packing for Guatemala

We leave in just a few days - my family is so excited for this trip... just under two weeks in Guatemala with overnights at my dad's on both ends of the trip. While we are in Guatemala City, we will visit with Marisol of Asofamilia. This is the organization through which we were able to locate Haydee's birth family and provide modest assistance with food and visits. Last time we went to Guatemala, we brought a suitcase of cloth diapers for the orphanage where Haydee had stayed. This time, there is no orphanage. Sadly, the abrupt halt of international adoptions forced many orphanages to close. Guatemala lacks the infrastructure for government lead foster care so many children are either abandoned or stay in their birth families where meeting basic needs is near to impossible. So we'll be bringing more diapers to Marisol for distribution to birth families as needed. We'll also visit Safe Passage to meet the 13 year old girl we've been sponsoring there. We're excited to meet her and hear about her studies. Thirteen is a critical age - we hope to reinforce the importance of staying in school and focusing on studies while there. We're also looking forward to showing Haydee some of the special places from our time there almost four years ago - the Embassy which issued her visa (finally!), the grocery store (EconoSuper) where we walked daily, the little book store where we purchased the Max and Tina series. After our time in the city, we're off to see other parts of Guatemala - including sea turtles in Monterico and tree houses outside of Antigua. Should be a great time!

a note for Buzzie Bee Families...

We hope that 2010 is off to a great start for you and your children!

We recently celebrated Liefe’s 7th birthday. Seems like just yesterday that we were new parents trying to find a diaper service for her! In a few weeks, we’ll return to Guatemala. Preparation for this trip has brought us back to Haydee’s infancy - how long we waited for her, how quickly her beautiful eyes melted our hearts and how right away we felt silly for wondering if we could love two children as much as one.

Previous trips to Guatemala occurred without interruption to Buzzie Bee Diapers customers. This time, diaper service will be interrupted. We’ll be away February 10-24. Our commercial auto insurance covers only Broo and me, meaning we’re not able to have another delivery driver. We want to be fair to you, to give you options to keep your babies in cloth, and to be somewhat worry free while we experience Guatemala with our children. Three options are explained below.


If you have any questions about this, please give me a call (542-0505) or email (info@buzziebee.com). Thank you, in advance, for your kind understanding!


---indicate your decision and return to us with your payment on your next pick up - February 1. If we don’t hear back from you, we’ll assume you are going with option (c) -----

A) drop off soiled diapers at Clean Bee Laundry* on Monday Feb. 15 and Feb. 22 (between 9 - 4). Label bag of soiled diapers with your name on it. Pick up clean diapers at the same time. Receive $10 credit and a coupon for doing the transportation yourself.

B) wash dirty diapers at home and receive vacation credit for 2 weeks . We’ll give you a print out of cloth diaper industry washing standards. You may begin leaving soiled diapers in your hamper on February 22. Normal pick up and delivery will resume on March 1.

C) leave out all diapers (clean and soiled) on February 8 and stop service until delivery resumes on March 1. Receive vacation credit for 3 weeks.


During this time, we are unable to accommodate change requests for covers, diapers, etc. * Clean Bee Laundry is located at 83 Elm Street (Reny’s plaza) in Camden 236-2530

(delivery) times are changing

Now that Clean Bee Laundry is in full swing, we're noticing that the diaper delivery route is just plain too long - both in distance and in how long it takes to complete it. We've made some changes already, Rockland and Camden customers are now served by Jennifer and her fearless little ones - thanks in part to Late Start Mondays at South School. The rest are still served by Broo in the Go Cloth Magic Toaster (we love the Scion!) just a wee bit later in the day as we can no longer manage getting up at 4AM to deliver diapers. As always, we will grandmother in existing customers, but we can no longer accept customers that cause us to deviate too much from the current route. I know of a service in another state that also serves a rural area - they have a 7 mile rule, where new customers need to be located within 7 miles of the current delivery route. That service is a lot larger than ours - because they also serve Boston suburbs. Perhaps if we were able to serve a more densely populated area in addition to midcoast Maine, we could make that work. But for now, we'll be taking each inquiry on a case by case basis. Thank goodness for google maps!

Locate a Diaper Service!

Colleagues at RDIA (real diaper industry association) have finished a page on the RDIA website that every man, woman and child should visit... This has been a dream of mine for a few years now - the page is professional and accurate. Love it! Go Cloth!!

http://diaperservice.realdiaperindustry.org/locate-a-diaper-service

Life at The Bee

So, here we are, seven months later at Clean Bee Laundry. For the most part, we are having a great time. Liefe and Haydee spend a good amount of time there and seem to really like it. They like to help out - even when they aren't earning quarters for the 'dulce machine' - the vending machine filled with m+m's that is a fundraising project for a home school family in town - otherwise it, like some of the other clutter we purged, would be long gone. One of us is there most days - sometimes we're all there. Here Liefe is helping at the front counter. She prides herself on service with a smile.

we bought a laundromat

I'm not sure what all this will lead to but on Monday, we finally closed on the purchase of Spotless Cleaners and Tanning (yes, that's right, tanning) in Camden. It's a well-established business whose last owners did a wonderful job building up a strong customer base. We're incredibly excited about the venture. For the time being, we're running it as the previous owners did... once we come up for air, we'll make some changes so that our personalities and values will be evident as well. To the future!

Sisters' Summer Sale at Buzzie Bee

Sisters’ Summer Sale!
25% off
diaper covers & swim diapers,
los chiquitos fitted diapers,
hemp & organic cotton prefolds,
contoured diapers

(now through July 31)
in stock items only

June marks the month that our youngest daughter came home to our family - while she was in our hearts forever, it was on June 2, 2006 that we all landed on US soil (very wet soil as it was raining so much in Atlanta, we wound up staying the night as the airport was pretty much shut down due to heavy rains). We celebrate it as Sisters Day - the day our girls were "officially" sisters. This year we had a cake (Hermanas Siempre) on which I tried to replicate the Guatemalan flag and went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We realize that Guatemalan food isn't really like Mexican food but in Maine it's about as close as we're going to get. The restaurant (Blue Sky Cantina) uses a quetzal on their sign (the national bird of Guatemala for which they named their currency) so that was pretty good...