The Tale of Jester's Birthday Package

At the beginning of summer 2008 we sent Jester a package for his birthday. I made sure to mail it about 8 weeks ahead of time so that it would be sure to arrive in time.



We got these photos about six months after we sent the package. Somehow, it had taken months and months to arrive. I'm just happy that it arrived at all! Children International was so great. They tracked the package down and stayed on the case until Jester had his birthday presents. So far I have sent several packages each to Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Philippines and this is the only time we have had any trouble at all.



At this point I mainly only send small packages to the sponsor kids - mostly so that I can send them pictures of me and my family. They love getting photos of us just as much as I love getting photos of them! It makes them feel connected and more like I am a real person rather than some mysterious being that they never get to see like Santa Claus. Other than sending little small things I have decided to stick with giving special needs gifts of money because I think it is more useful for the family.



That said though, Jester was very happy to get his presents. You can see the plaid button up shirt in the middle there. That's the one he chose to wear for his yearly photo. When I got the yearly photo I thought I recognized that shirt...:)



I really hope we will get to visit Jester someday. Although the description of the traveling we would have to do to get there made me shudder a little. It involves flying from the US to the Philippines for hours and hours and hours. Then taking a smaller plane to a smaller city, then a bus to the port, then a boat to another island, and finally hitching a ride in a small fishing boat because the larger boats are too big to go into the port city. Not to mention whatever we have to do to get to the CI center and Jester's house. Yikes! I keep telling myself it will be fun but being the nervous traveller that I am I know I'm lying to myself. :)



I'm going to make the effort though. I'm not going to let life go by without meeting my sponsor kids!