Sister helps family pay for international adoption

By Audrey Esther, News9.com INsite Team 

EDMOND, Okla. -- When Katie and Michael Morris decided to adopt, their search for a child became global and eventually led them to Ethiopia. Their global search was expensive and fortunately, it became a family affair.

Katie's sister Amy was the first to help.

"More than me wanting to be an aunt, I know my sister has wanted to be a mother, and I don't think that I could sit there and just watch her work towards this goal without lending a hand," Amy Coldren said.

Amy's lending a hand by using her hands. She creates and sells original artwork online to help pay for the adoption. It's called Project 8256. The name references the incredible distance from Oklahoma City to Ethiopia. 

"What we really trying to do is just get them from here to there to meet their family and then bring them home and specifically that's 8,256 miles," she said.

Since Amy launched the project a year ago the sale of her cards and original prints have raised more than $4,500. That's a welcomed contribution to the almost $30,000 dollars Katie and Michael will need.

"It's a tremendous gift because she is my only sister and obviously she'll be so involved in our children's lives and so to have her involved so early in our children's lives is wonderful," Katie Morris said.   

Besides money, adoption also takes patience. Katie and Michael could wait another six months before they become parents.

"It's definitely little bits at a time, small victories," Michael Morris said. "It's definitely a lengthy process."

All agree the process and the project are worth it.

"It's something that hopefully will show how much they were loved," Katie said of her future children. "That they were chosen and that they were thought about and prayed about and loved before we even knew that they existed." 

Project 8256 helps countless other children too. Amy donates 20 percent of the proceeds to AHOPE an African orphanage for children with AIDS