While Giving Tuesday is our biggest fundraiser of the year, it’s more about vision-raising than fundraising. We know that the more people we have holding us up, the more effective helpers we will be. Our hope is for people to catch the vision for what we do and where we are headed as we care for caregivers. We want you to be motivated to give from that place with a desire to make sure that care happens and that you are a part of it.

It’s been a hard year for many. We have set our Giving Tuesday 2021 goal high, in spite of and because of this season of heightened need for the families we serve. Our giving goal for Giving Tuesday on November 30th is $50,000: $15,000 for our counseling program, $15,000 for our grant program for adoptive families, and $20,000 for general operating. To help us get there, five generous, committed donors have pledged to match all gifts dollar for dollar up to $25,000. What that means is that whatever you give–small, medium, or large–your donation will be doubled until we reach $25,000.

We also want to give a little something to you not to convince you to give or pay you back for it. That would take away from the meaning of your gift. We just really like giving, and so do our friends at Advent Blocks. So, we’re randomly choose one Giving Tuesday donor to receive their own set of Advent Blocks to make their family Christmas celebration a little sweeter.

So, here’s how to join us:

• Click on the yellow button on the top of our website that says DONATE and choose GIVING TUESDAY as the purpose.
• Write a check to The Sparrow Fund, put GIVING TUESDAY in the memo field, and mail to 124 3rd Avenue Phoenixville PA 19460

The movie Found, released on Netflix October 20th, tells the story of three teen girls adopted from China as they explore their histories and travel back to China together. On Tuesday, November 16th at 8pm EST, we’re offering a space (via Zoom) for a small group of teens who were adopted themselves (not just from China) to gather to talk about the movie–what they noticed, what made sense to them, what didn’t make sense to them.

If you are the parent of a teen who may want to join us or are connected to one, forward this email or text them a screenshot of it. We’d love to have them part of it. They can let us know they are interested through this Google form: https://bit.ly/3GuTdI0

Questions? Email us info@sparrowfund.org.

February 12th marks the start of the Year of the Ox and gives an opportunity for families to celebrate their child’s heritage in the case of families with children from China and other Asian countries as well as an opportunity for all families to talk about people all over the world and the significance of holidays for bringing families and communities together.

Here are some parent-friendly resources to inspire ideas for how you might be able to take the opportunity to connect with your children.

Readables

• Chinese New Year – Did you know there’s a whole website dedicated to Chinese New Year? Make sure to explore all it has to offer including taboos to avoid like saying happy new year to someone still in bed!
• 22 Things You Should Know – Why fish is a traditional food, what the lantern festival has to do with it, red envelopes, and what’s not allowed.
• History.com’s Chinese New Year 2021 – Updated for the year of the ox, this is a nice overview to explain things like long noodles, house cleaning, and red envelopes.

Interesting videos to watch

• Lunarfest 2021 – Click here to access Yale-China’s online offerings for families in light of COVID restrictions that have canceled in-person celebrations. They’ve creatively put together 16 virtual red envelopes with something special families can access each of the 16 days of celebration including trivia, watching martial arts, shadow puppet demonstrations, crafts, and recipes.
• Fortune Tales, The Story of Lunar New Year – This 5-minute, child-friendly video explains very simply traditions and legends of Chinese New Year.
• Bet You Didn’t Know – Did you know 1/6th of the world’s population celebrates the lunar new year? This 3-minute video published by the History Channel is a nice simple overview.
• The Myth Behind the Chinese Zodiac – This 4-minute animation tells the story of the Great Race, the fable behind the 12 animals assigned to each year.
• The Chinese Zodiac Explained – In this TED talk from technologist and Chineasy entrepreneur ShaoLan Hseuh, you’ll learn about how asking your zodiac sign is a polite way to ask your age and other interesting cultural facts about the animals that mark each year.
• Bringing in the New Year – This 3-minute video features a reading of Grace Lin’s children’s book Bringing in the New Year.
• Chinese Dragon Dance – This video of traditional Chinese New Year festivities was filmed in Shanghai in 2011 and is fun for kids and grownups alike to watch.

Crafts + Activities

• Paper lanterns – Find here some easy instructions for a classic craft that you can use to decorate for the holiday.
• Good luck banner – This will take you to easy instructions for making a traditional new year banner and an explanation to why it’s displayed upside down.
• Lion dance puppet – With this template, you can make a lion dance puppet that looks like the ones in traditional parades.
• Printable red envelope template – The template is free, but it may end up costing you something since traditional red envelopes with money inside are a traditional gift for Chinese New Year.
• Chinese character decorations – Click here to download printables for 8 different Chinese characters (faith, hope, love, friendship, luck, courage, peace, and wisdom) that you can hang up as is or invite your children to decorate.
• Chinese New Year dragon cake – Bake a few bundt cakes and then have fun decorating this dragon as a family.
• 35 Children’s books about Chinese New Year – A list with reviews of each children’s book title related to Chinese New Year.
• Celebrating Chinese New Year activity book – This link takes you to Lifeline Adoption Agency’s free resource with recipes, information, and crafts for your family.

For us, Giving Tuesday always has been more about vision-raising than fundraising. We know that the more people we have holding our work and us up, the more effective we will be. We want you to catch the vision for what we do and where we are headed as we care for caregivers. And, we want that to be what motivates you to give – a desire to make sure that care happens and that you are a part of it.

It’s been a hard year for many. We have set our Giving Tuesday 2020 goal high, in spite of and because of this season of heightened need. Our giving goal is $30,000: $10,000 for our counseling program, $10,000 for our grant program for adoptive families, and $10,000 for general operating. To help us get there, three generous, committed donors have pledged to match all gifts dollar for dollar up to $15,000. 

We also want to give to you not because we want to convince you to give to us or pay you back in some way for donating. That negates the meaning of a gift. We just want you to know how grateful we are for you, the people who help us keep helping. And, simply put, we love giving.

When you give $50 or more on Giving Tuesday, your gift will be doubled as it gets matched, and we’ll send you two hand-lettered Scripture printables created by our friend Rachel at Minipress. And, they really are altogether lovely.

Here’s how you can join us:

• Click on DONATE on the top of the page and select “Giving Tuesday” from the dropdown list.
• Text GIVE to 855.618.1364
• Send a check to The Sparrow Fund with Giving Tuesday in the memo line and send to 124 3rd Avenue Phoenixville PA 19460

When things feel hard, it feels good to hear that we’re going to be okay. Your grownups can tell you. That’s good. But, what might be even better is if your grownups tell you and help you be able to say it yourself.

There’s a book I like for helping kids use words to share what feels hard and for figuring out things that could make it feel less hard. The words are pretty easy to read; you could read it yourself. But, I think it’s best when Moms or Dads read it with their kiddos, because when it’s time to talk about what it’s like for that kid and what that kid could do, more brains working together are better than one.

Here’s a video of the book with me flipping the pages for you to read together. One friend told me I went a little too fast sometimes (oops!). But, it’s okay; you can just pause the video so that you can read it as slowly as you like.

Here’s a video I made of me reading it too, just for fun.

Once you’ve read the book, think together about what feels hard to you. Maybe you could print some copies of this page (like as many as you want) and make your own “I will be okay” book with your grownup.

If you do and you want to share it, I’d love to see it. Sharing how we are figuring things out is good for everybody!

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Kelly Raudenbush founded The Sparrow Fund along with her husband Mark in 2011 and launched Project Puppy Love, a canine-assisted therapy program for foster and adoptive families in June 2018. As a child and family therapist, Kelly has a particular interest in (a) encouraging and empowering parents who are struggling to attach with their children, (b) helping parents walk with their children as they process their stories, (c) helping couples continue to pursue each other and grow together while they parent their children as a team, and (d) training and empowering orphanage staff in China to build relationships with children and each other. Kelly and Mark have been married since 1998 and have 3 biological children and 1 daughter who was adopted as a toddler from China in 2010. You can contact Kelly directly at kellyraudenbush@sparrowfund.org.

We asked some of our friends in China to send us short video messages that we could share with you.

From a student friend.

From one of our translators.

From a young woman who grew up in the orphanage and worked there before starting a business from home:

From orphanage administrator friends.

From the son of an orphanage administrator who is destined to be an international journalist sensation, we think.

We can practice gratitude and giving anywhere. And, maybe, home is the best place to be to practice.

Use our calendar to encourage your own gratitude and giving right now. Do each thing as designated each day, or choose ones to do in whatever order you want. There aren’t rules, just ideas to get you started.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR GRATITUDE & GIVING CALENDAR