Fred

I received not one, but TWO letters from Fred today. One was another thank you for his Christmas gift. The other was a thank you for the family gift.

Dear Auntie Sykes

First of all I would like to say hello to all of you!!!

Thank you for the Christmas card and the bookmark you send for Fred. He like very much. And a beautiful picture wedding. Where they celebrate their wedding (I think this was Walt's cousin's daughter's wedding).

About Fred, he study hard so that he can get a high grade and he can passed on the next level. Right now we recover also our loneliness since my daughter pass by last December 6, 2010.

By the way, Fred join playground demonstration because our city celebrate the feast and all the school have a participation. So please continue to pray for us that God will strengthen our family circle.

God bless you!

Christmas in October

You have to think and plan far in advance, since it takes about two months for a birthday or Christmas gift to get to the children. I wasn't on time last year, but this year I'm on top of things. I sent a $20 gift to each of the three sponsored children and a larger family gift to Fred's family. The individual monetary gifts are all pooled and gifts given to all the children in a center, whether they receive something from their sponsors or not. Family gifts are given directly to the family.

I found little gifts to send to each child with a Christmas card. There were sticker books of a Nativity scene or angel pictures printed on tissue paper that the children can color and hang in a window like stained glass. Gifts can be only made of paper and can't be thicker than 1/4" so it does stretch your creativity to find something appropriate!

I also sent Shallon a small calendar of photos from California. I heard a rumor that we can't send calendars. I can't figure out why. But I thought I'd give it a try anyway.

Next month I will send birthday cards to the three children who have January and February birthdays. I found cards on which you can record a message and I thought that would be fun.