Craty News and the Big (Sponsor Kid) News

Been a few days since I last posted... (sometimes it seems like you have to go to Blogger confessional... "forgive me readers, it has been X days since I last posted...) ;) The transition from school to camp is always a bit crazy but we've reached our tenuous equilibrium again. :)

Crafting is off and on this past week. I'm just super tired. I've been trying to concentrate on sewing up the patches. I counted and I've currently got 31 patches all sewn up. That's about a third of the total I have. It takes me about a half hour to sew one patch up. So lets see...the calculator says it will take me 31 hours to finish sewing up the patches. Not too bad right?

The biggest & best news this week is that since my last post I have gotten letters from 8 of my sponsor kids!! (I'll post photos of the kids I haven't "introduced" on the blog yet.) -

Flor, 7 years old from Honduras who tells me she likes to eat rice with beans and cheese. (Me too!)

This is our latest picture of Flor.



Lesly, 6 years old from Guatemala who says she had a great birthday because her village has a festival around her birthday so she got to go to that.

Carla, 5 years old from Chile who drew me a really detailed picture of a little girl - I think she used every colored pencil she could get her hands on.

This is the only photo we have of Carla so far:



Mary Joy, 12 years old from the Philippines who told me how she got her nickname of "Apple". (So sweet.) I had complimented her on her lovely handwriting and she told me she takes great care to make her letters to me nice and neat. (Isn't that sweet?)

Our first letter from Joey who is 9 and lives in the Philippines. He says his father is a farmer. Joey likes math and has lots of friends.

This is Joey:



(As an aside to tell you how great Children International is - I had noticed in Joey's family report that it was noted that he needed some dental work. I called to CI to ask what the status was with that in case he needed some help and they said they would check on it. A week ago I got a letter from CI with a full report from the dentist on what work Joey had done and what his status was now. I was amazed! Talk about customer service! I have a harder time getting reports from my own kids dentist. So the good news is that Joey's teeth are all taken care of.)

Our first letter from Harry, 13 from the Philippines. He wrote to introduce himself and to thank us for our special donation (He was one of the ones we gave Mother's Day donations to.) We got three more photos of him also! He was able to buy tons of groceries, school supplies, clothes, and kitchen supplies. (Made me so happy!)

My first letter from Ana in Ecuador. She turns 11 this month. She describes herself as a "simple, humble girl". She writes very good English in a beautiful curly script.

This is our latest picture of Ana. We sent her a birthday package. I can't wait for it to arrive!



And we got two letters from Jester! He is 11 and lives in the Philippines. He is the little boy that waited two years for a sponsor. I have to say his letters really touched me. He is a wonderful boy who expresses himself very well. You can tell he has a very sweet heart. He told me about his father abandoning the family and how he feels it is now his duty to step in and take care of them. He promised to work very hard in school so that he could prove to me that he deserved to be sponsored. (Totally made me cry!) We also got another letter with several photos of him. He wrote to thank us for the special donation we had made and tell us about all the things he was able to buy with the money. The sweetest thing was how he described "jumping in surprise" at getting the gift and how happy he was at being able to share that with his family. He's a real treasure - we are so lucky to have him as a sponsor child!

Hubby told me he would get on task and install our scanner so that I can more easily share letters and photos with you guys. There's nothing like getting to see the actual letters. You can tell how hard the kids work on them and the pride they take in using their English skills and writing neatly. I feel so privileged that these kids share their lives with me. I love how different they all are. I will really enjoy watching them grow up. They are such special people!