch should have it. Finally get the stamp paper. Go to Landlord ask for letter. He says fine. Go to give him the stamp paper and the story changes Stamp paper makes all the difference he’ll have to check with his accountant. Long live the Accountants.

Day 16 – Anticipating the Landlords response we start looking for an office space to rent. So we can get a letter from that landlord so we can get a Shop and Establishment certificate so we can get a bank account so we can register the company so that we can produce an employment letter so I can get registered with the police.

Day 17 – Landlord comes back saying it’s going to be expensive but he’s still checking into how much it will be.

Day 18,19 Weekend we look at some possible office addresses all to expensive.

Day 20 – Looked at some more office spaces talked with some more relators. Ok we are starting to run out of time. It doesn’t look like we are going to be able to find anything we can even possibly afford. Even the cheapest commercial location will cost $2000 in deposit.

Day 21 - Still trying to find a office. Get the final word from the Landlord he’ll do it but it’s going to cost well over the $2000 we could of rented a office for if we had $2000.

Day 22 – Back to the Registrars office maybe there some way to get an extension. Mercy comes with me this time. Walk in the door two men behind the desk again but this time they are trying to work their way through a long line of people. We wait and wait and wait finally we get up to the desk. The same man I spoke to last time is there but there is a new guy with him. We speak to the new guy. He hands us a “Financial Affidavit” and says any Indian citizen with a job can sign it to guarantee me since I don’t have a job letter. Ok why didn’t they say so the first time. Exasperated and tired we leave.

Day 23 – A friend of ours that makes about $2.50 an hour signs the affidavit. We deliver it to the police office. After running us around for 4 more hours getting photo-copies and photo graphs they finally accept out paperwork and tell us to come back tomorrow.

Day 24- 4:00 pm I pick up my new hard fought Certificate of Residency.

The good news in all of this if I ever leave the country they may decide to take the certificate back and I get to do it all over again. As an American I never really understood the Boston Tea Party or why it occurred. Now I do. It was a battle against red tape that America fought and won but India fought and lost. Chai anyone?

Birthday's in India

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:05:00 GMT

Well it's Feburary which means birthdays. Ash Mercy and I are all Feburary birthdays which means we could get it all over with in about 2 weeks. At least until DJ came along in Nov. which through the whole process off.

Birthdays in India are much more exciting then I remember them in America. In the states they come and go with barely a nod. But here to ecscape it's nearly impossible.

Before I left America I was going to get a cellphone that could contain all my contacts my schedule and everything else. But then after talking with a couple different people it seems not everything that works in America works here in India. So I decided to wait till I got to India to get it. Then when we arrived we were so busy getting everything else we needed that there wasn't much money for anything extra. In the states you can get a fairly nice phone by signing a service contract. In India there really isn't anything similar. So I got a 20$ phone that would ring and didn't do much more.

This year for my Birthday Mercy went out and spent more then she should have and got me a nice phone that would actually hold some phone numbers and contact and had some other functionality. You know the feling when you get exactly what you wanted. That illusive thing your searching for when your trying to track down that gift for your spouse. Well Mercy hit it. It was exactly what I wanted and never would have purchased for myself.

It was great for 3 days. This morning after my coffe and some other things I began to look for my new phone. After I couldn't find it for a while I began to feel like Gollum looking for "My Precious, my birthday present." Well after a few minutes I decided I needed to ask my wife. A little embarressed that I had already lost it. Well it seems she had seen it in the living room earlier. We went to look but it was gone. We called it and it had been switched off. We got to thinking and realized that earlier in the morning a delivery had arrived.

There is a local dealer that delivers water to your house. The tap water here in India is only slightly better then the water in Mexico so you only drink it as a last resort. Instead we purchase water in 5 Gal. drums and have it delivered. The phone was siting in the living room before he arrived was gone after he left. And so it goes. Hey it was nice for 3 days. Guess I need to go see if I can find my old one now that rings and doesn't do much else. Not many features but the delivery boy at least let me keep it.

There and Back Again.

Taxes

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 07:16:00 GMT

Warning Numbers Ahead if you already have a headache come back later.

Well it's that time of year taxes. I'm going self employed on March 1 working out of my house. I started to realize that ment accounting. Ok I'm a coder not an accountant so I'm REALLY not looking forward to this. However If I'm going to have time to do what we came here to do. I've got to work for myself so I have the flexibility to do it. Hey shameless plug here want a website or an application Hire me. OK so back to our regularly scheduled program. As I started to look at it and I decide the first place to analyze was taxes you know I grew up doing my taxes since I was 16 I should be able to do it in India right? As I looked at it I started to wonder which is better India or America. The tax Schedule here looks something like this.

Men:

Income less then 110000 is not taxed

Income from 110000 to 150000 is taxed at 10%

Women:

Income less then 145,000 is not taxed

Income from 145,000 to 150000 is taxed at 10%

Both:

Income from 150000 to 250000 is taxed at 20%

Income above 250000 is taxed at 30%

Yep different taxes for men and women. I feel descrimanated against.

Ok so how does it compare to US Rates? Well cost of living works in here somewhere but for simplicity I'll just look at how it effects me in a direct comparison.

I make about $1,500 a month. or 6,00,000 annually. this puts me well over the 2,50,000 cap and into the 30% range.

To Pay 30% in the US you have to make more then $160,000 as a single or $195,000 filing a joint. However only a very small percent of the population makes that much money.

On the otherhand almost any professional in India will eventually exceed the 2,50,500 limit. In India and pay 30%.

However looking at it by overall percent of the 1,000,000 indians that make more the 2,50,000 I would guess it is less then the percentage of Americans making over 160,000.

But after I work my way through the Inidan Tax Scedule it looks like I end up paying about 21% total tax.

If I was in the US making the same wage I'd pay 15%. So initially it would appear I'd be better off with the US Schedule.

But then in the end there is one item I'm leaving out entirely. Social Security TAX. at 7.65% for an employee and 15.3% for self employed I'd be paying 22% tax as an employee in America on my $18,000 or 30+% as self employed. Sorry looks like in the end my take home in India on $18,000 will be more then it would in america by almost 9%.

So it looks like it's not so bad after all though losing $3,200 of my $18,000 doesn't look like a happy prospect. Fortunately this year all I have to worry about is me. Stay tuned for next year when I analyze what it's like to pay Personal Income tax, Corporate income tax, and non-Profit income tax all in the same tax year.

The End

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:03:00 GMT

Last month as we began to analyze our expenditures for this year and develop a budget for 2008 we realized that money was a lot tighter then we first anticipated. For a variety of reasons. A lot of people that said they would help seem to have forgotten. I guess that is normal. Intentions are always good but in the end when it gets right down to it it becomes hard to actually carry through. We had originally designed this site to stay in touch and update those that were interested in supporting us in the work we are doing. Thus as 2007 began to draw to a close we began to consider shutting down the site. It costs us about $14.00 a month to keep it going and since there are so few to keep updated it would be cheaper to simply continue to send out our newsletter instead.

So in Mid Dec. I stopped posting anticipating that we would shut it down in mid Jan. however after talking to some friends stateside they encouraged us that our blog was affecting more people then we realized and convinced us we should continue it for a while so we are back.

Manny and her Husband have moved into a small one room house about 15 minutes walk from our house. We spent New Years day painting it and getting it ready. They moved in on the third. Thier son is doing well it seems a little vacant on the first floor without him.

Manny's Doctor however has asked if we would be willing to take in other women that are at risk of starving thier unborn child to death. We said we would we just needed a little time to get things in order here at the house. I'm headed out today to look into how much angle Iron is going to cost us to make bunk beds.

We also contacted a lady that knows of many at risk children. We said we would be able to take in some more girls the first week of March. It should be a chaotic couple months. We were asked recently if there is any way for someone to help financially. We would definately appreciate if someone wanted to pickup the hosting costs for us.

Make Checks Payable to:

Heartland Baptist Church

3504 North Grand Avenue
Ames, IA 50010
(515) 268-1721

Also just include a note explaining that it is for David and Mercy Strickland. If you don't recieve it already drop us an email with your home address to ContactUs@Parentless.org so we can add you to our newletter.

How to lose another 4 kg overnight

ContactUs@Parentless.org — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:32:00 GMT

That last entry was getting long so I excluded an event I decided to put here instead. That first night we spent at the hospital. We found out that evidently someone had been watching the house. Some how they knew we were gone because when I got home on Friday. All the exterior plumbing had been stolen off of the house. This uncluded the spickets and knobs in the sink on the terrace. The plumbing in the exterior bathroom on the side of the house. The two spickets on the sides of the house and the connectors for our washing area on the terrace. Not sure if it's 4 kg worth of plumbing nut probably somewhere close. In addition to the stolen fixtures there is really no telling how much water we lost before I got home and got the plumbing turned off. The water bill this month might get interesting. How much water do you think can come out of six open spickets in 8 hours? What I found real interesing is that some of the electrical extension cords etc. that we had left on the terrace as well as some tools I had left out when we went to the hospital were untouched it was just the spickets. The electric equipment and tools would have been worth far more then the spickets but the spickets is all they took.

I replaced it all with plastic plumbing so this time at least it'll be cheaper to replace.