Compassion Joys: January

And just like that, the first month of the new year is behind us! Wow! Here are some Compassion-related things we are thankful for as January comes to a close!

Letters! 

We received quite a few letters this month, which was fantastic! We heard from Victor, Rose, Austin and Festus in Kenya and Carlos in Peru twice, and received one letter each from Anahi, Angelina, Bijay, Caleb, Celestine, Christine, Emmanuel, Eyo, Gloria, Merlyn, Motempa, Nkoyio, Prayer, Purity, Rubby, Tasya, and William! That's 27 letters!! Fantastic!

New Kids! 

This month we welcomes a few new correspondents to our far-away family! We received Elan and Anggi in Indonesia toward the end of the month, as well as three Ethiopian kids from a large corporate sponsorship- Jemal, Sumeya, and Nejat! Welcome to the family!

Birthdays! 

We had NINE birthdays in January! Two of them we found out about right before they happened, since they were for our new kids! Happy birthday to Mjay in the Philippines (13); Mishel in Peru (15); Sithum in Sri Lanka (11); Marc in Haiti (19); Kevin in Peru (9); Enal in Indonesia (16); Ruth in Honduras (14); Nkoyio in Kenya (18); and Sumeya in Ethiopia (8)!

Sponsor-versaries! 

We also had lots of sponsor-versaries this month! We celebrated one year of writing to Fatuma, Thanakan, and Estha; two years of writing to Caleb and Eduardo; and three years of writing to Brenda! These kids are such a blessing and we love them dearly!

Photo Updates! 

Two photo updates came through this month! We got a new picture of Festus in Kenya, and a much-awaited picture of Kajal in India! They've both grown up so much! Festus is a handsome young man, and Kajal is still our pretty princess. :)

Gifts! 

I found out this month that we will be able to send some gifts to a couple of our kiddos! We will be sending bag of gifts to Maribel in Bolivia and Kevin and Milder in Peru! Both of these opportunities come from baggie exchanges- I am taking gifts to Honduras for some sponsors, and they are taking gifts to my kiddos on their own trips. :) The Peru opportunity is especially neat since we received Kevin and Milder as correspondents after we got to send gifts to our other two kids there, and my friend Mrs K will be leaving Peru in a couple of months! I'm glad I get to send some gifts to these two cute little kids!

Our presents for our Indian girls arrived safely in England, much faster than I expected! I'm so thankful they got there quickly and arrived in one piece- and I'm thankful that Shelley agreed to receive them and take them to India with her in two weeks!!! I can't wait to hear about her trip! :)

Trip Update!

Speaking of trips.....I got registered for the October 2016 sponsor tour to Honduras!! As you know, this is something that God has been throwing at my heart for several months, and it was so exciting to finally get to make the down payment and fill out my registration forms!! I would so appreciate your prayers for my fund-raising as I calculated that I will have to raise $10 a day until the final payment is due. Thanks to my baggie fundraiser, in which I am collecting monetary donations in exchange for carrying gifts for other sponsors, the last week of January and the first few days of February are covered (I made a checklist!) but I need to get to work on my crafts and remember to share my fundraising page so I can check off the days after that! :)