What does that many shoes look like? THIS...its a beautiful sight!!!!
Almost 2 years for a dream to come true...
People ask what did I think about "Ethiopia" when we went to pick up Ellyana...
*It was beautiful country with amazingly beautiful people (inside & out).
I could go on & on about this one.
*And well, the poverty is unbelieveable.
*But what shook me so much in all of this, were huge number of people without shoes.
There they were with objects on their feet to try to make a makeshift shoes.
Sore feet.
Little kids trying to walk in big men's shoes.
People with so little money they stopped at road side stands to try to repair
cheap worn-out flip-flops.
People trudging far for water with such swollen feet and legs from no shoes.
Oh, we had packed as many donations as we could...but my heart ached to have suitcases full of shoes to hand out to all these people. Just to make their daily life better.
A friend did a "Soles for Jesus" drive & this got me excited...this organization had seen the same thing in Ethiopia & that is their heart to donate shoes to the
orphanages, hospitals & street children in Ethiopia.
"Soles for Jesus" http://www.solesforjesus.org/ has information for public place shoe drives. So with prayer, I talked with our public school principal to do a shoe drive at our elementary school. He was excited, wanted the Student Council to do the advertising & even agreed to a "A Day without Shoes" (in the classroom) for any student that brought in shoes to donate.
That was Friday and the response was tremendous. Lots of neat stories from the moms how touched their kids were to give their shoes. One mom saw 2 boys at the bus stop with garbage bags full of shoes. I had gotten a lot of flip-flops on sale at the end of the year last year & kids that didn't have shoes to donate, could give $3 to sponsor a pair all the way to Ethiopia.
It was exciting to say the very least...455 kiddos in Ethiopia to get shoes,
way better than I could have stuffed in my suitcase!
We plan to do another collection this summer for VBS & well,
it sounds like our school wants to collect again next year!
I LOVE how God works!
So easy to do...as a school, church, neighborhood, friends, work... "Soles for Jesus" has lots of info on their website & they are super helpful when you e-mail. We figured out the cheapest mailing options (if you need that info) & there is a drop-off center in Chicago if you around there. Anybody with kids who out-grow shoes can participate!
And another great part of this was seeing our boys work so diligently to get the shoes ready to ship off yesterday! So happy to be HIS hands & feet! :)
Our boys grew up with "I love toy trains" & "All About John Deere" videos...we were able to check lots of them out from the library...and I can remember BJ as a toddler loving the videos & the boys still love them today. And here's the guy that started it all (as close to famous people as we get;)...as we visited his store with everything imaginable related to trains!
Here's the boys enjoying 6 trains going at once in a room-sized train track...
We were close to the Dunes, so they were very fun for the kids too...the girls are my sister's...she is the supplier of so many of Ellyana's cute clothes..very fun! 
Dad did a neat thing on vacation as he had the family prior to vacation each come up with "100 things we are thankful for" lists (the kids did 10) then numbers were pulled out of the bowl & the family took turns sharing random numbers of thankfulness. I was thankful for the exercise, I had been wanting to get a formal list started since reading "1000 gifts"...so much to be thankful for, its impossible to stop. The Scripture is full of reminders to do this, may my heart be full of thank-FULL ness!!!
And at the "Learning Fair" at school...Zach got to tour us around the amazing "Rainforest" his class had created...lots of hard work...he was really proud!
BJ's sweet class in front of the village church they toured. 
Its just a gummy worm, so funny she came up with this one on her own
Precious outfit from our sister-in-law, huge lilac bush
He LOVES to celebrate...with sharing about 48 cakes for the day, treat bags for his class, a special sign, pin to wear, Chuck-E-Cheese was his choice with special friends to share the time & the first T-ball practice of the season...his uniform # this year...NUMBER 6! What a special day that he loved & he appreciated so much!
Here's Zach with part of his team...the Ironbirds...he's already got a home run...I missed it because I was at BJ's game...kinda how our spring is going to look with the boys in different leagues.
BJ went up to the next league & is enjoying his season with a bunch of nice buddies from school!
BJ's class hosted a "Poetry Cafe"...it was just darling...we were "waited" on, ordered our "poem", and then our waiter came and read us the poem we selected...it was delicious!
Look at this precious outfit from them to Ellyana...she "stole the show" in it...
