Little glimpses of their lives started to emerge on the paper ...

As the kids lined up in the schoolyard for the next activity, we took a group of about 20 kids into one of the classrooms at "Kind Hearts" and they waited expectantly for what was next.  Faces lit with smiles as rainbows of crayons were placed on each table, and Fikre stood at the front of the classroom to explain. 

The little booklets that we were handing out were going to be given to their sponsor family.  There was a page for coloring, and a few pages with questions, and a few blank pages for photos.

At first the room was full of laughter and giggling and chairs screeching on the floor, but it soon got quiet as each child carefully colored a picture they knew would be given to their sponsor family.  I watched as little faces formed furrowed brows and with grave concentration, little hands cupped colorful crayons, trying hard to stay in the lines and pick the most beautiful colors. 

The crew from Children's Hopechest sat down among the kids and asked them the questions from the booklets and meticulously wrote down each child's response.

And little glimpses of these children's lives started to emerge on the paper ...

And always ... the gratitude. 

From the youngest to the oldest, each of them in their own words sincerely expressed their thankfulness for their sponsor family who loves them from afar.

With so many children and so many activities, we didn't get the booklets finished during our visit.  But the kids continued to work on them after we had gone.  The booklets made the trek across the ocean to my mailbox, and I went through the photos from the trip (many of them taken as the kids were working on the booklets) and added them to each booklet.

Each booklet is now in the mail being carried to their final destination ... the mailbox of each Kind Hearts sponsor family!

Sponsor families:  Every one of the kids (60+) that were originally enrolled at Kind Hearts completed a booklet.  The newly enrolled kids were not registered yet in November and so only a handful of the newly enrolled kids were able to complete a booklet.