Home of Hope

Apparently I've been snoring for the past few nights. Maybe I have a cold coming on? Drew is a light sleeper so this is a problem for him. The kids offered for me to sleep with them so Daddy could get some sleep. Sunday night I slept with Dylan (he says he never heard me snore).

Normally Dylan sleeps with his door open but since I was in there he wanted the door closed and all of the lights off. I woke up in the middle of the night freezing. We don't use the heaters in the kids rooms very often because they cost a fortune and we have a wood stove just outside their rooms. With the heat off and the door closed his room became an ice box. All I had to do was get up and turn on the heat but I didn't want to get out from under the covers. So, I continued to be cold the rest of the night. In the morning I got up and poured myself a cup of hot coffee. (I always get the coffee ready the night before and set the timer so it's ready as soon as I get up.) I told Drew how cold I was last night and feeling sorry for myself.

Later on that day I was reading the blogs I like to keep up with and came across a website for an orphanage in Malawi. Malawi has had a special place in my heart ever since visiting there 15 years ago. This orphanage cares for over 600 children who have no parents and no family to care for them. I was beginning to feel less sorry for myself... I could have just turned on the heat. Who knows how many have been abandoned and are living on the streets or in a dump?

After I warmed up Dylan and I jumped in the car and headed to the store to make a care package to send to the Home of Hope in Malawi. We got band aids, antibiotic ointment, Tylenol, soap, tootsie rolls, silly bands and workbooks for the kids. When we got home we looked through our books and picked out a few to add to the box. Dylan looked in his closet to see if he had any shirts that he could send but he couldn't find any. He tried.


We had fun putting the care package together and it felt really good. Hopefully we'll do more of these. I think it's good for our kids to know what's happening in other parts of the world and it's not the end of the world if they can't have a candy bar or new toy. Holli and Dylan do go to bed hungry sometimes but it's not because we don't have any food... it's because they chose not to eat what was offered.