Outgoing Mail: Gifts of the Magi

I've been sending a lot of letter replies recently, still catching up from letters received a few weeks ago. One "new" letter I've sent this month is about Christmas!

A few weeks ago, maybe during Thanksgiving week, my pastor was talking about gifts and the things for which we are thankful. He told a cute story about his grandson that I immediately knew I wanted to share with our kids! The short version is that they were playing a "treasure hunt" game, and the treasure that the grandson chose to hide was very unexpected- but it was still precious to him. Our pastor then asked the parents of the church to talk to their kids about what kind of gift they would give Jesus if they could. They are then supposed to bring those to our Christmas Day service, and they'll be placed at the altar. I know he's asked the parents to include a note explaining why the kids chose that gift, and he'll use that in a later message. So I, in turn, asked *my* kids what kind of gift they would give baby Jesus! I also told them about a treasure that is important to me. I really hope that I hear back from several of the kids on this. I tried numbering the questions so the translators or tutors will know to pay special attention to them, as has been recommended on Compassion's website before. We'll see if it works!

I'm sharing the text of the letter here, so you can tweak it if you like. It might be fun to talk to your own sponsor kids about the gifts of the wisemen, and ask them what they would give! I also sent a nativity coloring page (which I found using Google) which you can download and send. And Compassion has two different nativity-themed pieces of stationery on their website!

Hello! Greetings from my family to yours. I can't believe that Christmas is just two weeks away. My pastor shared an interesting story in church last week, and I wanted to pass it along to you. It really had me thinking! Many of his sermons have been about Christmas recently, since the holiday is almost here. He was speaking about gifts. I think we all have gifts on our mind during Christmas, because of the gifts we give each other, and the gifts we receive. We even read about gifts in the Bible, when we read about the wise men who traveled to see baby Jesus and present him with gifts of gold and precious perfumes. My pastor (his name is Bill) had a question for us that had me thinking quite a bit- if we could give a gift to God, what would it be? We usually think about the gifts God gives us, but what would we give him if we had the chance? Bill then told us about an afternoon he spent with his grandson (I think he is 6 years old.) Bill and his wife were visiting their daughter and her family for Thanksgiving. The grandson likes to play a game called "treasure hunt," where he hides a treasure in a box and then they make a map to go find it. And he said "it has to be a treasure!" A treasure is something very special and valuable- even if it is not worth a lot of money, it may have a special emotional value. So the grandson hid the treasure, and Bill followed the map to find it. When he opened the box, he was surprised to see that the treasure was a bread roll from Thanksgiving dinner the day before! At first, it didn't seem like a treasure- but then Bill remembered that his grandson had eaten four or five of those rolls during dinner! He loved them so much and they were his favorite part of the meal- and he would have eaten more if he could! So this was a treasure to him. Something very special that he wanted to share with his grandfather. Bill asked us what gift we could give to Jesus if we had the chance, and asked the parents in our church to ask their children the same question. On Christmas, the children can bring their gifts and leave them at the altar as a symbol of their gift to God. I can't wait to see what they bring. I wanted to ask you two questions. 1. What is something that you treasure? 2. What would you give to baby Jesus if you had been there when he was born? For me, something I treasure is the Bible that belonged to my friend and mentor Betty, who passed away a few years ago. And I think I would make a soft blanket of the finest yarn for baby Jesus, so he wouldn't have to sleep wrapped in rags and dirty cloths in the manger. 
I hope to hear from you soon! I love you so much and I am praying for you every day. I can't wait to learn about your replies to my questions! 
Love, Jessi

Outgoing Mail: WorldFest

My city has a huge international population, and every year we celebrate this by having a festival downtown by the river. While I've never actually been to WorldFest, I really want to go every year and it just doesn't work out. But I always look forward to seeing the photos that are posted on social media and on the city's website! While looking through the photos this weekend, I thought it would be fun to send the kids a letter about WorldFest.

In the letter, I explained a little about my city, and told the kids about the activities that take place. I wrote the letter in Word and had to tweak the phrasing and spacing a bit when I found out that even though I felt I had tried to be brief, I had run out of space. :) I also collected photos from the city's website and a couple of Google searches- there were so many to choose from! I hope that some of the kids especially like seeing their countries represented in the Parade of Nations! While this letter wouldn't make much sense to copy and send to your own kids unless you live in my city, I would really recommend checking with your local government to see if any similar events take place in your own town. WorldFest is the big, city-sponsored event each year, but there are also smaller events and celebrations put on by specific communities, too! Chances are, your own town has some sort of fun, multicultural event that you can learn about or even visit!

Here's the text of what I sent:

My city has many of its festivals and parties in the spring, before the Kentucky Derby horse race (which is a famous sporting event that draws many visitors and some celebrities to my town!) But each year in September, our city’s government hosts what they call World Fest (short for “festival.”) My city is home to many people who have moved to the United States from other countries. Some are very new, and other families have lived here for generations. This is reflected in everything from our local food to our architecture. Our city’s website says that more than 100 languages are spoken in our schools, and people from over 150 countries live here! The four day festival is a celebration of all the cultures represented in our city. I thought it would be fun to tell you about it.
The activities for the festival are held in the downtown area, which has many museums, tall buildings, and a lovely park by the river. Most of the events are at the park, where there is room for tents, tables, and stages. Musicians from all over the world perform music from their home countries, and the festival visitors can walk through the park and hear several different kinds of music being played at once! Some of these musicians are accompanied by dancers, such as flamenco dancers from Mexico or step dancing from Ireland. There are also booths where craftsmen and artisans sell goods from their country, like baskets, jewelry, or wood carvings. One really fun thing about the festival is the food. It is a chance to try foods and drinks from all over the world! Here are some examples of the foods that were available at this year’s festival: churros from Mexico; ice cream from Italy; juice from the Caribbean islands; dumplings from China; sushi from Japan; and many more! Also during the festival, the government has a naturalization ceremony. Do you know what that is? Naturalization means the process of becoming a citizen. People who want to become citizens of the United States must live here for several years, and then take a written exam, like you might have at school. The exam asks questions about American history and government. Then, when the exam is passed, people are “sworn in” (they take an oath, or make a promise) in a legal ceremony. We have many of these ceremonies throughout the year (and some even take place in our public libraries!) but I think this ceremony is extra special for two reasons: many people are becoming Americans at the same time, and also the celebration of the festival makes it very fun!
Another interesting part of the festival is the Parade of Nations, which takes place on the first day of the festival. At this time, people of my city dress in traditional clothing from their countries and march in a parade. It is always so exciting and interesting to see the costumes from the different countries. I am sending you several photos of the parade so you can see these different countries represented!
I always love learning about other cultures and countries, and this is part of the reason I love my city so much. Can you tell me about a festival or special event from your city? I would love to learn about it! 

Outgoing Mail: Raccoons

I haven't been posting much because I haven't been getting letters! We had a few come through this week, so I hope to remember to do a Mail Call post, but in the meantime, here's a bit about what I sent out to our kiddos this week!

I had been meaning to send out another letter about animals, as those are usually pretty popular (the kids tend to tell me what they already knew about the animal, and ask to learn about more!) As I was looking through the kids' non-fiction section at work this week, I found a few older books about raccoons that really needed to be weeded out of our collection due to condition, and before they went to the book recycler, I read through them and put together this letter! I thought it would be nice to share about an animal that is common where I live, but may be unknown to the kids. All the info just came straight from two non-fiction books, and I added a page of photos and a cute coloring page. That is probably my favorite thing about Compassion's new letter-writing system!

Feel free to copy and edit the text to send to your own sponsor kids!

Brandon and I really love animals, and we are always happy to learn more about God's creatures. I thought you might enjoy learning about an animal that is native to where we live, Kentucky. This animal is called the raccoon. Raccoons are mammals found throughout North America. They live in forests and grasslands from Canada to Panama. Some even live in cities! Most raccoons like to live near water. They build homes called dens. These are often in trees, logs, or unused burrows. Dens can also be in old abandoned buildings. Raccoons have grey or brown fur. They are known for their ringed tails and mask-like markings. They also have pointed noses, short ears, and short legs. Their front paws have long fingers with sharp claws. Raccoons use their paws to grip food. Raccoons will eat anything available: nuts and seeds, small animals and insects, eggs, and fruits and vegetables! They even sometimes steal from garbage cans! In the northern US and Canada, food can be hard to find in the winter months. Raccoons in these areas eat as much as they can during the summer and autumn. Then they sleep for much of the winter. Male raccoons are called boars. They are bigger than the females, which are called sows. Raccoons grow to be about 60-105 centimeters long. Most boars weigh between 3.6 and 10.4 kilograms. Their large size often keeps predators from attacking them. When danger is near, raccoons hiss, bark, and growl. Their sharp teeth also help fight off snakes, birds of prey, and other large animals. Female raccoons give birth to cubs in the spring or summer. Newborn raccoons are blind. Their eyes open after about three weeks. The mother stays near to protect her cubs. After two months, raccoon cubs leave the den. They search for food with their mother. They share her den for the next winter, then they are ready to live on their own! Raccoons are seen as pests in the USA because they like to dig through garbage and sometimes destroy parts of homes when seeking shelter during the winter. Raccoons can also carry a deadly disease called rabies, so it is important to avoid them in the wild, just in case they are sick. I think raccoons are very cute, though. When I was a kid, I wanted to keep one as a pet. My parents told me this would be a bad idea because wild animals belong in the wild, and raccoons can be very destructive and mischievous. They like to chew, dig, and scratch, so it would be a bad idea to keep one in a house! 
I am sending you some photos of raccoons, and a fun coloring page! If there are other animals you would like to learn about, you can let me know! 
Love, Jessi

Here's a photo of the letter that I sent out, along with a copy of the coloring page!

Outgoing Mail: Service

It's been a while since I've done an Outgoing Mail post! Rest assured that I have been writing to my kiddos, but because of the website changes and the fact that I have so many faces on my account, I'm not writing quite as often (about twice a month) as it takes longer to get all the letters sent out. This month, I wrote to my kids about a really amazing service project my church participated in!

As a bit of background, my church partners with a ministry called Lifeline and a church in Ocotillo, Honduras. Every year, we send a couple of teams to bring supplies and do some construction projects to the church family there (one year we brought an ultrasound machine, for example, and this year I think we did a water filter.) There are usually two teams that go on short term trips and one team that's down there for about three weeks. Many people at my church also sponsor children through Lifeline, and I love it when we show video and photos of the times when church members get to meet their sponsor kids. It's so sweet! Our involvement with Honduras and Lifeline was actually what got me to request a correspondent in Honduras in the first place, and that's how Eduardo came to join our family.

Recently, our pastor shared that we were going to participate in a church-wide service project. We would be packing meals for Honduras, to be distributed by Lifeline. They operate feeding centers (much like the one our dear Zoila attends) throughout central America and the Caribbean, and we would be packing some of these meals to be shared with our Honduran brothers and sisters. Our goal was to pack 100,000 meals! Each bag we packed contained six meals, and the bags were filled with dried vegetables, vitamin powder, soy, and rice. When I say everyone participated in this project, I mean it! We came in to the sanctuary on the morning of the project and several rows of seats had been removed, replaced with tables (or left empty so people could stand on the other side.) After an introduction and an instructional video, we started packing. My friend Emily brought her mom to help out, too! We donned our hairnets and I held the bags as Emily, her mom, and Brandon's cousin Kayla scooped everything into the plastic bag. I then passed the bag to Brandon, who shook it down and passed it to his mom and aunt Ann, who weighed it. If it was a little under the ideal weight, Brandon added a spoonful of rice. If it was over, he scooped some out. The bag then traveled further down the line to the people who sealed the bags, and then the folks on the end stacked them on a grid made of masking tape. When all the spots on the grid were filled, those bags were packed up. I think that they held 24 or 26 bags in each box. The congregation packed meals and boxes during both services, both on the floor of the sanctuary and up in the balcony. Childcare was only provided for the very youngest kids (babies and toddlers) and people with mobility issues or the elderly had a special room set up so they could pack meals while sitting down (and let me tell you, the following week when they showed a video they put together of that morning, seeing the fragile old ladies wearing hairnets and scooping rice into little bags, wearing their church clothes...it made me cry!) I'm happy to report that our church packed something like 100,140 meals that day. If one fewer box of bags had been packed, we wouldn't have made our goal. It was a beautiful experience, and one that I was very excited to share with our kids.

Unfortunately I don't have the text of the letter available right now, but I did take screenshots of both the letter and the photo pages I created to send to the kids (now that we can attach pages to our letters, my kids are getting a lot more photos! I've shared those below. I also asked the kids if their church or project has ever done a service event to help people in their community. I'm really looking forward to seeing the responses to these letters!

Outgoing Mail: Gorillas

This month, I am sending another animal letter to my Compassion kids! This animal was on my list of creatures to write about for a while, but there is a very special reason I am writing about them now: our local zoo recently welcomed a baby gorilla! Her story starts out sad because the baby was delivered by emergency c-section, and the mother did not survive the surgery. I decided to go ahead and write my gorilla letter this week when the zoo announced an update on the baby's progress, and shared that she has a name. They were going to do a contest for naming her, but named her in honor of her mom. Mia Moja, the mother, was affectionately called "squirrel" by her keepers, so they named the baby Kindi, which is Swahili for squirrel! I think it's so precious, and the pictures are ADORABLE.

Here's a screenshot of the letter I sent:

And here is the text:

Dear Eyo, 
From time to time, I like to send letters about some of my favorite animals to my friends in other countries. Today I want to tell you about one of those animals- the gorilla. And I am going to share some interesting local news with you, as well! 
There are several gorillas that live at my city's zoo. I still remember when we got them, when I was in grade 8. We stood in a queue for hours to see them in their new habitat. I was very excited at the time, and I still enjoy coming to see the gorillas. They are very large, majestic, and curious. I am thankful that last year, my aunt brought us on a special tour to meet the gorilla keepers and see what happens behind the scenes each day: how they are fed and cared for. There are two types of gorillas: mountain gorillas, which are very endangered, and lowland gorillas. We have lowland gorillas at our zoo. They are bigger than mountain gorillas. The males can be as tall as a human being, and weigh up to 180 kg! Gorillas may look dangerous, but they do not eat meat- they eat lots of leaves and roots. At the zoo, they also eat vegetables and fruits. These animals are also social- they live in family groups called "troops." The group is led by a male called a silverback- the black hair on his back turns silver! To communicate, gorillas make noises like grunting and chirping. They are also very smart- some gorillas have been taught to "talk" to humans through hand signals called sign language. The most famous of these gorillas is named Koko. When I was a little girl, I really liked reading about Koko. I borrowed books about her from the library very frequently. 
My zoo had some exciting news recently, when they announced that one of the female gorillas was pregnant. Her name was Mia Moja. Sadly, last month, the baby gorilla was removed from the mother by surgery, and the mother died. The little baby gorilla is now an orphan who is constantly cared for by the zookeepers. They feed her a bottle of milk every 20 minutes or so. They hope that when she is bigger, she can be cared for by the other gorillas in the troop, but she is too small to live with them right now. It could be dangerous for her. This weekend, the zoo announced that the baby's name is Kindi, which means "squirrel" in Swahili. A squirrel is a type of rodent that we see in my country very often. The keepers called Mia Moja "squirrel" sometimes because she liked to hide her food, just like a squirrel hides the nuts it gathers for the winter. I am sending you a picture of baby Kindi. Isn't she cute?? It may seem strange, but will you please pray that baby Kindi grows up safe and strong? Everyone in my city wants her to grow up well! 
I hope to hear from you again soon! 
Love, 
Jessi

I also attached a gorilla coloring sheet to my letter! You can find it below, along with larger versions of the adorable pictures of baby Kindi!

You are welcome to copy some of the text of my letter to send your own- you could even edit it to talk about my zoo ("a zoo in my country....") if you'd like! I pulled the gorilla facts from my zoo's informational page on gorillas, which had quite a bit more info than I was able to fit in my letter. 

Outgoing Mail: Springtime Updates

I have done a few Outgoing Mail posts in the past, sharing the special treats we were sending our kiddos for holidays and birthdays. Sometimes, it was really hard to keep up with that! I have been later than I'd like sending out boxes of gifts in the past, and having the added pressure of sharing about them here (and remembering to take photos, things like that) often slowed me down. And then I didn't share anyway! My friend Hannah had a good idea to resurrect and tweak these feature posts, to encourage letter-writing and also to help share our ideas about what to send the kids when some policy changes for what we can send are put into full effect.

So, this is the inaugural Outgoing Mail post!

This week, I wanted to send my kids a letter about spring. The first day of spring was Sunday, and it actually feels like it where I live! I'm loving the weather, even though I know it means death by allergies is on its way. I ended up finding that I didn't have quite as much to share about spring as I thought I would, but I also wanted to share an important prayer request with the kids as well. Here's the text of what I sent:

Dear (name),
Hello! I hope that you and your family are doing well. I want you to know that my family is doing fine. This weekend marked the official change of seasons in my country- it is now springtime. The weather is so pretty! I am glad that I no longer need to wear a coat and a scarf each day. Also, many of the flowers are blooming, and the trees have blossoms as well. It is very pretty here, and we are all glad to say goodbye to winter. 
I know that you enjoy seeing pictures of my family, so I am sending you two photos. They are of Brandon's aunt Anne and uncle Dennis, and their grandchildren Ivy and Margaret. I love having them as part of my family. Anne is very kind and a lot of fun to be around. You can see from the pictures that they really enjoy being grandparents! Dennis also looks so happy and healthy in this photo. It is hard to believe that just over a year ago, he was very sick and close to dying. Dennis had liver disease for a few years, and he lost a lot of weight and was very sick. He even had trouble with his mind, because his body was so ill. He was forgetful and confused much of the time. Because his liver was not working properly, his other body organs were working extra hard, and he started to have trouble with his kidneys and his heart, too! But God heard our prayers and Dennis was able to have a liver transplant surgery. It was a miracle. His recovery was hard, but he is doing so much better now. We are all thankful that God spared his life, and it is good to see him smiling and healthy again. 
I would like to share a prayer request with you. My grandfather's health is starting to get bad. I have told you before that he has trouble remembering things and becomes confused, and he falls down a lot. Last week he went to the doctor and learned that he has dementia. This means that he is losing his mind- he will lose his memories and become more and more confused until he passes away. This is sad news for us to hear, because we love my grandfather (we call him Pappaw) very much. It is sad when a relative dies. I don't like to think about my Pappaw dying, but I know that when he dies, he will go to heaven and be with Jesus, and there he will be made whole again- and I will see him again someday, too! Will you please pray for my family, especially my mom? She needs to help her parents make decisions about Pappaw's healthcare and what will happen as he continues to get sicker. It is hard for her to make these decisions, and they make her very sad. Please pray for my mom to be strong, and to take comfort in God's promises.
 I hope to get a letter from you soon. I am praying for you each and every day. Today I prayed for safety and security in your country. It seems that each day there is a sad story in the news, but I pray that God is keeping your family safe, and that your leaders will make wise decisions. 
With love, Jessi

That letter took up almost all of the space I was allowed for the online templates, but it honestly took about three minutes to write. I had an idea in my head and ran with it. Please don't ever think that writing letters is something that is terribly time consuming or hard to keep up with- once you actually sit down at the keyboard and start typing, it really is easy. I have had a goal in 2016 to share more photos with my kids (I know that I want to see more photos of them, and they do ask for photos often!) so I have stolen several pictures from facebook. :) If we are family or close friends, chances are my kids have at least one picture of you, and I took it from facebook! Ha! When I saw aunt Anne shared these photos last week, I was so happy to see her sweet smile, and see how great Dennis looks, I knew that I wanted to snag them and share them with our far-away family!! I know that our kids who were praying for Dennis will be especially happy to see these pictures! And for our newer kids, it will be fun to see some of our extended family. 

I'm not sure that I'll be sharing every letter I send (I try to write once a week) but I will be sharing a lot more of them. I hope that some people can find a bit of inspiration for their own letters from these posts. Sit down and write to your kids today!! 

Outgoing Mail: Red Pandas

I'm going to try to share a little more about the letters I send to my kids! Most of the time, I send online letters- it's easier on my hands and a lot faster since I have so many correspondents! Last week I put together a letter about red pandas. I have written to my kids about my favorite animal in the past, but I want to try to send more informational letters- and I like the fact that Hannah's letters about similar topics get such fun responses! The nice thing about sending an informational letter is that you can put one together without a whole lot of prep. I know that some sponsors stress about sending letters because they aren't sure what to write, and spend a lot of time just staring at the paper (or screen) trying to come up with something they think is interesting! But if you're putting together an informational article, you can do a lot of copy/pasting and add a little bit to it. ;)

For this letter, I decided to write about red pandas. I've been putting together a list of animals I like or find interesting, for future letters! I will also add to this list as my kids (hopefully) write to me and tell me which animals they'd like to learn about. I just love red pandas- they're so cute! I used my library's research database for children (grolier online) to look up encyclopedia articles on red pandas, and chose one that was written for level 2 or 3 readers (they have more information than level 1, but aren't as involved and wordy as level 4.) I basically copy/pasted the entire article, then read through it and edited it a bit. I changed the wording on maybe two different sentences, and added in my own thoughts on the animal. Then I used google to find a few cute pictures! At the end I added my standard paragraph about praying for my kids (and included a prayer request) and voila! A letter was ready to send!

Hello!

I want to tell you about one of my favorite animals. It is called the red panda. Many people have heard of the bear called the giant panda- it is black and white. But red pandas do not look much like giant pandas! It looks more like a fox. It has a beautiful red coat, a long fluffy tail, and a pointed snout. The Chinese call it "hyn-ho", which means "fox of fire." Red pandas confused European explorers when they first found them. But American explorers thought they were a kind of raccoon (an American animal with a striped tail.) Because of this, the giant panda, which is really a bear, was also once considered as a strange raccoon. Today it is known that the two "pandas" are not closely related.The red panda eats mostly plants, especially bamboo shoots. It is usually active at night or early in the morning. Days are for sleeping. Red pandas sleep in trees! They are good climbers and can jump more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) between branches. But they are clumsy on the ground and move slowly and walk a bit like a duck! Red pandas make small, sharp whistling sounds like those of birds. If they are attacked, they stand up, growl, and spit, like an angry cat. They are very peaceful and rather playful. But their very sharp claws and pointy teeth prevent them from being good pets. Red pandas live among bamboo forests near the Himalayan mountains in Asia. When female red pandas have babies, the babies stay with the mothers for about a year before going to live on their own. Red pandas live about 13 years, and they are an endangered species. This means that there are not many red pandas left in the wild. The main reason they are endangered is because the forests where they live are being cut down. 

I really like red pandas- I think they are so cute! We do not have red pandas at the zoo in my city, but I have visited another zoo that had red pandas. They are one of my very favorite animals, because they are so adorable. I have also seen videos of them on the computer. They enjoy playing in the snow, and they look very cute hopping around! I am sending you some pictures of red pandas so you can see what they look like. What are some animals you would like to learn about? I would be happy to send you a letter telling you about them! And I might learn something new, too! 

I am praying for you every day. Do you have any prayer requests for me? I would like to ask you to pray for my brother in law  Jonathan. This week he celebrated his 16th birthday! We are so thankful for his life. 

I hope to hear from you soon!

Love and hugs, 

Jessi

If you like red pandas, you are welcome to copy the text of my letter and tweak it to suit your needs! :) 

Outgoing Mail: October

Hey folks! It's been a while since I've done a post like this- things have been bananas lately, even with sending out mail to our Far Away Family, but I thought I'd check in and share about what I'm sending out this month!

I think this is the latest that I've ever sent out Christmas stuff!! I actually was ahead of the game for a while, since I bought so many things on clearance last year, but then we ended up losing most of the correspondents I had stuff ready for, and I was left with the kiddos I still needed to shop for! :) This year I am sending out the most I've ever sent for Christmas for our kids. As of this writing, we have 67 kiddos, plus "half" a kid that I sponsor with my friend Steph! I've filled up two flat rate boxes full of goodies for the kids!!

For each child, I wanted to send three basic things- a Christmas card, a Christmas themed letter, and a gift. I made myself a chart so I could check off what I'd already prepared for each kiddo! Shopping the clearance sales after the last holiday season really helped me out by saving both time and money! I was able to purchase a few dozen little Christmas activity books on clearance from Lifeway. They are geared toward younger kids, but they were super cute. And the original price on them was $0.49, so when they went on clearance, I got them for pennies!! Some other items that we sent our kids for Christmas gifts included the following:

• Mini wall calendars (Michael's and the Dollar Tree)
• Student planners (Dollar Tree) 
• Pocket calendars (Michael's) 
• Sticker books (Michael's and Dollar Tree) 
• Notepads and diaries (Target) 
• Christmas-themed licensed character coloring books (Walgreen's) 
• Dover activity books (Amazon) 
• Christmas-themed advent devotionals (Lifeway) 
• Mini "sampler" books from Priscilla Shirer (these are also at Lifeway, and are super cool! They're like little condensed versions of popular books and Bible studies!) 

I got this year's Christmas cards two places- I had a few boxes I purchased from Half Price books, and they were super cute! But then I started running low on funds, so I got the rest from Lifeway's selection of boxed Christmas cards (16 for $3.99.) They were also very cute, and I just put them in bigger envelopes so some extra stuff would fit in there! 

One new thing I sent out this year were personalized ornaments for the kids! My mom found these super cute angel ornaments at Hobby Lobby. They're blank, to be colored in, and each angel (boys and girls) is holding a little banner. So we colored them all and wrote the kids' names on there. I had my friends and family color some at my Compassion Christmas party back in August, and we've been working on the others ever since! After each angel was colored, I'd label the back with the child's number and include a message like "my mom colored this angel for you!" Then I had them laminated and punched a hole in the top. The string that came with the ornaments was really flimsy and not pre-tied, so I didn't include it, but a small of thread at the top should go through mail processing just fine- especially if the ornaments are tucked in an envelope, which mine were! Honestly, I think the ornaments are what kept us tied up so long- there were a lot of them to color, and then after I got them laminated I still had to cut them out and match them up with each child's card! It's worth it, though. I think they'll like them. :)

Sorry the pic is so blurry, but here's Patricia's card, gift, and angel (colored by Steph!) 

For my Christmas letters this year (which I am still finishing and will send a little later) I had what I think is a pretty cool idea. Sometimes I like to imagine how I would spend time with my sponsor kids if they came to visit me, instead of the other way around! So for my Christmas letters, I am going to write out what it would be like if they came to visit my family for the holidays! I'm telling them about the weather, my family's traditions, and all the places we would visit. I think it will be fun. Hopefully I will get some response letters telling me about holiday celebrations with my kids! :) 

Also in this package, I am sending out Thanksgiving cards, which I got for a good price at Lifeway (they have some bargain cards from Dayspring that are super cute!) In each card I just wrote a quick message like "Happy Thanksgiving, I am so thankful for you!" Thanksgiving letters will be sent out separately. I am also sending out some random gifts to some of the kids, because I need to downsize my stash a little bit. I've been thinking about literacy a lot lately, since we have so many programs at the library where kids can win free books- we have stacks of them sitting around, and millions more available for checkout. I think it's really important to send books to our kids, because low reading levels hold them back at school, it opens up new worlds for them, and they may not have many books accessible to them! So I am always shopping clearance sections and yard sales for paperbacks to send out to my kids (mostly the English speakers, but occasionally I'll find some in another language!) So I am also sending out books to almost all my Kenyans in this mailing. Some examples of the books I'm sending out are: an easy reader book about elephants; a counting picture book; a book about the human heart and how it functions; a book about space; an atlas; a book about service dogs; a book about plants of the rain forest. I hope that they're well received. Now I need to go stock up on some more! 

What sorts of Christmas goodies are you sending out to your sponsor kids? I'd love to hear about them! 

Outgoing Mail: Valentines

I'm heading to the post office this week with a big box for Compassion!

Last year when I sent out Valentines, we only had 12 kids!! We picked up 3 more in the first few months of the year.....but now we are up to 36!!!  I went to several stores to find everything I wanted to send for Valentine's Day. 

The basis for any box of Compassion mail is letters, of course! Several countries throughout the world celebrate Valentine's Day, but not all of them do. In my letter, I explained that it's a holiday which celebrates love. I told my kids that it started out as a holiday for romantic love, but now we also use the day to remind friends, family, and classmates that we care about them! I explained a little about Valentines cards, and told them that school children hand them out to their classmates, but I like giving out Valentines, too. : ) I also said that people decorate things with hearts, and some people even wear pink and red, which are colors associated with the holiday. I also shared that many people get married on Valentine's Day, and that includes my parents!

I then went on to tell the kids that there are many ways we can show someone that we love them, all year long. Some examples I gave are helping our parents by doing our chores, sharing a toy with a sibling, or giving part of our lunch to someone who doesn't have enough to eat. I asked them how they thought they could show more love to the people around them. I closed with a reminder that I love each and every one of my kids tremendously, and shared a Bible verse- "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35.) I printed out coloring sheets to go with the letters as well. I just found them online, but if you click on one of the pictures below and save it, you can print it out as a coloring page, too! 

Coloring page for younger boys

Coloring page for older girls

Coloring page for older boys

Coloring page for younger girls (which I realized after I printed it that it doesn't actually have hearts on it. Still cute, though!) 

Then I got to work putting together gifts to send! I kept it simple for this holiday because I also needed to send several birthday folders and anniversary gifts (more on that in a bit.) Each of my kids will be receiving a photo of me and Brandon (which I took on our anniversary- he hates having his picture taken, so I took advantage of the opportunity!) and a Valentine's card. I thought about buying packaged greeting cards, but I couldn't find that many designs I liked, and each pack was $5 for six cards. After I bought one pack, I decided to find an alternative. A few retailers have some cards for 50 cents or $1 mixed in with their greeting cards, but I found the most success at the Dollar Tree! They have tons of cards from last year for 50 cents each, but the retail price is $2 and up! I picked out a ton to buy, and the sales clerk asked if I had left any for the other customers! 

I also wanted to try to send some stickers or something along with the cards, so I found some sparkly heart stickers at Walmart, 8 sheets for $1.97. They also had some robot and owl stickers that I sent to the younger boys. Lastly, the Dollar Tree had some little party favors in their Valentine's section. I found tiny little heart-shaped notebooks that are wrapped in heart-printed foil (think of how the foil sticks to the paper on a stick of gum), and there were 8 notebooks in a pack! That's pretty good for a dollar! So all the girls got shiny heart notebooks, too! 

After the Valentines were finished, I got to work on birthday folders. One of our new Kenyan girls has a birthday at the end of January, and I wanted to send her a gift, even though she'll be getting it really late (that would be Nkoyio.) Then in February, Christine has a birthday (I already sent Sharifa's birthday gift last month) and Victor's birthday is in March! Our "sponsor-versary" with Sandier is also in March, so I put together a gift for him as well. 

Sandier's gift: a Spanish picture book, "thumb war" tattoos (from Walmart! So cool!), Planes stickers, and a card

Nkoyio's birthday gift: a folder, coloring pages and puzzles, stickers, a little notebook, a planner, a birthday card, a scripture card and a pretty picture taken by my mom, with a Bible verse on it! 

Christine's birthday gift: a bright folder, coloring pages and puzzles, a Minnie sticker book, a fun book about space, more stickers, a scripture card, another picture from mom, and a birthday card.

Victor's birthday gift: a folder I decorated with soccer stickers, a paper airplane kit, puzzles coloring pages, a birthday card, stickers, a math activity book I found at Half Price (Victor talks about studying a lot) which incorporates Bible stories, and another picture from mom. 

I already started working on April's gifts, since we have some early birthdays that month, but they're not quite ready yet. Even if I get them out this week, I will save the pictures for next time. : ) 

If you have sponsor kids, what kinds of cool extras and fun things have you sent them recently? Are you sending Valentines? I love hearing about what other people are sending out! 

Outgoing Mail: Anniversary Edition

It's been a while since I did an Outgoing Mail post, so here's what I'm putting in the mail for my kiddos this week!

I admit that sometimes I feel a little guilty that I don't hand-write as many letters as I used to. I have circulation problems with my hands, and they get icy cold when I use them in repetitive motion for a while- like when I'm crocheting or writing with a pen. And then it gets so bad that I can't feel my fingertips. It's lame- and it also means that I very rarely hand-write letters to our sponsor kids now. I write out Christmas and birthday cards, and I've sent out a batch of "just for fun" cards, but that's it for the last five or six months. Everything's been written online (except for Christmas letters, which I typed and then printed.) 

Because I'm not sending hand-written letters, but I'm still on the watch for little gifts for the kids, I'm creating quite the backlog of papery items. The box that I keep them in, which is already pretty big, is overflowing. I sent gifts with Christmas cards and letters and continue to send out birthday folders stuffed with extras, but I wanted to do something more. I started brainstorming for ideas for something to do. 

I took a bit of inspiration from my friend Shelley, who always mentions her Compassion anniversaries in her Compassion Joys posts each month- meaning, Shelley keeps track of when she became a sponsor for each of her kids, and mentions it in her posts! I always thought that was so sweet. I decided to start sending "anniversary" gifts and cards to my kids! 

I started off compiling a list of the anniversary dates. Have I told you how much I love Google Drive? It is just the best. I can make documents and save them to the interwebs, and access them anywhere I have wifi. Right now I have a document showing when I've heard from each of my sponsor kids (or for those I haven't heard from, the date that I became their sponsor or correspondent.) That way I can see when we've been waiting a little too long for a letter (six months for the new kids) or even when to expect a letter in the mail (about every two months for Peru and Kenya, for example!) Then I have a document where I keep track of the kids' birthdays, for easy reference. They're divided up by month, so I can plan two months out to send their birthday gifts. This new document is a bit like that one- I started by typing up the name of each month, and then I brought up the "My Sponsorships" section of my Compassion account. I went through and looked at each child, noting the date they were sponsored. So, for example, under the July section, I typed up "25- Tasya (2010.)" That way I can also easily see how many years I've been writing to the kids! Only two of these are slightly off, as I picked up Jayid's sponsorship after his financial sponsor dropped him (so the date I have is when I started the financial sponsorship) and the date I have for Carlos is the date when my friend Jim offered to take up his sponsorship and keep me as a correspondent! 

So after making up my document, I took a look at the anniversaries coming up. For January, we have Caleb and Eduardo (one year) and Brenda (two years.) I also wrote down the February anniversaries, too- just Sharifa, at one year. Then I got to work on getting some presents together!

Recently, I found a good deal at the Dollar Tree. They carry discounted, name-brand greetings cards at great prices. They're just older or discontinued designs- most of them are 2 for $1, and you can see the manufacturer's suggested retail price on the back- some of the cards originally sold for $3-4 each! Then they have these packaged cards from American Greetings, Hallmark, and other companies- usually 8 to 10 cards per pack. Most of them are thank you notes and invitations, but some are just blank cards. At my last trip to the Dollar Tree, I picked up two packs that would be good for boys (green and blue with smiley faces and grey and green stars) and two for girls (purple flowers, and pink paisley print.) They're good quality cards, and you can't really beat the price! I used these cards to make my anniversary cards for the kids. On the inside, I wrote up something like this: 

Dear Caleb, 

Happy anniversary! I became your sponsor on January 2, 2014. By the time you receive this, we will have been friends for one whole year! I have loved getting to know you over the past year, and I know we will be friends for many more years to come. I love you, and I am proud to have you as a part of my family.

Love and hugs, 

Jessi

Then I worked on shrinking my overflowing supply of gifts for the kids! I realized in going through my things that I have a ton of Spanish language stuff for little kids, but I really need to work on finding more things for teen boys, since I have so many of them now! Here's a list of what I'm sending out for these gifts: 

Eduardo is getting a Transformers paint with water book, because that's the most mature-looking thing I could find in the box. : ) 

Caleb is getting a small book about a killer whale rescue, and another little book about rainforest ecology (I found the books on clearance for $0.25 each at Half Price Books!)

Brenda is getting a winter paint with water book (I forgot I had them!) and the Spanish version of "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake!" I found that and another book in the series at Half Price for $2.49, which is a pretty good deal- and I also have an educator discount card for an extra 10% off each purchase (which comes in handy because I buy so many books for the kids there!) 

Sharifa is getting a Lisa Frank coloring book, but she's also getting a birthday folder in this mailing, so there's more coming to her! 

I hope all the kids enjoy getting anniversary presents in the mail- and I hope that I'm able to keep up this new tradition! 

Outgoing Mail

The mailman hasn't been by my house yet today, but I'm not sure that I'm going to have any letters to post for Mail Call Monday. I joked on facebook last week that I think the post office is replacing all of my letters from my kids with campaign ads- no letters from my 29 Compassion children, but lots of uninvited pieces of paper that inexplicably have my name on them? Sometimes my maiden name? It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

Anyway, it's been a little while since an Outgoing Mail post, so I thought I'd write one up for this uneventful Monday.

Last week I sent out letters for all the boys. I was having a little trouble coming up with a topic, and happened to recall reading some news stories from my kids' countries recently. I thought it might be fun to give my kids a few updates on my own country, because I like following the news from theirs! I decided to focus on just a few topics in my letter. Here's a sample of what I sent:

Hello, Barry!
How are you, and how is your family? I hope you are all doing well. I'm happy to say that my family is doing fine. The weather where I live is perfect, and all of our activities are going well. We also had a lovely weekend recently, which was filled with birthday celebrations. My mom, my dad, and my brother-in-law Jonathan all had birthdays last week, and it was good to spend time with family to celebrate these occasions!
I want you to know that I like to read about what is going on in your country! I like learning about your life, and the place where you live. I use the computer to read news stories about your country so I know some of what is going on there. I thought you might like to hear a report of some things that are going on in my country as well. For example, some areas of my country are experiencing severe drought. In the western part of my country (far from where I live) they have not had enough rain in over a year. Because of this, some rivers and lakes are drying up, and there is not enough rain for some of the crops. Aside from this, we have not had any severe weather or natural disasters. We continue to pray for rain in those areas that are not receiving enough, so the people can grow their crops which are sent to markets all over the country. We are also going to have some elections here soon. I am praying that our leaders will make good decisions and consider the needs of the people of my country. As for a cultural event, next month we are going to celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving. This is a time when people in my country get together with their families and think about the blessings in their lives. Do you have any holidays coming up in your country? I would love to hear about them!
I hope to get a letter from you soon. I love hearing from you! I am praying for you and your family every day. Do you have any prayer requests for me? I would like to ask you to pray for my country.
Love and hugs,
Jessi



This week I will be sending letters to all the girls. I have something pretty fun to write about this week. On Saturday, I went to a special event in my city called the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular. Some really amazing carved pumpkins were set up in one of Louisville's many parks, and once it got dark, ticket holders were allowed onto the trail to view the pumpkins. There were no lights aside from the ones inside the pumpkins. We were surrounded by them- on one side, there were traditional jack-o-lanterns with faces or simple animals. On the other side, intricately carved works of art. I think that it's possible to relay some aspects of Halloween to our kids without breaching into the uncomfortable areas of consumerism (begging for candy) and the occult (pretty much all of the rest of it. Pumpkins are grown in many Compassion countries, so our kids probably have a familiarity with this seasonal gourd. Here's how I'm going to explain Halloween to my kids when I write about it:

In America, we have a cultural celebration at the end of October. People celebrate it in different ways- though some families do not celebrate it at all. Little children sometimes dress up in costumes, and they may attend parties or special events at schools and churches. My church will have a party for the kids and will hand out candy and have fun games to play. One interesting thing that happens this time of year is that people decorate pumpkins. Have you seen a pumpkin before? They are a gourd which is usually orange (sometimes white) and they have a very thick skin. Sometimes people paint their pumpkins, but most pumpkins are decorated by carving. The top is cut off, and the insides are scooped out. Then, people can carve faces or other designs into the pumpkin, and place a little candle inside.
Recently, my city had a fun event. Artists carved thousands of pumpkins with beautiful and interesting designs. Some of the pumpkins looked like animals and dinosaurs, some showed scenes from history, and others were carved to look like people, such as my country's presidents. The pumpkins were placed along a trail in a park, surrounded by trees and woods. When the sun went down, we went to the trail and walked around, looking at the pumpkins. It took over an hour to see them all! They were really amazing, and fun to look at. I am attaching some pictures of pumpkins for you to see!

I hope the kids like the pictures I am sending. I'm going to post some of  them here, because they were just too awesome not to share. : )

Outgoing Mail: Christmas

Well, poo. I was hoping to take some notes and some pictures to share- especially since I am sending so much stuff- and then remembered to do those things after I taped up the box! So I offer my apologies for a disjointed post of hazy recollections (and no pictures), but since I put my Christmas stuff out in the mail for the kiddos this week, I thought it would be a good time for an Outgoing Mail post!

Before I get into the Christmas details, let me tell you what else is on its way! 

We have lot of upcoming birthdays in October and November. Brenda, Prayer, Said, Carlos, and Mary will all be having birthdays soon. I put together a folder for each of them: Said got one with elephants; Mary got one covered in glitter (I hope she likes it as much as I do- I will admit to patting my hair with it in the hopes of some slight sparkle transference), Carlos got a manly blue folder which I decorated with giant soccer ball stickers, Prayer got a cool holofoil tie dye folder, and Brenda's was scratch-and-sniff with pictures of candy, because she has talked about candy several times in her letters (including telling me her best friend is her best friend because he shares is candy with her!) Inside each letter I included a birthday card, some activity sheets (United States seek-and-finds, among others), some sticker sheets, and a drawing done by yours truly. I'm always telling my kids I like to draw, and I like their pictures, so I hope they like the ones I sent them, too! I also sent a small gift for each of the kids. Carlos got a Spanish world atlas, Mary got a pretty journal, Said got a small coloring book for older kids, Prayer got a connect the dots book, and Brenda got a princess coloring book. As an added bonus, I included a fun Mickey Mouse workbook for Jayid, because he said in his last letter that he is working on English lessons. The book had a page for each letter of the alphabet, along with practice sentences and fun activities. It was basically a phonics book for younger children, but he's not that old and English would be his second language. I hope he likes it! 

And now onto Christmas! This was quite an undertaking- lately I have just been sending a few gifts at a time, for birthdays and special occasions. I actually made a chart/checklist for my kiddos to make sure that all 26 of them got everything I intended to send. I wrote out each of their names and numbers, along with a place for me to put a check mark for a card, a letter, and a gift. Then I marked each of the kids who spoke English, because I did have a few possible gifts to send that would work best for English speakers. Then I got to work! I wrote out a Christmas card for each child, and included the following inscription: "I hope you and your family have a happy Christmas and a blessed New Year! Lots of love, 

Jessi." Simple and easy to translate. All year long (well, since last Christmas) I have been setting aside Christmas cards that would be appropriate for sponsor kids- no mention of piles of presents or other stuff that wouldn't apply to them, no focus on snow, etc. I have leftover cards from years past, cards from the dollar store, cards that my aunt received as  thank you gifts from various charities, and cards that my mom got on clearance last year from her store. All in all I have enough cards for my own kiddos, plus about 150 left over to send to unsponsored kids! 

For my Christmas letter, I basically write out what my holiday routine is. I don't really talk about presents other than to say that my family members exchange gifts on Christmas Day- it would be inappropriate to talk about quantities or say something like "each person gives everyone presents," because even that sounds like a lot. By just saying "exchanging gifts", I leave it open to interpretation. And our kids want to know, too. In some countries, kids don't receive Christmas gifts until AFTER Christmas, because of cultural traditions. Or sometimes people just do gifts on Christmas Eve. By keeping it vague yet informational, I'm satisfying my kids' curiosity about my culture and my traditions while still staying sensitive to their own situations. A lot of my kids also like to talk about food in their culture, so I usually throw in a mention of my family sharing a meal together, and may add something like "one traditional food to have for Christmas in my country is turkey. Do you have turkeys where you live?" Again, I'm providing some vague information without going into great detail about the sheer volume of food (most of it incredibly unhealthy) we consume over the holidays. I also like to share a bit about snow in my Christmas letters, and tell my kids that where I live, snow is unpredictable- but it is lots of fun when it happens on Christmas. I ask them what the weather is like in their countries during Christmas, too. 

Finally, we get to the gifts! I know a lot of sponsors are always looking for fun ideas for stuff to send to their kids. I can't remember exactly what I sent to each child this year, but I can try to write down what I do recall. Hopefully my list will help if you are looking for ideas for gifts- and I'd love to hear about what other people are sending their kids, too!

• The 12 youngest kids are getting small, super-skinny Christmas activity books I found at Hobby Lobby (pack of 12 for 4.99, continuously 40% off.) Even if they can't read the instructions on the activity pages, they can still color the pictures and share them with their friends! 
• Two kids are getting student planners- probably Mary and Victor because they are the oldest English speakers. They are weekly planners with helpful tips like measurement charts, grammatical advice, and other nifty things. One had a car on it and the other had a butterfly. 
• Some of the kids are getting mini wall calendars. Michaels has tons of designs for $1 each. Some of them are pretty yet gender-neutral, such as the calendar with colorful pictures (a rainbow lollipop for this month, a close-up of a pack of crayons the next.) There were also hot air balloons, lighthouses, kittens, puppies....and my favorite, dogs dressed in fancy costumes. Like, tiaras and feather boas. I know I sent that one to Patricia because for some reason I had the feeling she would get a kick out of it. 
• Two of the kids got skinny drawing pads from Target's dollar spot. And one kid got a writing pad from the same place (it had Sesame Street characters so it wasn't as boring as it sounds!) 
• One child got a pack of origami papers with instructions- it might have been Barry because I saw that the instructions came in English and French, and being from Burkina Faso, he speaks French. 
• One child got a "sticker by number" kit from the Dollar Tree, which is exactly like paint by number, except with stickers
• A few of the kids got coloring books, including Sofia the First, Sesame Street, and Bible stories
• One or two of the girls got journals I found in the clearance bin at Michaels (regularly a dollar, they were 50% off!) 
• Carlos got a mini Max Lucado book in Spanish
• I found a Spanish word book thing at the used bookstore for one of the younger girls. I couldn't understand what it said, but I gathered that it was like a seek and find- "in this picture find one gorilla, two giraffes, three ostriches, etc.) It was skinny and paperback and I was happy because it was Spanish! 
• Caleb got an atlas
• Jayid got a Batman activity book, because Batman is semi-universal and he would have English help if he needed it. 
• The littlest kids got super cute nativity coloring books my mom pulled from last year's Chrismas clearance. I've been hanging onto them all year!
• The neatest new find: bookmark calendars. It's a stack of bookmarks bound together like a little flip book. When a new month starts, you can tear off the next bookmark- it has the calendar for the month on there along with a little picture (butterflies, lighthouses, Psalms, kittens, whatever.) The bookmarks, bound together, come in at just under a quarter of an inch, and because they are flexible and meet the requirements for Compassion and customs, they can be sent as-is. They're really neat- they can be found at Michaels in the dollar bins. Each bookmark calendar comes with three magnetic bookmark clips, which of course can't be sent to the kids, but you can just take everything out of the package, pop a label on the calendar, and voila. You have new magnetic bookmarks (I have a ton of them now!) 

All in all, between my stuff and the birthday folders my mom sent in the same box, we filled a large priority mail box to the brim! I hope all the kids like what I'm sending- now I need to work on restocking my box of paper gifts! I pretty well cleaned it out!

What are you sending your sponsor kids for Christmas? Have you found anything cool to send recently that you haven't seen or thought of before? 

Outgoing Mail: July

I have some pretty neat stuff (in my opinion) going out in the mail this week, so I thought it would be a good time for another Outgoing Mail post!

I have recently changed up the way that I am writing to my kids. I don't think that there's one perfect method that will work for every sponsor, but since I have made these changes, I feel like they're working pretty well for me and mean that my mailings go out in a more timely manner- and I'm saving some money, too. Before, I would write to all the kids about every two weeks online, plus doing response letters as soon as I received a letter (so I wouldn't forget what it said.) Then about every 4-6 weeks, I would do handwritten letters on a given topic (or sometimes "hand typed and then printed out at work") and throw in presents for everyone. I feel like that method wasn't exactly perfect because I'd end up hanging on to the package too long trying to get all the letters together, and I wasn't super satisfied with the gifts that I was sending to some of the kids, like lots of postcards for the older boys (and then running out of new postcards and turning to my stash of old ones from long ago vacations, and trying to remember what I had already sent to each kid!) It just didn't seem fair to me to send a stack of postcards to some of the kids because of their age and gender (or language barriers) while others were getting notebooks, coloring books, etc. Anyway, to make a long story short, here are the changes I have made:

• Alternating letter-writing days. I usually have free time on Wednesday mornings because of my work schedule. I opened the calendar on my phone, picked the first Wednesday that was coming up, and marked that "Boys' Letters." I set it up to repeat every other week. Then I went to the following Wednesday, marked that "Girls' Letters," and applied the same setting. So the kids are all getting letters every other week for sure, but I'm not doing 24 letters at a time, and I can pick a theme for the week and work off of that. Last week's theme was service because my Bible study group and I did a service project, so I wrote to the girls about that, asked them what ways they can serve others, and even provided examples from really simple things for the littles (helping your parents with chores) or more complicated things for the older girls (helping a classmate with their homework.) 
• Only sending packages for birthdays and special occasions. This allows me to prepare better ahead of time. I loved Hannah's procedure for birthday gifts and sort of adapted that- I have been purchasing lots of folders for the kids, and they will each get a folder filled with goodies for their birthday. Another kind of special occasion would be an introductory gift for a new child, or maybe a gift if they've been sick or had a family tragedy. Or aced their exams! 

This week I needed to mail the folder I have been putting together for Elisha, whose birthday is in September. I also wanted to do something special for Kajal, our newest sponsor child. I have just had a real burden on my heart for her- the Lord has been telling me over and over again that she needs some extra love from us, particularly here in the beginning of our sponsorship journey. I also made cards for the rest of the kids. 

I am an avid collector of cards. I have an entire drawer full of them- I have mentioned before that I am a card person. Birthdays, sympathy, new baby, adoption, wedding, praying for you, friendship, congratulations.....all organized in bags, labeled, and tucked away in this drawer in my room. I have waaaaay too many blank cards, too, which I use for general correspondence (including my sort of pen pal relationship with my cousin Melissa- we mail each other cards but also email frequently, so we have all these conversations going on at once!) I selected a blank card for each child and then wrote a message inside. The message was basically the same for the boys and girls- most of my cards look pretty feminine, so the girls got this message: 

Hello (name)! I thought it would be fun to send you a pretty card! I love sending cards to my family and friends- and you are both to me! I just wanted to remind you that I love you and I am praying for you every day. Today I prayed that you would have a good day at school! 

Lots of love, 

Jessi

For the boys, I sent cards with animals on them- I found some really nice National Geographic notecards at Michael's (the craft store) a few years back and bought a ton of them. Some of the boys got pandas, and some got zebras. I tried to send the pandas to my African boys since I learned while in Tanzania that no one there seems to know what bears are. The inscription on their cards was almost identical to the girls', except I added a note about the animal being called a panda bear, they live in China, and I think they are cute. Same with zebras- they live in Africa, and I saw several on my trip to Tanzania earlier this year. Then at the bottom of all the cards, I wrote the first, more popular bit of Proverbs 17:17: "A friend loves at all times." 

Now onto the gifts! I have been gathering materials for Elisha's folder for a few weeks now. Can I just say that it's a little challenging to find folders for boys? I have seen so many feminine patterns and colors for folders, but a lot of the boy stuff is licensed characters, licensed musical acts, and cars- not generic cars, but very specific kinds with the makes and models written all over the place. It's been challenging. I did find some really neat wildlife folders at Walmart, and picked up a couple for a dollar each. This one is going to Elisha. They also had some with a polar animal theme, and a farm animal theme! 

Inside the folder I placed a birthday card, a picture drawn by me (since I like to draw and the kids are always sending me pictures, I thought it would only be fair if I started returning the favor), a few coloring pages (astronauts, pirate ships, and an ocean scene), a Hot Wheels sticker book, and a few sheets of car stickers. Everything has been labeled with his name and number in case something gets misplaced.

Then we have Kajal. I put together a folder for her as well- princess themed, since I call her our princess. She got all my princess stickers (three big sheets) and a book that I made for her. I had already written her a quick introduction letter, but Kim over at Three Little Larks shared something really neat recently- a booklet her family made for a new sponsor child. I had been toying with the idea of making something like this for our last few new additions to our far away family, but her facebook post and subsequent blog post helped me put it together! My booklet only has a few pages, but if you wanted to make your own, you could make it as long or short as you want!

I started with some pink copy paper and stapled it into a booklet. On the front, I glued and taped Kajal's picture and added her name to the top. I also wrote her full name and number on the back and the side of the front, in small print.

On the first pages, I wrote that I had received a booklet telling me about Kajal, so I thought it would be fun to make her a booklet about myself! I wrote this on a plain index card, trimmed to look better on the page, and included another one for translation. Then I added another sheet of stickers on the second page (princess themed yet again!)

The next pages were about me. I put my picture, along with my name, on one side, and filled out an index card with information about myself on the other. I put my age, birth date, my favorite colors, favorite Bible stories, favorite activities, and the names and ages of my parents and my brother. I repeated the process for my husband on the next two pages.

Then I did two pages about where we live. I printed out a tiny world map, a tiny map of the United States, and then some clip art featuring my state (I think it might have been printed on a t-shirt!) I drew hearts on my country and on Kajal's on the world map, and then went on to explain my country's name, then my state's name. I asked her if she could find my state on the map- the map was labeled, but having the separate shape was nice, too. And the print is really cute! Then I made another index card with a few facts about where I live, like my state is well known for horses and a famous horse race takes place here every year. I told her we have mountains, lakes, and rivers, and a river runs through part of my city. Translation space was included here as well.

At the end of the booklet, I added in a photo of our pet rabbit, Gimli, and on the last page I wrote a note saying that if she wanted to, Kajal could use the blank space to write down the things she learns about us from our letters! The whole thing turned out pretty cute for a first-time try. Especially since I finished it up late at night!

I think I will continue making booklets like these for our new kids as we get them.There are so many fun possibilities for putting them together- you could include postcards, use scrapbook paper, include notes from family members, and many other things! I added some washi tape at the last minute to brighten things up- I found some on clearance at Cracker Barrel, of all places, and was anxious to start using it! And I hope the folders are a hit!