Jackets - n - Hats Drive Update

WOW.

That's all I have to say about the amazing amounts of coats/jackets/hats/scarves/mittens that we have received for the orphans in Vladivostok, Russia.

If you could see my upstairs bathroom right now, you would agree. The bathtub is full and over-flowing, the toilet is barely visible. We can hardly open the door and good luck to me if I want to get into the attic. :) I took a picture so you could enjoy it with me.

Thankfully, this bathroom is not usable. At all. As in, the water is not hooked up and hasn't been since the great flood last January. The children don't really enjoy coming downstairs to use the toilet in the middle of the night, but we don't really enjoy the thought of re-doing the whole downstairs again. Okay. We didn't actually re-do it ourselves, but the headache of trying to 'oversee' it from across the world isn't something that we relish.

I think we're winning. At this point.

The point is, we've collected a mountain of items to send overseas. And I'm not the only one collecting. There's Autumn in California, Melissa in Arkansas, Meredith in Northern Ohio, Sabrina in Florida, Shona in New Zealand :), Kathy in Tennessee, Lilian near Washington, D.C., Christen in Chicago, Kristy here in my area, and a few others around here.

I can't imagine how many we'd have if we piled them all in one gigantic pile. It'd be huge...and it's all thanks to the many willing hearts who chose to help us out.

SO. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

That sounds a little lame when I consider all the children on the other side of the world who will be on the receiving end. I can only imagine the ecstatic grins on their faces. The joy they will have in receiving an item as trivial as a coat or a hat. But it will be real.

It makes me wonder why my children aren't so ecstatic when they receive a new hat or jacket. Oh sure. They're happy that they got it instead of their brother or sister getting it, but they quickly forget the joy.

It makes me want to clean out closets. Clean out extra jackets. Clean out the multitude of socks. Something to make them thrilled to peices with the new pair of shoes we shopped for.

And there's no reason why I couldn't do that. No reason other than the fact that it's nice to have a little variety in the closet.

But it does make me stop and think. In the culture of America it's far too easy to take for granted the abundance of stuff that we have access to. In Russia? You can't even buy peanut butter. Seriously. We did find a tiny little jar in Moscow, but it cost about $13 if I remember correctly. We didn't buy it. (My children wouldn't mind, though, if we couldn't buy peanut butter...not a one of them likes it.)

Anyway. Thank you so very much for trusting us to get those coats and miscellaneous items to Vladivostok. We're working on it.

The first suitcase went over the beginning of October with Kyle and Ashley (The Fischbach's)(who, by the way, could use your prayers right now. I can't go into detail, but suffice it to say that the first few weeks after adopting two children can get a little hairy..and they've had some added dimensions. I know that they would deeply appreciate your prayers...) I packed it up....

...and delivered it to Ashley at her house as they don't live too far from us.

The second suitcase was packed and shipped UPS to Minnesota today!!!

Included in these two suitcases was....17 toddler coats, 25 toddler jackets, 41 toddler hats, 5 toddler mittens, 2 toddler snow pants, and 80 tubes of diaper rash cream!!! That basically cleaned out my toddler supply of coats, etc. but the mountain of size 5-size for 17 year olds is still looming large!! The next ones out will be packed for the older children in more remote locations.

What a blessing you all have been to the orphans.

James 1:27...."Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to le tthe world corrupt us."