Kid mail

We received our first letter on Saturday.
It was Alberlin's introduction letter. I am pretty sure she wrote it when she was registered because a) it arrived fairly quickly (just over a month) and b) was addressed to the generic "dear sponsor." But that is okay! It's just how some projects work. It's a trade-off, either a personalized letter which takes longer or an informative general letter which arrives quickly. My kids, especially M, were excited about the letter.
Alberlin introduced the members of her family and listed some of her favorite foods. She asks for prayers of strength because they miss her dad who passed away.
Alberlin also included a drawing with her letter.

 

M was excited to write back to Alberlin. She still wants to know if Alberlin has received the birthday care package that we sent.
We are also working on a craft for our kids. M made one of Stivenson's letter that I mailed yesterday. Pudge worked on one for Mawupemo. Each kid gets a piece of paper with them atthe bottom with balloons above them listing descriptions of them. Stivenson's said "you are..." and we had balloons for things like smart, handsome, loved, special. I had visions of a "nice" looking craft to send, but I couldn't say no to M and Pudge helping, so while they may not look as orderly as I originally visioned, I hope the kids appreciate the effort that M and Pudge put in.

Advocating for Victoire

Last time, I advocated for Ahondo and she is now sponsored. Yay! Now, I came across Victoire's picture and it just makes me chuckle. It's just such an expression that you could capture on Pudge, given the right circumstances. Obviously she was upset about something. Maybe she didn't want to have her picture taken. Maybe she's mad about having to wait her turn. I have no doubt that she is a passionate little girl and would love to have a sponsor.

Victoire

 

Information

 

Age: 5 (Birthday is December 31, 2009)

 

She lives with her father and mother

 

Her parents are sometimes employed

 

She is responsible for carrying water, washing clothes, and helping in the kitchen

 

There are 2 other children in her family

 

She is not currently attending school

 

She likes to sing, play group games, and listen to music

 

She regularly attends church and Bible classes

Thankful for medical care here

I know that mentioning Obamacare can result in some powerful responses from people. Regardless of your feeling on Obamacare, we are blessed to live in a country where it is relatively easy to access medical care. Now the cost of medical care is a different story and will not be the subject of this post.

Last weekend, I noticed that Pudge had gotten a bug bite on her leg. No big deal, probably just something that happened while we were in Florida or something. I kept an eye on it and noticed it was starting to get worse. Finally a few days later it started to show signs of infection. Then I was presented with some options, I could take her to her doctor but would have to wait one more day or I could take her to urgent care. I opted for urgent care so we could get the antibiotic started and not wait one more day. With my background in microbiology, I don't want to mess with sepsis. 30 minutes at urgent care and we had a prescription for antibiotics to pick up later.

Let's think about what would happen in a third world country. First off, going to the doctor is not an easy thing. You might have a "local" medical place, but that is probably still a time-consuming trek. Then once you get there, there isn't exactly a receptionist, so you wait and hopefully by the time you are seen they have the supplies required. Even with our flawed health care system we are truly blessed.

For us, this was a very minor medical condition. Pudge's bug bite has been improving with the antibiotics. We were given signs to watch for in case it didn't respond and developed into sepsis. But even in that scenario we would still have the ability to go to an ER a few miles away for treatment in a hospital that is adequately staffed and supplied.

Here's another story about the blessings of our health care and the difference we can make for those living in other counties.

Meet Our Family Booklet

We have a new correspondence child. Shaeila from Kenya was added yesterday. Her paperwork says that she will be 6 next month, but she looks quite a bit older than that in this picture. I've asked Compassion to look into whether the age is correct or if perhaps the photos got mixed up. Either way, she will be getting a booklet of our family.

 

Shaeila



For Mawupemo, I cut each sheet in half and then everyone in the book got their own page. I taped our pictures in. Compassion actually advises against tape because some of the climates that the kids live in makes the tape not so happy and it isn't sticky anymore. This time, I was lazy and used PowerPoint to lay everything out and then just printed it directly to the card stock. This also shortened the book from 6 pages (I didn't have a page with information about our city) - which was difficult to get stapled together, to 4 pages.

Front cover

First page
Our birthday, favorite color, brief description of our jobs, and our favorite Bible verse

Second page
Birthdays, favorite colors, what they want to be when they grow up, and favorite Bible story

Final page
Birthday, favorite color, a few sentences about him and what he likes to do
The city information may change for the next revision. I may add a landscape picture

 

In addition to the booklet, I will also send Shaeila a few maps. I have been sending these to all of our kids, usually with just a few labels, but I found our Crayola stampers and they ended up being perfect. I like this USA map and this world map. The maps were just printed on regular copy paper because A) PowerPoint was getting cranky and B) Stapling through 6 cardstock papers does not agree with my stapler. Mostly A though.

 

Happy faces for where we live and where Shaeila lives which are connected with pink hearts. Areas where our other kids live (sponsored and correspondence) are shown with a blue squiggle.

Green exclamation mark to show where we live. Happy faces to show were my grandparents live, plus where DRL grew up, and where DRL and I were born.







A Plea for Ahondo

So, I've become a bit addicted about looking at Compassion's website for children waiting for sponsors. I've mainly been looking at the kids in Togo, Africa since that's where Mawupemo is. I watched the unsponsored kids at her center go from 9 to 8 to 7 and then it blossomed up to 14 today. Somehow I also stumbled on a different center in Togo and Ahondo has caught my attention. Just a hint of a smile that might be trying to come out. That sweet pink dress. Please, if you can, pray about sponsoring this girl. If you can't sponsor her, pray that God sends a sponsor for her. She has waited 333 days for a sponsor. Sponsorship costs only $38 a month. So, bring a sack lunch to work for one week a month, and you could have the sponsorship money.

Ahondo: Age 5, (Birthday Sept. 15, 2009)

* Lives with her grandfather and grandmother *

 

* Her grandparents are sometimes employed as farmers *

 

* Responsibilities - Running errands, carrying water, and helping in the kitchen *

 

* There are 2 children in the family *

 

* She is not presently attending school *

 

* Favorite activities - Singing, playing with dolls, and hide-and-seek *

 

* She attends church and Bible class regularly *