To Ethiopia, With Love

The time has come to assemble M3's care package and send it across the country so that it can travel across the globe with the NGO director who will be seeing our girl in a couple weeks.

I had fun wandering around Target checking things off my list.

First, the practical.  It's my understanding that in the orphanage, the only clothes that are not community clothes are the undergarments.  And, I imagine each child has a limited number of those as it is. 

I bought the biggest pack of underpants I could find (nothing sparkly or glitzy or bikini, mind you...good grief) and I hope M3 will be able to share some of her unders with her friends. 

I would hope she is home before she would need the next size or new ones.

Another suggestion from the NGO director was sunglasses. 
I consider those practical as well.  Although kids love to don sunglasses, in Ethiopia I'm betting the sun shines a bit more in January than it does where we are.

I found a cute purple pair of sunglasses that have Hello Kitty on the earpieces. 

So sweet and I bet she likes purple.  At any rate, the purple will go nicely with her dress. 

It was amazing to me to see some of the sunglasses meant for little girls.  Talk about too big for one's britches.  I thought the Hello Kitty was just right.  No sparkles or bling at all.

I also wanted to make sure she had some new crayons and a notebook in which to use them.  Because of space restrictions, I found a smallish notebook.  I also chose washable crayons...just in case! 

I hope she is able to share her crayons with her friends, if she wants to do so.

I also cannot wait to see (if she is able to hang on to the notebook) what she draws or writes on the pages of her notebook.  Maybe she will be like me...I love a fresh, clean notebook about as much as I love anything.  I'm all about school supplies!

I also wanted to include something soft and cuddly in M3's package.  The girls both volunteered any number of small, fuzzy and cute little somethings, but nothing seemed to fit.  I knew I would know the perfect soft cuddly when I saw it.

I made a point to visit the baby section of the toy department because I know many of the softest and smallest toys can be found there. 

I wasn't disappointed! 

I snatched this little guy up immediately after spying him on the Carter's rack.  He is super soft and squishy.  I love the little red heart detail and the little red necktie.

I think this wee bear will be a perfect ambassador to Ethiopia on our behalf. 

We are also permitted to send along something specifically for the other children who are waiting to find their forever families.  I wish I could send any number of things and I will work on gathering needed items to take with me when I go to pick up M3. 

It seemed, however, to be the underlying suggestion that the families send something fun for the kids who do not yet have prospective parents to send them a gallon-sized bag of love from the States. 

The girls and I discussed what might be good and sidewalk choice was the runaway winner.

I know that at our address, sidewalk chalk is something we always welcome as a gift.  I'm sure there are lots of concrete areas in need of some brightening at the orphanage.  I hope the kids can take these pieces of chalk and create something beautiful...or, if they have no more artistic skill than I do, at least have some fun trying!

And, finally, our photo books.  

This is the opening page in the book.  The pages that follow feature photos of the girls, individually and together, as well as photos of my husband and me with the girls and together.  We even tossed in individual shots of Henry the chocolate lab and Annie the golden retriever.

I had an idea that I'd hoped would work so that in the "Meet the Family" book, M3 would also be able to see herself as a part of the family before she actually meets us or comes home. 

I bought a 99-cent travel mirror at Target and then requested that my husband dismantle it so I was left with just the actual mirror.  He was successful in his quest. 

I found some cardstock that is similar to the photobook page's background (albeit with flowers rather than hearts) and adhered a properly sized piece to the back of the last photograph.

I will secure the small mirror to this page with hot glue (I will be careful!) and then put M3's name underneath it (as I did with the girls' individual pages).  I will either handwrite it or I will use some of my scrapbooking sticker stash.  I have some stickers in a similar font to that printed in the photobook so either way, it will look nice.

This package will be headed to the post office by mid-week.  The girls want to make some artwork to include first. 

This week, our goals are to schedule our meetings with the homestudy agency and submit our official application to our adoption agency. 

Big steps!

Comments

[CaliValleyGirl]

Awww...the mirror at the back of the scrapbook has me all choked up...

[Guard Wife]

I, honestly, am not sure how that even came to my mind to do that, but I'm very glad it did.

[Marine Wife]

I love the idea of the mirror!

[Amritas]

The mirror/scrapbook is one of a kind! A truly inspired idea. It enables M3's reflection to be part of the family album.

Thanks for sharing photos of the items. I wonder how M3 will see them. We may take Crayola crayons for granted, but she may not.

[Guard Wife]

The wonderful thing is that the NGO director tries to videotape the kids as they open their packages from the prospective parents. We may very well have a chance to see her expression or hear what she has to say when she opens them.

Although I can't post the video here b/c of Ethiopian law's restrictions on public posting of its children, I will provide a play by play and, I hope, at least one photo in which she isn't 100% identifiable, but you can still see her. :)