THANK YOU!!!

I know I'm going to forget some people in this post, but I'll still try. :-) We have just received so many donations lately, and I wanted to share a few....

The Gerardo and Kathy Mejia Foundation organized a huge shipment of toys donated by Jakks Pacific toy company. Dole corporation paid for 3 huge shipping containers as well, so a lot of people were involved. We only got a small portion of the toys, and it was still overwhelming!!! Ministries all over Ecuador received similar donations....WOW! Patti Sue picked everything up on Christmas Eve, and they filled up our guest room. Here is a picture of what it looks like now.... AFTER Christmas.

We gave each of the kids 2 big toys, and we've given out some of the school supplies. We're going to share a lot of the left-over toys with the mission hospital and different ministries in the jungle. It's exciting to be able to share!

Here's Alejo squeezing a new Barney and Neopet stuffed animal. :-)

Here is Miss Alison's class opening some large activity mats that they're using in class.

Miss Dallas' class opening some erasable Dora pads.

Yulisa

Ana
Mikaela

Thank you, Ms. Hahn!!

We know Ms. Hahn from the church Dwight went to in Alaska while he was stationed there. She saw one of the orphanage's update letters and emailed me about the needs. I mentioned tennis shoes and gave her some sizes...Needless to say, she bought every pair they had at the store! She also bought them out on long shorts, cloth diapers and everything else on the list. She shipped 5 huge boxes to some ladies who came to visit right after Christmas.

Thank you Julie, Michele, Nancy and Valerie for bringing everything down! Thank you for all of the goodies you left as well. AND for making New Years' Eve a blast for the kids!

Here were (some of) the piles after we organized them by size. We brought the kids over in groups to get fitted and inventory everything.

Javier loves his new sneakers!

We also had some others do a clothing and toy drive, and we just received the last of that with our team that arrived yesterday. Thank you to Cindy Wine and Faith Christian Church in Springhill, Fl, and Daniel & Lubna Mohr...AND to Carolyn & Rosemarie Asbach, and the Troyer group for transporting it all down! We're still getting everything unpacked and organized, but I know the kids are going to absolutely LOVE this stuff!

Here's a random picture of the construction site that Julie took while she was here last week. Gives you an idea of how it's progressing with the walls going up! They received another huge shipment of blocks today, so things are moving along!