ON THE WAY TO BRINGING NICKY HOME
The first Bringing Nicky Home fundraising event was a great success. On Sunday October 7th nearly 200 supporters were in attendance at the Garden Church in Lansdowne, PA for a special concert featuring the Philadelphia Boys' Choir and Chorale. After expenses the event netted $2,455.15. These proceeds will go towards adoption and renovation costs for Nicky O'Keefee, a severely disabled teenager and currently a resident at Voorhees Pediatric Center in Voorhees NJ who has found an adoptive forever family at Epiphany House. The over all costs for the renovations and adoption expenses to accomodate Nicky and Epiphany House's commiment to disabled children are expected to run to approximately $50,000 dollars. So with this first event, we are on our way.
We are grateful to all our Epiphany House organizers and supporters for making the night successful. We extend our appreciation to the Voorhees Pediatric Center for making it possible for Nicky to be at the concert and for the donations from folks at Voorhees. We are also endebted with thanks to The Garden Church for waiving rental fees in the interest of Nicky.
The next event for Nicky is a Costume Party Saturday Novemebr 3rd, 8PM, here at Epiphany House. See info below. Anyone over 21 years of age is welcome. Our thanks to John Paul Horedemann of Lansdowne for organizing this event. The evening involves a costume contest so kick start your imagination. Be there or be square!
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Joyfully We Announce a New Forever Family:
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Kathryn Quigley and Nicholas
(not to be confused with Nicky O'Keefee) adoption date November 5th |
We received the following email recently from new mom to be, Kathryn Quigley
Hello friends and fans of Nicholas,
I write with good news. Nicholas' adoption is set for Monday, Nov. 5 at 8:30 a.m. in the Hall of Justice in Camden, N.J. (Lovely Camden.) The Hall of Justice (which is NOT where the Superheroes live) is right next to the prison. So that will provide an interesting backdrop. But we will be there in Courtroom 63 for a much HAPPIER reason - the judge will officially rename Nicholas as Nicholas Robert Quigley and he and I will become a Forever Family.
It's been a long journey - almost seventeen months from the time he was placed with me at 10 days old on May 31, 2006. Nicholas is now a bright, active, chatty toddler who hates to wear shoes and loves to eat cookies. He also loves to flush the toilet, a habit I discourage since lately his favorite activity is going swish, swish, swish with his hand in the toilet water. (I am itching at the thought of the bacteria. AR RGH.). At least he has not thrown any cookies down the toilet. Yet.
This e-mail is a chance for me to say THANK YOU to all of you. Thank you for listening to me cry, complain, kvetch and whine about social workers and his troubled birth parents and my tiredness. Thank you for sharing my joy at my funny little boy. Thank you for coming over in those blurry first few weeks when I needed a nap. Thank you for taking care of Nicholas when I had strep throat or a stomach virus. Thank you for babysitting Nicholas so I could get an afternoon or night out. Thank you for sending cards, leaving me encouraging messages and saying prayers.
I am truly, deeply grateful for everyone's help. You helped make my dream of becoming a mommy come true. My life with the Little Dude is full of joy and laughter and I thank you for being there for me.
Love, Kathryn Quigley and Nicholas
Epiphany House comment:
We extend our warmest congratulations, joy and love to Kathryn and Nicholas. We also note that, in her email, Kathryn articulates an essence of the Epiphany House mission. Finding a forever family for a foster child involves a "village" of folk who can be the "extended" family that makes a new forever family possible. Please remember, if you are not able to become an adoptive parent, you can still play a key role to enable a permanent home for a waiting child. For ideas how to become involved with Epiphany House, go to: www.epiphany-house.org/beinvolved.html
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