I so loved reading Courtney's vision and the heart behind her book A Heart That Cares, which teaches kids about child sponsorship. We've loved being involved with Compassion International to sponsor a child. I thought I'd share some details today about the practicalities behind sponsorship (dealing with all the paper involved!), and then I'm going to give you a chance to win a copy of Courtney's book!
My kids love receiving a new letter from Elian, who lives in Peru (oh, how I would love to visit and meet her someday!), and I didn't want to just file the letters away or recycle them, because they really are special. It took me a few years, but I finally found a system that works great for us for organizing, storing and showcasing our child sponsorship letters and information-- it's completely simple-- just a binder!
Gigi glued a photo of Elian to a piece of paper and decorated it, and then we slipped that into the front clear pocket of a 3-ring binder.
The front inside pocket holds info about Elian's home country and the basic info we received from Compassion when we first sponsored her.
Then we hole-punched all her letters and drawings and put extra blank letters in the back for us to write to her. Now the kids can flip through it whenever they want.
We've been sponsoring a child for a long time now-- first, Sixto from Bolivia from when we first got married, and now Elian (Sixto "graduated" out of the program a bit early).
And while my kids don't know any different because we've always done it, I love that now they can see a little more of why behind our sponsoring Elian, through Courtney's book A Heart That Cares. I asked Gigi about Elian after reading the book, and even after two years of writing and receiving letters, she still didn't get that Elian wasn't materially blessed like we-- so it really opened the door to have some good conversation with her.
They totally love the rhyming story and the pictures, too, and it overall, it really helped them to understand how our sponsorship helps Elian.
If you'd like to win a copy of A Heart That Cares, simply enter by using the Rafflecopter widget below.
You'll note that one of the options is to like my Facebook page-- well, I just wanted to point out that it's my NEW Facebook page as I am merging my GGH page with my old Simple Homemade page. Thanks!
Don't forget, you can help children in the Philippines by donating to Compassion's typhoon relief fund.