More ... Lost in Translation

Jayden (8) has all but mastered the English language in less than one year! He has made such amazing progress but we still get these fun little glitches every now and then, and we treasure them.
A few evenings ago, after he had cleaned his plate at dinner time, Jayden pushed his plate back and said "Can I be squeezed?" After an exchange of puzzled looks by the rest of us, it suddenly dawned on us what our polite boy was asking ... "Can I be excused?"

I leave for Ethiopia with Children's Hopechest in less than 3 weeks (Nov 29 - Dec 9)! The entire team that is travelling has collected an amazing amount of donations for the children in the orphanages we will be visiting, and I now have two, 50# suitcases full of donations! Please consider a financial donation so we can meet emergency needs while we are in-country. Even $15 will make a huge impact and will feed a child for a month - so little can go so far!!! Go to www.hopechest.org, click on "Give" and specify "Ethiopia November Trip" in the notes. Then, please prayerfully consider sponsoring one of these precious children for $34/month, once we have the sponsorship programs up and running in the next few months.
I want to share a note from my friend and adoptive mom, Tracy Cornett's blog ...Would you consider sponsoring an orphan? We signed up awhile back by making a $34 per month commitment. Soon thereafter we received a picture and info on a 15 year old boy that was living in Ethiopia. I have done this kind of thing before but I have never had a connection to the child or really felt like my money was truly going directly to this child. I wrote our boy a real simple letter and didn't hear back from him for awhile.
I still didn't feel a real connection but knew that when I signed up with Children's Hopechest that is was a great organization and my money would go directly to help my child. Well, today I got my first letter. I was so excited! I went and got his picture and took it into the kids to read it to them. As I read the letter I just couldn't read anymore I was crying so hard. Here is part of the letter:
"I don't have any family. Now you are as my father, mother, brother and sister. I thank God that he makes me part of your family. I am happy to be here. I am thankful you are sponsoring me, please pray for my country and school. I am eager to see your pictures. I am looking forward to getting my next letter. May God be with you! I love you Clay, Tracy, Bowen and Anslee."
Heartbreaking! What a precious letter. Can you imagine, no family! I just love the kids of Ethiopia so much and their situations will just break your heart. I am mailing off pictures to him tomorrow. $34 a month. One meal out as a family here in America can house, feed, clothe, and school a child for A MONTH. Unreal!
During our trip to Ethiopia in November/December, we will be personally meeting these children as we work to put these sponsorship programs together. I've had about 20+ people contact me about sponsorship and I will be in touch with each of you after the trip. During the trip - please check my blog regularly for updates and pictures from Ethiopia.