Stickers and Shoes- Trip Report #3

I never thought two simple things would bring such joy to children as stickers and shoes.

I found boxes of 200 motivational teaching stickers at the dollar store and bought like 8 boxes to take over for the teachers to use. Well, one day the kids were getting kind of bored and we were all just sitting around looking at each other, so I brought out a box to the girls side of the play area. Boy were they a hit! Suddenly they began sticking them all over their faces! They couldn't get enough of these stickers. I was out of the roll within 10 minutes or so. So I grabbed more boxes and just kept handing them out. I think the pictures explain their joy enough.

I noticed one afternoon that our sponsor daughter Moni had terrible shoes. All of the kids wear flip flops of some kind. Hers were being held together with some sort of wire- it looked dangerous. My heart ached for those poor little feet so we bought her some new sandals at the Dorcas shop when we got her dress ordered. It was after that moment that I saw Moni truly smile and engage us- even though we couldn't speak to one another. She was so proud of those shoes. But, not nearly as excited as Ripa was. The next day, I saw her friend Ripa had on her sandals that were missing basically one side of the thong if that makes sense. The plastic was breaking off. So, the three of us marched over to the Dorcas shop and for about $1 we replaced her shoes as well. Her smile tells the story.

New Shoes

Ripa and her shoes

Moni, Me, and Ripa

These stories represent many moments where the simplest things brought such immense joy and pleasure. They just wanted someone to love on them. Someone to be silly with them. Someone to take care of them in a deeper way. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to be there for them. Their joy in simple things of life taught me too!