TAFRU Attendees, Make Your Reservations

After contacting at least 10 different hotel, researching hotels and much discussion about hotels, the TAFRU committee has found, what we feel to be a good choice on hotel for the reunion.


Doubletree Hotel Portland
1000 NE Multnomah St.
Portland, OR


We have received a group rate of $58.00 per night. Yes, folks you read that correctly, $58.00 per night. This rate is for 1 or 2 adults per room. There is no additional charge for children under 18 years of age. The rate does go up to $68 per night for 3 adults in a room and $78 per night for 4 adults in a room, but still good rates.


In addition, the hotel is in a good location for our reunion. Not only is it in close proximity to events we are planning for the reunion, but it is located along the MAX line, so anyone flying into Portland for TAFRU can catch the Max and will be dropped off directly across the street from the hotel.

We have 20 rooms set aside for reservations at this time and can reserve more if necessary. Reservations will be accepted until Friday, July 23, 2010. In addition, if you make a reservation that needs to be cancelled, you also have until Friday, July 23, 2010 to do so. We obviously hope that no one will need to cancel their plans to attend TAFRU, but we do need to make sure everyone understands that any room reservation cancelled after that date will still incur the charges for that room. This is one of the requirements to get such a great room rate.
What we are asking families to do now is start reserving their rooms. If you plan on attending TAFRU or think you might attend TAFRU, please go ahead and reserve your room now.

Remember, even if you later discover you can't attend, you can cancel your reservation without charge. Just make sure it's done by the July 23, 2010 cut-off date. By making your reservation now, you'll be guaranteed a room and it will also give us a better idea on the actual number of rooms needed for the reunion. I know August seems like a long ways off, but we were shocked to discover that some of the hotels we contacted were already booked August 6-8, 2010. We just want to make sure we can get all the rooms we need and the closer it gets to reunion time, the more we risk not being able to get rooms if we need them. So please book early.


You can make your reservation by phone at (503)281-6111 and tell them you are with TAFRU, group code 605. You can also make reservations by visiting their website and when you get to the reservation details screen, enter 605 in the group/convention code box. You will need to secure your reservation with a credit card, but no charges will be assessed until check-out.

The TAFRU planning committee is working on the remaining plans for our reunion and doing our best to make this as fun, memorable, and successful as possible, so stay tuned for more information.

Toukoul Adoptive Families on Facebook

I don't know how many of you have joined the Toukoul Adoptive Families Facebook page, but one of our Toukoul families received some bad news about their little guy. Nicole Hall posted the news here. Please visit Facebook to show your support to Nicole and her family.

Hotel Update

The reunion planning committee had hoped to make a decision on our hotel by this point, however, life seems to have gotten in the way of us working on reunion plans. Two committee members recently brought their children home from Ethiopia and needless-to-say they are happily busy with other things right now. Unfortunately, my oldest son has been in the hospital for the last 3 weeks so even though plans have been discussed, it's been slow going for the last several weeks.

Since the other committee members will one day be getting their referrals, traveling, bringing children home, we thought it would make sense to ask for a couple more committee volunteers to help with the planning.

The role on the committee would primarily be to provide input and feedback as we try to nail down all the details of the reunion.

If you would like to participate in the reunion planning, please email me - debweeks@mchsi.com. Don't worry about interviewing for the job. The first two to respond are the winners :-)

Thanks.