Compassion letters update!

I have been really terrible at posting Compassion updates. However I have been pretty awesome (if I do say so myself) about sending letters to both of my Compassion kids! On average, I send one handwritten letter or card each month and  one letter through the online writing site! I figure they get them at different times, so I often do them in the same evening.

A few weeks ago, I posted about receiving a letter, thank you note and PHOTO from Vanesa! Not a week later, I also received a letter, thank you note and PHOTO from Samuel! It is so much fun to get pictures and hear what they purchased with their birthday money I sent.

To say thank you for the photo and wonderful letters (longer than normal!), I sent a long letter, a musical card ("say a little prayer for you") and the photo below...

To Vanesa

To Samuel

A bit strange for me to take these photos, however I figure they would enjoy seeing me holding their letters and photos!

It had been just over a month since my last letters, so I sat down this evening and started writing!

I had fun yellow paper. I copied the letterhead Compassion sent onto these to brighten it up! I even had an embossed flower one for Vanesa.

I also had left over cut out fire trucks from my sister's baby shower invites. I wrote names and ID numbers on the back, laminated them, and put them in the envelope as well! 

What have you received from your Compassion kids recently? What do you typically send?

my heart is full

My challenging day at work melted away today as I opened my cream colored envelope. I have gotten a few before, both from Vanesa and Samuel, however this one was larger.

I carefully opened it to see the longest most detailed letter even received from Vanesa. Before I could even get through the letter, I saw something stapled on the back... oh yes it was... a PHOTO! I tried containing my excitement by reading the entire beautiful letter before looking at the picture.

 When I started sponsoring Vanesa last January, I received this photo:

Today in the mail, I received this:   

She wrote in her letter that with the $25 birthday money I sent her (over the summer), she purchased (as shown in the photo!) a cake, blankets, sheets, a dress, and sweets.

She asked how we are doing, and promised that she is working hard in school. She asked us to pray for her health and that she does well in school so she can become a nurse.

A volunteer helps her write, however Vanesa also drew photos of a girl, ball, box and book :)

My heart is full and I cannot take my eyes off that beautiful smile.

I wish I could pick her up and squeeze her and tell her how wonderful she is!

I write to her (and Samuel, my corespondent child) once a month handwritten, and once a month online. It is wonderful to share bits of our lives and hear back from them about theirs. I have sent photos, cards, paper puzzles, kids band aides, laminated flowers, and much more along with letters. You can see some of my letters and stuff sent here.

I first decided to sponsor because of a long time bucket list item.  I plan to continue sponsoring Vanesa instead of birthday gifts or a large celebration. I'll put any birthday money / donations toward supporting Vanesa in 2012, as well as another $25 birthday gift this coming summer!

Now, I'm off to send Valentine's cards! I've been working on making several, one for each of my Compassion kids and I'll be sending extra a long for them to share with their friends!

Are you interested in Sponsorship? Take a peek at all these beautiful faces!


Support Vanesa's Sponsorship 2012

Quick Cards

I wanted to send a quick note to my Compassion Kids. I decided to make a little "You are Loved" tag for each kid. If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you got a quick sneak peak of my progress in making the tags.

I LOVE my new Ali Edwards "This One" stamp set! I also recently picked up a Tree Snag 'em Stamps from Imaginisce. I added a sparkly brad from DoodleBug, colored in the tree with a brown sharpie, and 2 Copic markers (G14 and YG17), topped it off with a little ink (Inkadinkado Stackables) on the edges and poof! 3 cute little tags.

I decided to use a few bits of paper I had and make up a couple cards to attach the tags to, and in under 15 minutes, I had 3 cards ready to be written in! 

Have you written to your Compassion kids recently? Now is always the perfect time! Don't forget, you can also write to your kids through the Compassion website!

Compassion Letters Update

 My most recent Compassion letters to Vanesa and Samuel included, mini handmade cards, Target kids band-aides, star rubber bands and 2 paper clips to keep it all together. I wrote each child's name and sponsor number on the back of the card and the envelope. I didn't seal this envelope, but instead put both inside another one to send to the Compassion office.

A few of the last I have mailed and not written about:

Brown theme

Samual's birthday! I laminated Dakota and Jaffery from this project.

Green Theme!

What other themes would you like to see my take on? What themes do you do?

You can find more information about my Compassion journey and other letters I have sent here!

Cream colored letter day...

I had read about it....

Others had talked about it on their blog...

however I wouldn't have been able to explain it until I actually experienced it myself.

The day before Easter break, I came home to a cream colored envelope in my mailbox. I knew exactly what it was. I flipped it over to see "MESSAGE FROM YOUR SPONSORED CHILD" written in bold blue on the front.

It was so amazing to get a letter from Vanesa.  I have been writing a handwritten letter once a month and sometimes sending emails between those. I hope she has been getting my letters now too (I know travel time can be super long to Uganda).

In her letter, she wrote that her favorite food is Posho (which I googled to find it is a porridge like food with little nutritional value), her favorite color is red, and fav game in jumping. She wrote that her dream for the future is to be a doctor! (my heart melted with this. I work with pre-medical students... one is from Uganda...) She asked me to pray for her to keep healthy and that she will pray for me. (isn't that just sweet!) She also drew pictured (and labeled them) of a box, girl, boy, cup, book and church.

I had Alan snap a quick photo of me with the letter to send to her :)

If you are interested in receiving your very own cream colored envelope, please hop on over to sponsor a child!

A group of bloggers recently came back from visiting Compassion children in the Philippines. If you are interested in what they saw there, please click here. Their stories are... well, I really cannot explain. They are real.

Compassion Letter - Pink Birthday

It's Vanesa's Birthday... well, in June. However in hearing about letter travel time to Uganda, I am planning ahead!

I decided to go with a pretty pink theme (my other recent letters have been blue and white).

It might be difficult to see, but the pink paper is embossed with flowers (Michaels had these on sale a few weeks back and I stocked up on a several colors!). I also picked up the gem sticker cross at Michaels (clearance for $0.50). The pink cut out flower was cut from my cricut (each letter I have sent one in the color of that theme!).

I know Compassion cannot translate books, however I found this very thin Clifford birthday book and am sending it along! Hopefully it will make it through!

It wouldn't be a birthday package without a birthday card! I did a quick flower stamp, colored it in, glued down, added a cute punched out border and done!

The "LOVE" was super fun to make. I wanted to send something extra special for Vanesa's birthday. A few weeks ago, Alan brought home fresh flowers ( ❤ ). After a few days, I snipped off a couple flowers and placed neatly in a book. Fast forward a couple weeks. I decided it was the perfect time and color to use in this letter! I used my cricut to cut L V E, made a small "nameplate" with Vanesa's information and my sponsor id and laminated it all!

I'm excited to get this in the mail! I'll also be sending a letter and a few cut out goodies to Samuel, our Correspondent Child. His birthday is also coming up quickly! If you have ideas, I'm all ears!

What do you send your Compassion kids on their birthdays?

Compassion Letter - White

My last Compassion letters had a bright blue theme. This month, with all the snow (we are still around 4 -6 foot, pending which drift you measure), I decided on a white theme! :)

To print the Compassion stationary on, I found nice white textured card stock at Michaels.

To go with the white theme, I thought of:

• Snow
• Snowflakes
• Clouds
• Flowers
• Birds
• Eggs
• Beans

I found a couple snowflake stickers to include on the letter, and then cut out a couple snowflakes on my Cricut. I also found some white alphabet stickers to send to each child. Alan and I had also built snow people awhile back. I printed off a couple photos to include.

I also want to introduce you to Samuel. He is from the Dominican Republic, lives with both his parents and have 2 siblings. He is in 2nd grade.

Samuel is our first Correspondent Sponsorship Child. Generally, this means someone else is financial sponsoring Samuel, however they are not able to write to him. This is where I come in :) I have committed to writing letters to Samuel, thus being his correspondent sponsor.

Now, I'm writing to both Samuel and Vanesa at least once each month! :)

Do you send themed letters to your Compassion child? What other white things can you think of? What should my next theme letter color be?


It is the 2nd Friday of the month... have you written to your Compassion child yet?

11 random things

1. I had a great weekend - spent time with a good friend doing Trivia and also some shopping with Alan!
2. However, I found myself with little energy this week. All I want to do is sit in front of the TV.
3. Work has been crazy. 
4. I'm proud of myself... I made puppy pillow cases.
5. I'm have very few photos taken for my February assignment in the One Little Word class. Feeling a bit discouraged about it, however I will get back on board.
6. I am very behind in my own photo challenge!
7. I logged into my Compassion account yesterday to find a Correspondent Child waiting for me. Welcome to the family, Samuel.
8. I have already prepared a small "Blue" themed letter/package (similar to Vanesa's) and will be mailing it tomorrow.
9. I am very happy about our 40 degree weather. Our snow is about 1/2 gone and the sun has definitely helped my mood. (though I'm sad our snow people are melting).
10. Alan and I did go to the YMCA yesterday. It was refreshing. I think a lot when I run. Dangerous, yes. Challenging, Yes! Now inspired to make some changes... YES
11. Even if they cause sleeping problems, I love these two...

*Be sure to hop over to my giveaway post! Tomorrow (2-18-11)  is the last day to enter

Compassion Letter - Blue

It has been less than 2 weeks since receiving my information packet from Compassion. I mailed off my first letter less than a week ago, and now I'm already preparing to send my next envelope.

I'm not sure why, however I have decided to go with a "blue" theme this time. I picked up a few super thin used books (this Clifford one happened to fit the theme), printed the stationary on blue paper, and then started thinking about what else is "blue".  Without saying things like "some toys/houses/cars/things that can be painted are blue", it was a little challenging.  Here is the list of what I came up with.

• Blue bird
• Blueberries
• Flowers
• Sky
• Water
• Robin's eggs
• Blue jeans

I used my Cricut machine to cut out the blue bird and flower. I then found the K and V (my child's initials) in my stash of scrapbooking stuff. I also made a simple bookmark to go with the book I'm sending. I'll be putting all this together, likely gluing down some of the item, such as the letters, and sending them off in the next couple of days!

Do you send themed letters to your Compassion child?

You can read about my Compassion journey here. Though somewhat short, is definitely becoming a part of who I am.

Happy with a hint of tears

Last night, I spent nearly 4 hours reading, researching and writing.

Nope, I'm not back in graduate school (thank goodness!)!

I am a Compassion Child Sponsor.

It had been my bucket list item #131 to sponsor a child and on January 22, 2011, with birthday donations instead of gifts, I was able to cross that one off my list (THANK YOU to all who donated!). 

Meet Vanesa from Uganda. 

I'm not sure what is was about her that reached out and grabbed me. I think it was a little bit of several things. She lives with her mom and 5 siblings.Vanesa had also been waiting over 6 months for a sponsor.

After clicking "submit" on the sponsor page, I printed out her bio and photo and immediately put it on our refrigerator.

I then wrote this on my birthday recap post... "I'm looking forward to hearing more about my Compassion Child. It said to expect information in about 15 days. Wow. It seems like so long to wait. Yet, she waited over 6 months for me..."

Each day after work, I rushed home to see if anything had arrived. I spent time reading blogs of others who sponsor children, learning what they write about, what little things can be sent with the letters, how the translation process works.

Then, the day came. If you are a twitter follower, there was a play by play account of me opening my letter and going through the information, one detail at a time. I was so excited; I felt so blessed.

Okay. Back to last night. I finally was able to sit down to write my first letter. There are so many great resources out there for new Compassion Sponsors. A few that I found particularly helpful and inspiring are:

Blogging from the Boonies (I read a good majority of her blog last night!)
Flowerdust
The Compassion Blog  
Compassion Trips - links to bloggers whom have gone on Compassion trips
Whittaker Woman (aka: Heather)  - I've been a long time follower of Heather and Carlos who have both participated on Compassion Trips

There ere are many more... blogs, videos, stories... I'll share more links on another post.

Dakota was very interested in what I was doing all night.

When all was said and done...

I finally got 2 photos printed out; one of Alan and I, for the "My Sponsor" card, and one of me standing in our backyard in the snow.  I also google searched Bible Color Pages, and found a simple one to print out. I didn't receive any stationary in my information package, however was able to print the general Compassion template onto cute purple, flowery scrapbook paper. I added a few stickers, wrote a general "Hello, I'm your sponsor, it is great to meet you, we have 2 pet dogs, we are thinking of you and praying for you" message.

I took a deep breath and looked at my work. It didn't feel like enough. I kept researching. I realized I should also write an intro email! (YES! You can email your Compassion child! How awesome is that!?) I decided I should also send an email to Vanesa. It is directly sent to the child's country office to be translated, thus saves tons of time in mailing first! My email was a simple 6 lines of "we are happy to be your Compassion Sponsors, we are thinking of you, I will write often, and we look forward to learning more about you and your family."

This felt better. Vanesa would receive a couple different messages from me, one a little more quickly due to email and one a bit after that! I read a few places the mail sent can take several weeks, and didn't want her to have to wait that long!

After going through this process, I am happy. I am happy I found Compassion and that I am sponsoring Vanesa. I am happy to be blessed to have a home to live in, family to lean on, food to eat, clean water to drink. I am happy to have a job, that my husband has a job, and we can both drive to work, in cars we own, on paved roads. I am happy to to live in a country that I feel safe in.

However, as I think about all I am happy for, all the blessings in my life, I cannot help but feel a tear run down my face. I look at Vanesa's photo and think of her and her family. I begin to think of all the people, around the world, including those in the United States who live each and every day without so many of the things I am blessed to have in my life.

I feel like I need to do more. I do not know what exactly or how, yet I must do something more.

Birthday 2011 Recap

Earlier today, I posted about my birthday goals!   My year of {simple} has thus far been interesting, and I am excited to see where this takes me in the next year.


To celebrate my birthday this year, I slept in, however hit snooze too many times and was a bit late meeting K for shopping fun.

We did mostly window shopping, however did pick up a couple things. It was so great to catch up over lunch. We always have fun stories and a few good laughs.



I drove home to hang out with my boys...
Somehow, Alan and I didn't get a photo together :(


However in the -13 degree weather, I did have him take one of me!

We made our way to a couple antique stores.  Then to supper at Khans. :)

Then home to a fun ice cream cake!

We watched a bit of TV (Netflix is addicting).

I then ended my day with one of the most awesome things ever. I visited the Compassion International website, searched through children who had been waiting longer than six months for a sponsor, filled out the form, and hit "submit".     

She is from Uganda. I thank everyone who donated to make this possible. THANK YOU so much!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about my Compassion Child. It said to expect information in about 15 days. Wow. It seems like so long to wait. Yet, she waited over 6 months for me...

Bucket List. #131. Birthday Wish.

On September 18, 1997 I opened up a brand new purple note book and started a list. At the top of the page I wrote "My Goals / To Do List"

I then started to number down the left side of the page. I wrote nine goals that day. I was 14.

Over the years I added to the list (# 64: watch a sunrise and sunset on the same day 12-18-99), crossed off and dated when something was accomplished (ie: #43: learn to play the violin 8-17-98 accomplished with lessons starting in the summer of 2000), and rolled my eyes at a couple of the items a silly teenager wrote (ie: #5 be a student librarian, 9-18-97, accomplished Sept 2000).

There has been little activity in the purple notebook for quite some time. After starting college, I only made a few entries, and now and then crossed off items. Don't get me wrong, I have goals, dreams, and a major "to do list", I just have not been as diligent in writing it down (however as i write this post, I pause every time something comes to mind - the purple note book is open in my lap...).

Anyhow...

# 131

I remember as a child watching TV (and on TV ever since) seeing news stories on Nightline, 60 Minutes, or other random shows, plus the commercials showing pictures of starving children, asking to donate just a dollar a day.

These stories tug at my heart strings. I have since met, worked with, and become friends with many individuals with amazing life stories. Everyone has a different path, yet one key thing remains the same... They had someone to believe in, to give them hope and support when life was pushing them down.

Well this year, I would like to complete goal number 131. Sponsor a child.

I have done a bit of research, and decided to sponsor through Compassion (if you are wondering, Compassion is a Christian organization). I love the holistic approach they take, and am amazed at the first hand accounts I have heard from Carlos and Heather.

Now. Here is the deal - e - o. ;)

I do not want birthday gifts this year. Honestly, I do not need anything - my house is full of treasures already!

What I would like for my birthday this year is help from you in finishing my bucket list #131: Sponsor a child. Sponsorship is $456 for a year, that is $38 dollars a month... just over a dollar per facebook friend.

Will you donate, even $1.00 to help me sponsor a child?

My deadline is January 22 for #131's completion. Thank you in advance!

You can donate any amount through the paypal link below.

I will be posting updates on my donation goals every couple of days! THANK YOU!

There is so much we can do

In your blogging exploration, if you have not yet come across Rocks in My Dryer, now is a great time to check it out! Shannon is on a Compassion trip to Uganda blogging about her experiences and the situation within the villages. In this post, she writes of meeting the boy her family sponsors through Compassion.

I have been keeping up with her posts and am touched by those things that are being done. However this is so much more we can do. I encourage everyone, to find something they really believe in and then invest energy in supporting it. Support doesn't always have to be in funds. Often, time and effort can make the biggest difference.