...oh how a pencil bag can bring a smile...

So a couple months ago a good friend of mine from church asked me if we had any needs here because the women's group at Curves in Clinton wanted to do some type of special giving for Christmas. I told her about the Casa Hogar (Children's home) that I volunteer at and how they will be starting school in February (public schools start their new year then). She decided to send me back with a full pencil bag for each of them, which included new pencils, crayons, glue, sharpeners, erasers, little games, stickers, and we added a new toothbrush! The group from GCA that came a couple weeks ago also gave several things to add in their bags! I was able to go up yesterday and deliver them to the kids. I go up every wednesday and help them with any homework they have and projects, things like that. And everytime I ask, well can you get a pencil, or some glue, they have to run around the house asking other kids if they can borrow some or where they can get some. They don't have much for themselves that they can keep because there are 40 other kids using the stuff! So for them to get their own things was SO exciting. We had to make sure and tell the kids they couldn't use the stuff until next week, when school starts, because they were so excited, they would have used up all their pencils/crayons the next day, haha! We got them all together and told them that a very special group of ladies from the U.S cared about them so much and wanted to send them just something little to begin their year and that we hope they have an amazing year in school and that we love them. The kids immediately ran inside and started pulling everything out of their bags, counting their new pencils, organizing the crayons, and comparing their new folders and showing off their high school musical vs. the hannah montana, haha. It was such a blessing to be a part of that and seeing the smiles on their faces and the excitement. So a HUGE shout-out to the women at curves, thank you so much for giving these things - I wish you could have actually seen their excitement yourselves, but I hope these pictures give you a little idea....