On Sunday, we lugged home from church two big boxes and one laundry basket full of shoes and a bag of shoelaces. We spent the afternoon sorting shoes - checking for holes, making sure the shoelaces were still intact, tying pairs together (not so easy with the velcro type). We stuffed each pair with a pair of soft, new, white socks. (Thanks, friends!) We also stuffed each pair with a note written by one of our elementary kids from church. A couple of Sundays ago, we provided small cardstock squares and markers and colored pencils and asked all the kids in Sunday school that day to write a note to the child who would be receiving the shoes they had collected. We typically have around 40 kids, so I thought if each kid wrote 3 notes, we'd have our shoes filled. Attendance was down a bit, not everyone wrote cards, and some were illegible, so we came home with only 50 cards. Another note-writing Sunday will be in order!
We let the kids decide what to write. We asked them to write a note, draw a picture, include their favorite Bible verse, or write whatever was on their heart. Thanks to Michelle, who with very little notice got us the Amharic translation of "Jesus loves you", we were able to write out "Eyesus Yiwodihal" for our kids to copy if they wanted. Most of all, we wanted them to sign their names. We want the kids in the Ethiopia Youth Soccer Ministry to know that real kids their own age collected these shoes and sent them half way around the world for them. In the "Kids' Cove" where our kids meet for Sunday School and Wednesday night services, we have an enlarged photograph of the kids in the Ethiopia Youth Soccer League. My hope is to take to those kids a picture of all the kids in our elementary program. I so want them to see each other's faces! How cool will it be for the Ethiopian kids to be able to connect a face with the name on the note in their shoes?!
My kids were excited to carry two big boxes, containing 50 pairs of shoes with socks and notes, into the "white house" where we have our weekly Ethiopia team meetings on Sunday evenings. Little by little, it comes together.
Which brings me to yesterday. I took Carlos to the pediatrician for his 9 year check-up after school yesterday. The boy is terrified of needles. I don't know how this happened or why. Neither his father nor I get squeamish at needles or blood or anything else really, and he's had no horrifying experiences with needles. But the last time Carlos really had to get any immunizations (maybe age 5?) he went completely beserk. He was kicking and screaming and flailing about the exam room. Fortunately, Dave was with me, because it took both of us to hold him down. He ended up kicking the nurse - with his gym shoes on. I was mortified. They marked his file. With the introduction of the flu mist, we were saved. A quick squirt up the nose each year has saved us the drama of the injection, so he has passed his yearly exams for a few years now without any incident.
However, remember that I wrote a few days ago that Carlos might need three vaccinations before our trip? For this trip, kids have to be vaccinated for Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and Hepatits A. Kidist got the Hep A when she came here 4 years ago. I couldn't remember if Carlos had received it or not. The doctor checked his chart yesterday, and sure enough, he hadn't gotten that one. Suddenly there was panic in his eyes - a shot?!!!! "Mom, I'm not supposed to get any more shots until I'm 11!!!" his voicing rising with fear. Dave was not with me this time. I explained that he had to have this shot for the trip. He started to panic, but I told him, flat out, "You cannot freak out on me this time. You have to sit here and take this shot like the big boy you are." I wasn't sure until the moment the needle hit his arm, but he did it. He let out a banshee scream that I'm sure terrified every child in every room down that hallway, but he sat there and took it.
I was proud of him. Rational or not, we all have our own fears. He had to face and conquer his right there on the spot. There are grown-ups who couldn't have pulled it together and sat there like he did. This trip is causing him pain and anxiety, and he's facing it with incredible courage and without bitterness and resentment. I am humbled watching him. I am grateful for God's Spirit within him.
By the way, I'm going to schedule him and Kiki for different days to get their last two vaccinations at the Travel Clinic. I'm afraid irrational fears are catching!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Birthday Presents
Our children have been blessed to be able to have parties with their friends for their birthdays each year. However, with each birthday party, an additional 5 or 8 or 10 toys were coming into our house. Our kids have too much already, and Dave and I decided that beginning at age 5, our children could relinquish those gifts from friends for a higher purpose.
When Carlos turned 5, we explained that he would be getting birthday presents from mommy and daddy and aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, so that he didn't need to get so many more toys from friends. We asked him to think of someone who might need something and then ask his friends to bring a gift for that person in need. That first year, Carlos asked his friends to bring new or used baby toys for the nursery at our church. the nursery workers were in the process of cleaning out old, worn-out toys, so it was the perfect time to bring in new ones for the babies. His friends (or more accurately, his friends' parents) all complied with our request, and Carlos was able to deliver new and used toys to the church nursery. One of his favorite people in the world, Mr. Hap (the Children's Minister at our church), was there to receive the donation and talk with Carlos about it, and he was hooked. He got it. He liked it. And any consternation over what he might be missing was gone. The next year he chose to support our church's food pantry, Covenant Foods, and asked his friends to bring food for the food pantry. We delivered more than a shopping cart full of food to the pantry that year. Covenant Foods has been his passion since.
When Kidist was first presented with the idea, she was ready, because she'd witnessed her brother contributing to Covenant Food all these years. However, it's tough to give up birthday presents at such a young age, especially for Kiki - our social, vibrant, fun, in-the-moment kid. She did it, though, and right out of the gate, she wanted her substitute presents to go to Ethiopia.
Carlos still loves Covenant Foods and Ms. Mary, who runs it, but after much thought, he decided this year to do something for the Ethiopian children he will be meeting and serving in January. The elementary aged kids at our church (which includes Carlos and Kiki) collected over 100 pairs of gym shoes this summer to give to the kids in the Ethiopia Youth Soccer Ministry, a ministry we will work with in Addis Ababa. There are about 100 children in that program, all of them street kids in Addis. Carlos decided it would be nice to give each child receiving a pair of shoes a new pair of socks as well. He asked his friends to forego a present for him and bring new socks to his birthday party. He received 104 new pairs of socks! The very best part is that our kids had collected 103 pairs of shoes. I love it when God makes the math work!!!
Tomorrow we will begin stuffing shoes with socks. I can't wait to see my kids' faces when they actually hand those socks and shoes to kids who desperately need them. I know that giving up birthday presents will never be the same for them after that. How grateful I am that they can learn that lesson so personally. What a privilege and a blessing. Thank you, Lord!
When Carlos turned 5, we explained that he would be getting birthday presents from mommy and daddy and aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, so that he didn't need to get so many more toys from friends. We asked him to think of someone who might need something and then ask his friends to bring a gift for that person in need. That first year, Carlos asked his friends to bring new or used baby toys for the nursery at our church. the nursery workers were in the process of cleaning out old, worn-out toys, so it was the perfect time to bring in new ones for the babies. His friends (or more accurately, his friends' parents) all complied with our request, and Carlos was able to deliver new and used toys to the church nursery. One of his favorite people in the world, Mr. Hap (the Children's Minister at our church), was there to receive the donation and talk with Carlos about it, and he was hooked. He got it. He liked it. And any consternation over what he might be missing was gone. The next year he chose to support our church's food pantry, Covenant Foods, and asked his friends to bring food for the food pantry. We delivered more than a shopping cart full of food to the pantry that year. Covenant Foods has been his passion since.
When Kidist was first presented with the idea, she was ready, because she'd witnessed her brother contributing to Covenant Food all these years. However, it's tough to give up birthday presents at such a young age, especially for Kiki - our social, vibrant, fun, in-the-moment kid. She did it, though, and right out of the gate, she wanted her substitute presents to go to Ethiopia.
Carlos still loves Covenant Foods and Ms. Mary, who runs it, but after much thought, he decided this year to do something for the Ethiopian children he will be meeting and serving in January. The elementary aged kids at our church (which includes Carlos and Kiki) collected over 100 pairs of gym shoes this summer to give to the kids in the Ethiopia Youth Soccer Ministry, a ministry we will work with in Addis Ababa. There are about 100 children in that program, all of them street kids in Addis. Carlos decided it would be nice to give each child receiving a pair of shoes a new pair of socks as well. He asked his friends to forego a present for him and bring new socks to his birthday party. He received 104 new pairs of socks! The very best part is that our kids had collected 103 pairs of shoes. I love it when God makes the math work!!!
Tomorrow we will begin stuffing shoes with socks. I can't wait to see my kids' faces when they actually hand those socks and shoes to kids who desperately need them. I know that giving up birthday presents will never be the same for them after that. How grateful I am that they can learn that lesson so personally. What a privilege and a blessing. Thank you, Lord!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Happy Birthday, Carlos!
Today is Carlos' 9th Birthday! He set his alarm this morning for 6:17 a.m., the time he was born. I set mine for 6:15 a.m., so I could be by his bed when he woke up. What a blessing to sit there in the dark and listen to my son breathe! Somehow, I woke him up, and he sat up in bed, very excited, and said, "Mom! Get in and lay down with me, so we can be together when the alarm goes off!" So much excitement over the moment of his beginning. We laid together like spoons, and I thought back to the cold, November morning nine years ago when he left me to take his place in this world. Precious. He's so big now. I told him as we headed downstairs for breakfast that I thought he'd gotten taller overnight!
He got a half hour of Wii before breakfast, and we ate cinnamon rolls, both big things in a house where TV/video time is tightly controlled and Mom buys only healthy cereal and high-fiber, low-sugar oatmeal!! The cinnamon rolls were his sister's idea. She is a sweet freak, so I'm fairly sure she wasn't thinking as much about her brother's birthday as she was angling an opportunity for herself to have junk-food for breakfast. It made for a fun start to her brother's day, so we went with it. When he found out breakfast was her idea, she was rewarded with a huge, lift-your-feet-off-the-ground hug. It was a good morning.
I am reminded of how intensely and abundantly we are blessed. It really is crazy when you think about it - over the top, "open the floodgates of heaven and let it pour out" kinds of blessings. My kids are beautiful, smart, healthy, good, safe, well fed, and well cared for. So, so, so many others are not. I don't know the whys of it all, but I do know that as a family we want to do something about it.
Happy Birthday, Carlos! We love you so much! Enjoy this day. And remember, Son, that all your many blessings are from the Lord.
He got a half hour of Wii before breakfast, and we ate cinnamon rolls, both big things in a house where TV/video time is tightly controlled and Mom buys only healthy cereal and high-fiber, low-sugar oatmeal!! The cinnamon rolls were his sister's idea. She is a sweet freak, so I'm fairly sure she wasn't thinking as much about her brother's birthday as she was angling an opportunity for herself to have junk-food for breakfast. It made for a fun start to her brother's day, so we went with it. When he found out breakfast was her idea, she was rewarded with a huge, lift-your-feet-off-the-ground hug. It was a good morning.
I am reminded of how intensely and abundantly we are blessed. It really is crazy when you think about it - over the top, "open the floodgates of heaven and let it pour out" kinds of blessings. My kids are beautiful, smart, healthy, good, safe, well fed, and well cared for. So, so, so many others are not. I don't know the whys of it all, but I do know that as a family we want to do something about it.
Happy Birthday, Carlos! We love you so much! Enjoy this day. And remember, Son, that all your many blessings are from the Lord.
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