Jester the Ping Pong Champ!

Well - I am finally feeling better from the nasty whatever-it-was that I had this weekend. At one point I had a temp of 103 which is pretty bad for an adult fever. :( Anyhow, I'm better but not all better. Good enough to keep my appointment with the people from Children International (says the Dr!) - thank goodness.

Also, as if right on cue to cheer me up I got some letters today from three of my sponsor kids. I think I was in sponsor kid withdrawal because I hadn't heard from any of them in about three weeks. That's a long time between letters when you have 17 little correspondents. :)

So today I heard from Jester. He lives in the Philippines and is 13 years old. He is the boy in the grey shirt.


Jester and his mother and brothers outside their home.

Jester's oldest brother (in the white shirt) is too old for the sponsorship program. His second oldest brother Jerome does have a sponsor but his youngest brother Jericho does not. We sponsored Jester when he was featured in an article that Children International did about children who had never been sponsored and had been waiting a long time. Jester had been waiting two years. One of my children saw the article and asked to sponsor Jester so now Jester is one of my kids sponsor children (although I also write to him). Jester was the first boy we ever sponsored.



The last time we heard from him he was practicing ping pong (table tennis) with his coach and hoping to be chosen to be on the school team. Well, Jester had good news for us today in his letter. He made the team and they won the tournament! Yay! He got a trophy and a certificate. Doing well in school and school activities is really important to my sponsor kids because most of them realize that an education is their best opportunity to move up in the world. Successes at school also give them a good dose of self-esteem and some recognition in their communities. So we are really proud of Jester!



I hope to be able to fund Jester's IGP sometime within the next few months. Currently his mother works as a maid in another city and so Jester lives mostly with his Grandmother. Jester's mother is hoping to start a clothing retail business. I think if she is able to do this then she would be able to live at home with her kids which I know for a fact Jester really would like. His father abandoned the family a few years ago and the few things that Jester has said about that have really let me know that it was a painful blow to him. So having his mother around would be a huge thing in his life. I know how valuable it has been for my kids to have me around!
As far as my crafting goes - there has been pretty much zilch in the past few days. I've been way too wiped out. I'm working on the yoke of a Cobblestone sweater I knit for Hubby so I should have that done just in time for summer. LOL! I did get Hubby to take photos of all those other finished projects that I mentioned but picky me didn't like any of them so...it's a do over. Whenever we have time that is!