Giving Back!!

Tonight was the night that Alayna was finally able to give Mercedes Rosario de Martinez (the foundress and president of FANA) her donation from her lemonade stand. What a night!! We were invited to a cocktail party hosted by The Barker Foundation (our adoption agency) and Friends of FANA, DC. Mercedes and Flor Angela Rojas Ferro (Second Legal Representative of FANA) were the guests. Alayna was asked to share her story with the group and she did a fabulous job. Before grabbing the microphone, Alayna told me not to cry, but... I did!!

Mercedes and Flor were so very thankful and told Alayna that her money will make a big diffference in the lives of children in Colombia. Mercedes presented Alayna with a beautiful silver bracelet with yellow, blue and red beads representing the flag of Colombia. Alayna beamed with pride!! She has mentioned four times tonight that she is ready for a trip back to Colombia (and especially to see the babies at FANA).

Thank you to everyone who helped Alayna's dream of giving back to FANA a reality. We are truly blessed to have so many caring and supportive family members and friends. A big THANK YOU from the Lightifield Trio!!

Lemonade with our la CADA Crew!!

Wow. What an incredible weekend we have shared with our la CADA crew!! Mike and I feel sooo blessed to have built these friendships for ourselves and for Alayna. Claudia, Alayna, Daniel and Austin continue to be the best of friends and we delight in seeing them together every summer. And.. we can't forget Alyssa, Andres, and Joseph. They are fun, fun, fun!!

Our la CADA friends helped us at our final lemonade stand of the summer today. The kids (and parents, too) served lemonade and cookies for three hours this afternoon. Thanks to Mimi, Grandma and Aunt Meghan for making all those cookies. According to Joseph, he worked the hardest and was the best "cash register" of the bunch. They looked sooo cute in their "I'm a FANA Kid" shirts from Austin and Alyssa. The cuteness factor must have paid off, because they raised..... $201.50 today. WOW!! Thanks to all of your support, Alayna will be able to present the foundress of FANA with a check for $536.50. I am sooo very proud of all of the kids and hope that they will continue to give back to FANA each year!!

Thanks to everyone who helped Alayna with her efforts this summer. Keep checking the blog for updates on us!!

Laynie's Lemonade Stand!!

We are always proud of Alayna, but.... sometimes she even surprises us with her loving heart. Earlier this summer, she decided that she wanted to "give back" to FANA (her orphanage in Bogota, Colombia). She actually got the entrepreneur bug from cousin Ally (who was starting a dog biscuit business out of her kitchen). Thanks for the jumpstart, Ally!!

Alayna decided to create a lemonade and cookie stand and to give the profits to FANA. She created signs, made fliers for the neighbors and set up a stand at the end of our street. We made freshly squeezed lemonade and homemade cookies and had a wonderful first weekend. ***I know what you are thinking... Karen, did NOT make cookies and freshly squeezed lemonade. But... you are wrong. Laynie and I made both ..... but only for the first weekend). Now we prefer the bottled lemonade and slice and bake cookies. YUM!!

Even with "NOT SO FRESHLY SQUEEZED" lemonade and store bought cookies, Laynie's Lemonade Stand has been a huge success. So far she has raised.... $335.00 and she is still going strong.

Our last lemonade and cookie stand of the summer will be on Saturday, August 16th from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on our street. Alayna's friends from FANA (Claudia, Austin and Daniel) will be visiting us here in Maryland and will help out on that day. Austin is bringing the kids shirts that say, "I'm A FANA Kid". Won't they look sooo cute? Feel free to stop by for some cookies and lemonade and to see the "la CADA crew" (Claudia, Austin, Daniel, Alayna) and their siblings (Andres, Alyssa and Joseph) again.

We just found out that Mercedes de Martinez (the foundress of FANA) will be here in September and Alayna is excited to give her a check to help with the care of the children at FANA. We hope to see you at Laynie's Lemonade Stand!!