Many Thanks

New outfits!

When thinking about the Christmas spirit of giving this week, I felt the desire to give an additional shout out to all of the people who donated money, clothes, toys, and school supplies to the kids in Tanzania.  Thank you to my parents, Ron and Cindy, my sisters and brother-in-laws, Kellie, Joe, Sarah, Tony, and Jessica, my aunt Jane, my grandparents, Jim and Barb, and my friends, Catherine, Brian, Nora, Carmen, Sally, Nikki, Stephanie, and M.  Giving Christmas presents to my family this weekend will, of course, be lots of fun, but it won't really compare to all the gifts that I was able to give to the orphans and school children of Arusha thanks to these people.  My family who visited me in November definitely understand the feeling! 

New Books!

One person in particular from this list deserves and extra special thanks, and that is my mom.  As I was showing all of the photos from my trip to Louie (and yes, he was patient enough to look through over 600 of them!), I found my self saying over and over, "those are the books my mom donated, those are the clothes my mom donated, those are the toys my mom donated.....etc." 

It started off with books.  After my last trip to Africa, I had mentioned to my mom that I was really sad about the lack of books in the school for the kids to read, and I was pretty sure that none of the kids had books at home to read either.  I told her that this time, I wanted to bring a book for every student in the school, and that if she wanted to make a donation, maybe she could help me buy some books because I would need a lot.  Well....before I even thought about shopping for children's books, my mom (with the help of my dad and sister) had purchased over 100 books for me to take!! 

New Pajamas

In the months before I left for my trip, almost every time I went home, my mom showed me something new she had bought for the orphans.  Before I left, she had purchased 120 book, about 30 outfits and pajamas, and Christmas toys for all of the kids (all of which I did manage to fit into my suitcase!)  But she didn't stop there.

New Clothes at Jericho!

One weekend I was skyping with my mom while my friend Sofia was at my house.  We were discussing how Good Hope was like a palace compared to Jericho Orphanage where Sofia volunteers.  During this conversation, my mom (and my sister) immediately volunteered to make a significant monetary donation to Jericho orphanage.  After Sofia received the money, she e-mailed my mom and sister a list of the things that Jericho needed the most so that the could choose what they would like their money to go for.  The next think we knew, my family had arrived with their suitcases full of half of the items on Sofia's list in addition to the money!  For the kids at Jericho, my mom had sent toothbrushes and toothpaste, books, clothes, toys, and school supplies.

More books!

But of course she didn't forget the kids at Good Hope or Cradle of Love this time either!  She sent more books for the kids (since they loved the first batch so much), school supplies, sleepers for the babies, and more clothes for the kids!  I'm seriously surprised that my family had room for their own clothes!  I only wish that my mom would have been there to see the kids faces.  It was an early Christmas for all of us.