Winner of the Blanket for Jester's Project

Today Jester's IGP was fully funded! Thank you to Camille who stepped up and made such a generous contribution to close out the project. And thank you so much to everyone who supported Jester. He and his family now have hope for an improved lifestyle. Thank you all!!!!

Now to choose a winner of the handmade crochet blanket I made for Jester's Project!



I arranged this giveaway along the same lines as the one I did for Nyslin's Project. Every donation from $1-$5 was assigned a number. I came up with 113 numbers.

1-2 Dee
3-6 Efrain
7-8 Holly
9-10 Su
11-16 Kayara
17-26 Jim and Mack
27-31 Heather M
32-37 Steve
38-40 Robyn
41-44 Cherise
45-48 Tamara
49-52 Wilfredo
53-54 bsem130
55-64 Efrain
65-113 Camille

I plugged the numbers into the Random Number Generator and the winning number was chosen.



The winning number is #32 which belongs to Steve! Congratulations Steve! I will contact you and get your blanket to you ASAP.

I can't wait to hear from Jester when he receives the news of his IGP. He will "jump for surprise" (as he said in another letter). Jester waited two years before finding a sponsor and he has never failed to express how grateful he is to finally have that relationship with us. I'm really looking forward to sharing the updates and photos I receive of the progress of his project.

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!

Jester's Summer Package

Other than his new yearly photo - these are the most recent photos that we have of Jester. I got these about two months ago.



We sent him (along with all the other sponsor kids) a package of things we picked up on our summer vacation last year.



The package included family photos, books about animals, postcards of the places we went, stickers and other little things of that nature. Each package for each sponsor kid was slightly different based on their age and gender.



In Jester's package we included a necklace - a leather cord with a lion pendant that was carved out of stone. I thought that the lion really suited Jester's personality. The lion's symbolism of courage just struck me as fitting for him.



Jester especially liked the necklace and singled it out as his favorite item. We tried to include something individualized in each child's package. Even though we have 18 sponsor kids I don't want to relate to them on an assembly line level! Many people ask me how I can "keep track" of all of them. I actually find it easy to do. Once you get to know the kids then it is easy to see how individual they all are.

Blanket for Jester's Project

This is the new yearly photo we recently received of Jester. He is wearing a shirt that we sent him for his birthday last year. I love it when the sponsor kids wear clothes we sent them for their photos. It's so sweet of them! I think they do it on purpose as a way of saying thank you. I think Jester looks so handsome!

Fund raising for Jester's project has been going amazingly well. We're almost halfway to completion! I'm so surprised and thankful for all the support!

So, to say thank you to everyone who has helped out with Jester's project, I am going to be giving away this blanket:



It is hand crocheted by me out of cotton sock yarn.



I'd call this a good sized lap blanket. It's also suitable for a child to snuggle up in. It is machine washable so you wouldn't have to worry about letting a kid use it. :)



Hubby is holding the blanket up for the camera - gives you a fair idea of the size.



And a close up. This is a better picture in terms of showing the true color of the yarn. I had a hard time capturing the colors in natural light. In real life the colors are much richer.



So here's how the giveaway will work:

Every $5 that is donated will get you a number. (Donations that have already been made will count!) So if you donate $25 you will get five numbers and so on. When Jester's project is fully funded I will have a random number generator choose the winning number. Then I will announce the winner and mail them the blanket. Simple as that!

Here is the link to Jester's Project.

PS - I will also be offering similar prizes/thank yous for the projects at Aura's House as well. So look for those in the next few days. :)

On the Subject of Dogs, Contacts, Charity and the Fugliest Sweater Ever Knit

I haven't had much time for blogging lately. We're in the middle of the inevitable end of the school year frenzy of activity. Every year we are pretty much booked solid for the last four weeks or so of school. It's exhausting but at least it's all nice busyness. :)

So I'll just sum up:

I don't talk about my kids on the blog so all I can say about them is that they are awesome!

Some other things I'm happy about:

1.I got contacts and I'm absurdly pleased. I'm convinced I'm actually better looking now that I have contacts. Maybe I'm just not as blurry? :) The only sad thing is that I can't find colored, daily wear lenses in my prescription. :( Bummer. I totally want to change my eye color everyday.

2.I got an update on my projects from Aura's House. There was a long but unavoidable delay but happily the totals have still gone up!

Aura's House update:

Ana's Project: $1419/2770 - we're over halfway there!!
Nyslin's Project: $389/550 - only $161 left to raise!!
Zoila's Project: $293/824
Joey's Project: $236/723
Lesly's Project: Completed!

Hopefully Hubby and I will have a chance this weekend to complete the quilted placemat sets and get them up in the Etsy shop. We should be able to raise enough money to finish Nyslin's project.

And I got some beautiful pictures of Ana today so I will post those ASAP. She is such a gorgeous girl!

3. My fellow sponsors (and friends!) from our sponsor group are helping me to raise money for yet another one of my sponsor children! Click on the link to see Jester's fundraising page. We have started a fundraising group using a "pay it forward" philosophy that has helped us as a group to raise funds for Special Needs and Income Generating Projects for six children so far! Jester's project is to set his mother Agnes up in a reatil clothing sales business. If she can get this business started she will be able to live with her children rather than her current situation where she has to work and live in another city. If you think you might be able to help with Jester's project that would be awesome. Any little bit helps and, like Aura's House donations, these are also tax deductible.

4. I'm also happy because I was able to make another Kiva loan! I think I have 8 going right now. And I am tickled pink that the one that has been the most successful so far has been the one I made supporting a crafts group in Bolivia. Go crafters!!

5. In non-charity related news - After much thought we decided to get Clementine and Sarah ready for summer with some pretty drastic haircuts. Here they are sporting their new looks:



Clementine had hair that a showdog would kill for. Her feathers were literally down to the ground. But it was a really big pain to keep up with because it tangled and matted very easily. She also gets the typical spaniel problem of ear infections so I thought taking away all that extra hair would help get some healthy air circulation going there.



You can't tell it from this photo but Clemmie loves her new haircut. It's like we cut off a couple of years of her age rather than her hair! She has been playful and happy and frisky like a puppy. Actually exactly the opposite of her usual self. :) Some dogs act ashamed and embarrassed when they get a drastic haircut. Not Clemmie. She gives her new look two paws up! We will be keeping her hair trim and tidy from now on.

We let Sarah keep her long ear hair. She doesn't have the same tangly type of hair as Clemmie and no ear infection problem. The rest of the fluffy hair had to go though.



Sarah always looked like a fat little muffin with all of her hair. Now she looks like a lowfat muffin. Both of the dogs are so soft and pettable now - they feel like bunny rabbits.

The verdict on the haircuts is: A+.

Sadly, there is also one item on the unhappy list:

I recently knitted the worlds ugliest sweater. I'll try to get a photo to show you (if you think you can hack it) before I frog the beast. It's pretty appalling. Not only did I knit the whole thing, but in defiance of logic I actually sewed it all together too. Shudder.

I had to cast on for a February Lady in Noro Cash Iroha and Silk Garden to try to erase the memory of the fugly sweater. It's really that bad.

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!

Jester's Gifts

Ok - this is the last set of sponsor kid pictures I have right now. After this I'm all caught up. :)

This is Jester. He was our first boy that we sponsored. He just turned twelve and is from the Philippines.



Jester is co-sponsored by our son. We sent him a money donation as part of my Mother's Day presents this year. His family spent the money mostly on food. The trend that I notice is that my Filipino kids usually spend most of their money on food. They are just that poor. Most of my kids in the Philippines have about $25 a month for their family income. And the Philippines has been hit hard by the global food shortages too. It makes me so sad!!



Jester is a truly special kid. He is an idealist with a big heart. I truly hope that with our support, he will be able to achieve his goals in life. I really feel like he has a lot to contribute to this world.



Jester lives with his siblings and his grandmother. His father abandoned the family and his mother has to work as a maid in a big city so she is not able to live with the family. She sends money back to the family but Jester still needs to work in order to do whatever little bit he can to contribute to the family. He does anything he can, from street vending - selling food that his Grandmother cooks (Can you imagine letting your twelve year old wander the city selling food to strangers? I worry about his safety!), to weaving ropes and carrying lumber on construction sites.

Jester is a truly amazing kid and I am humbled and proud to know him. He waited two years to find a sponsor but I feel that we are the ones who are lucky to have found him! He is an inspiration to our family.

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!

Jester!

We got an updated photo of our sponsor kid Jester! I'm so thrilled! We were so happy to see a little smile on his face. :)

Damon at Children International was also kind enough to email me these photos of Jester that were taken for the waiting child presentation that CI did about Jester.



Jester goes to school four days a week and spends the rest of his days working however he can to help earn his family a little money. He carries coconut lumber to building sites, he plants grass in neighbors yards, he weaves abaca fibers into rope (for which he earns 2 Philippine Pesos for every kilo of rope). He also sells candies and pastries which his Grandmother makes. Generally Jester does what he can to help out. What a great kid! I'm so happy to be his sponsor.



It's hard to imagine my own son working for the family like Jester does. Even though they are the same age, their life experience is so different in some ways.

My son is really hoping to go visit his special sponsor kids in the Philippines someday. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Jester

This is our newest sponsor kid from Children International. His name is Jester, eleven years old from the Philippines. He is one of four brothers! The family was abandoned by their father and they try to get by on $50 a month. His mother had to go to a city to find work as a maid so I think the boys may be living with their grandmother. They sleep on mats on a dirt floor. There is no electricity and they have to share a community faucet for water and a community latrine.

Jester waited for two years to find a sponsor! Children International sent out a great slide show to try to get sponsors for these "waiting children" - kids who have never had a sponsor and have been waiting a long time.

This is Jester's first picture when he signed up with Children International. Isn't he a cutie? I love his little scrunched up smile.



My son saw me watching the slide show and listening to the audio about Jester. He said, "Is that from Children International? Does that boy need a sponsor?" I explained that these were kids that had been waiting for sponsors. My son said, "Well then we have to sponsor him. Come on Mom! Give the boys a chance!" (All of our other sponsor kids are girls.)

So now Jester is our kid! My son and I will be sponsoring him together - just like we do with his other special sponsor kid Mary Joy who is also from the Philippines.

I thought you guys would like to see the slide show about Jester. Click on the link above and make sure you turn on your audio! Jester is the first one on the list. Just click on his picture to start the audio. There are some cute pictures of Jester and a bit of a story about him and his life. He sounds like such a sweet little guy. I'm so happy we are sponsoring him. My son is right of course, we do need to give the boys a chance. :)