Please, join site founder Kristen Palana and Michael Hemling in welcoming their new baby boy  into the world.
Kristen writes:
“Our son, Lukas Michael Hemling was born on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 9:10 AM (Rome time.)  He weighed 6.2 pounds (2.8kg) and is 18 inches long. He is by far our favorite German/American baby born in Italy and he is doing extremely well in his new home.  Michael and I are sleepy but euphoric.”
Congratulations to Kristen and Michael on their new bundle of joy!

Aura’s House has been working with Children International since February of 2003. Vickie Wiedenmann has been with us this whole time and kindly agreed to answer a few questions and tell us more about herself.

She writes:
“Hi!  I’m Vickie Wiedenmann, and I’m honored that my good friends at Aura’s House asked me to tell you about myself and my work with Children International.
My husband, Bill, and I are the very proud parents of a 7-year-old boy named Benjamin.  We live and work on a farm south of Kansas City where we …

Hi All,
I just wanted to announce a donation for Zoila’s Income Generation Project in Honduras. It comes on behalf of my unborn son, “Nugget” who is due sometime around October 26 and will be given a proper name once my husband and I can agree on one.
I had been visiting family in Massachusetts and was surprised with a baby shower and the gift of Zoila’s donation from my longtime friend Ellen Busher who wished to make it in “Nugget’s” name (or non-name).
It meant a lot to me because we hope …

Thanks to Stephanie W., one lucky donor to Ana’s Income Generation Project in Ecuador will receive a homemade blanket. Stephanie is Ana’s sponsor and is a talented knitter/craft person. She is using the giveaway to thank the generous donors for this project.
Every donation of $5 or more to Ana’s Project will be assigned a number. Once Ana’s project is fully funded, Stephanie will use a random number generator to pick the winner.
To read more about the blanket giveaway, please visit Stephanie’s blog here.

Hi Everyone,
Aura’s House has a new partner that is helping to run the site. I’m pleased to announce that in addition to our already dedicated partners Anastasia Yecke, Mike Epler, Christina Sidoti, and Heather LaBonte Efthymiou, we now have Courtenay Honeycutt aboard the Aura’s House Team.
Courtenay writes:
“I have been donating to/volunteering with Aura’s House since shortly after the first project was completed. Seeing what Kristen was able to do for Aura through Children International persuaded me to choose CI when I was first considering child sponsorship. I currently sponsor two …

1. Please tell us a little about yourself. Name, age, where you are from originally, interests, etc.
My name is Greg Jones. I am 37 years old. I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. My interests are cooking and watching pro football – BIG Kansas City Chiefs fan!
 

2. How long have you been with CI and what things do you do for them?
I have been with CI for 9 years. I started out as Sponsor Services Phone Representative, then answered CI emails from Children@Children.Org, then …

New Aura’s House Website, Guatemala Bed Project Completes, Small Project 22 Complete, and Our New Featured Donor
 
Hello there Aura’s House Community,
 
If this is your first time visiting the site since our last newsletter, we do hope you are not startled by all the changes. As you can see we changed the look, feel, and function of the website. We’ve also finished several projects and have launched five new ones all at once for the first time in our nearly five year history. Our goal is to continue to help needy …

December 2008 Featured Donor – Tung-Kuen Li
 
Tung-Kuen Li has been a regular supporter of Aura’s House projects over the past several months. This consistency was a relief in hard economic times and through the traditionally slow summer vacation season.
 
Tung-Kuen writes:
“I am so honored being asked to be Featured Donor for the December Aura’s House newsletter.   I really don’t know how I deserve this honor.
My friends call me TK.  I am a Network Support Analyst with a bank in New York City.  I have three sponsored children (Yamiris, 10 years old, …