clothes for the children (natalie)

I love to open my email and see messages from people interested in helping our children. Our needs are miraculously met each month and we appreciate the generosity of so many.

The past few years we have had some generous donors send us enough money to buy new shoes for Christmas for all the kids and we had someone send money for shoes again this year. So our intern Alex will be able to take them shoe shopping. I recently received an email from our interns with a note that the kids asked for new belts and shoelaces for Christmas (what every kid wants right?).

One of our child's sponsors just emailed me and said they were sending a $50 check to buy toys for the children (in addition to their monthly sponsorship donation). When I asked if we could use their gift to buy belts and shoelaces, they replied "of course you can use the money for whatever you deem necessary." I never thought I would cry over belts and shoelaces, but today I did.

I also received an email from Marcia who is going down on our December expedition participants who is taking down THREE suitcases of clothing for our Sunflower kids. When Tony and I were at the Sunflower in November, we organized the clothing donations by size and gender. Then we brought each child in and asked them what they needed. The kids were modest in their requests - they would ask for a new pair of pants or a belt or new socks. Note the word "OR" - they rarely asked for pants AND a belt AND socks. I had to keep asking them "do you need new underwear?" "Do you have enough shirts?" One time the older girls (Nancy, Ninoska and Sonia) came in and brought Yudy and searched and searched for a new skirt and shirt for her. I love how these kids take care of each other.

Sadly, although we had a fair amount of donated clothing, I was unable to find clothes that fit all the kids. It broke my heart to tell Hilario that I didn't have a pair of pants for him. Wilfredo didn't complain at all when I didn't have dark socks that fit him. So when Marcia emailed me and said she was bringing hoodies and sweat pants and shirts I did a silent shout for joy while crossing my fingers that they will fit Hilario.
So many people have asked me for clothing sizes that I promised that I would post them on this blog...so here they are: They are in the following format: Name: Shirt Size / Waist in inches / waist to ground in inches / shoe size (they use the Euro size)

Adriel: Medium / 31" / 37" / 39

Almendra: 12 / 31" / 31" / 34

Carlos: 18 / 32" / 27" / 42

Christofer: 4 / 21" / 20" (no shoe size yet)

Darwin: 10 / 26" / 28" / 33

Dayana: 9 / 28" / 30" / 31

Edy: 9 / 27" / 27" / 32

Evelyn: 7 / 25" / 27" (no shoe size yet)

Francisco: 8 / 25" / 38" / 30

Gabriel: 4T / 23" / 23" / 29

Hilario: large / 29" / 32" 40

Hilda: 4T / 36" / 27" / 30

Jhoel Dos: 6 / 24" / 23" / 31

Joel Uno: 14 / 25" / 28" / 30

Lisbeth: 12 / 25" / 26" / 30

Maria Uno: 10 / 29" / 30" / 32

Maria Dos: 10 / 23" / 25" / no shoe size yet

Marisol: 12 / 28" / 28" / 31

Mayda: 6 / 26" / 28" / 31

Nancy: 12 / 32" / 32" / 35

Ninoska: small / 30" / 32" 35

Profeta: 8 / 28" / 23" / 30

Ronal: 10 / 26" / 31" / 35

Sila: 5 / 24" / 28" / 30

Sonia: Med / 31" / 31" / 34

Wilfredo: 12 (Med) / 30" / 36" / 38

Wini: 7 / 28" / 32" / 33

Yeison Cruz: 12 / 28" / 33" / 36

Yeison Dos: 10 / 29" / 34" / 37

Yeri: 6 / 23" / 22" / 30

Yosimar: 10 / 25" / 29" / 32

Yudi: 5 / 25" / 23" / 29