Compassion Joys: May

I can't believe it's time once again for another Compassion Joys post!

Letters!

This month we received one letter each from Eduardo in Honduras, Marc in Haiti, Michel from Colombia, Estha in Togo, Juan in Bolivia, Sandier in Honduras, Thanakan in Thailand, Merlyn in the Philippines, Rose in Kenya, Motempa in Kenya, Habimana in Rwanda, Elifagason in Tanzania and Angelina in Ghana! And Estha, Merlyn, Thanakan, and Habimina's were first letters! Toward the end of the month we hardly received any letters- we went a week and a half with no letters, and then got three. I hope more are on the way soon!

Birthdays!

We have nine birthdays this month! Barry in Burkina Faso, Michel in Colombia, Bonifas in Tanzania, Warakorn in Thailand, Eduardo in Honduras, Wendy in Guatemala, Fatuma in Kenya, Tasya in Indonesia, and Benji in Haiti!! : )

Sponsor-versaries!

This month we celebrated one year of writing to Anahi in Honduras and Michel and Julian in Colombia!

New kids!

Several new kiddos joined our family this month! And a few of them are graduating really, really quickly (one is actually already graduated this month, but I have the chance to send a few letters on his way out of the program.) What a blessing it is to be able to see these new faces and send them off with a few letters after years of hearing nothing from their sponsors. PLUS we have a new SPONSOR CHILD! Woohoo! So here's the complete list:

Cristian in Mexico, Carlos Daniel in the Dominican Republic, Vandana in India (our sponsor child), Maite in Bolivia, Melat in Ethiopia, Warakorn in Thailand, Eduardo in El Salvador (graduated in May), Jerald in the Philippines, and Clarisse in Rwanda.

Compassion Experience! 

This month, my mom and I worked the Compassion Experience at a local church. I was so excited that it finally came to my city!!! I wrote about the day here. 

Photo Updates! 

We had two photo updates this month! Eduardo in Honduras got his photo updated, and then about a week after we got him, so did Cristian in Mexico!

Special pictures! 

This month we got three sets of special pictures! We got an extra photo of Sandier with the gifts that the field office staff purchased for him after my baggie got lost on the way to his center (an incredible kindness), extra pictures of Merlyn with the gifts that Katie delivered to the Philippines in November, and unsolicited photos of Rose with her daddy! Wow!

Gifts! 

My friends Paul and Kara are on their way to Peru in a few days, carrying a bag of gifts for several sponsor kids there! I'm sending a drawstring backpack of stuff to Carlos and Mishel, and offered to send gifts for a few other sponsors who have taken gifts places for me! :) I can't wait to hear what they think of everything! Please join me in praying that the gifts get to the kids ok- I think that they will probably be dropped off at the field office directly, but things can still happen, as they did in the case of Sandier's gift!