Time to Prepare

Although I love the time we have with the children at the orphanage, I have really enjoyed this month of preparation.  Over the last year, there have been many times that I have been so busy with orphanage visits, holidays, and other random things that I haven't had the time to be as prepared as I like to be.  We have had about a month since delegations left to get some of our systems in order as we prepare to start orphanage visits the first week of October. 

Each month we celebrate birthdays with children at each of our orpahnages.  Last week we prepared birthday gifts for them.  This year we decided to give them packs of supplies that they could use for school.  This includes a notebook, pencils, pens, a pencil sharpener, colored pencils, and other things they need for school.  Now, to some this might not sound exciting.  Who would want school supplies for their birthday?  One thing I appreciate about Kazakhstan is that children here often see school as a privilege as opposed to a requirement.  These children that we work with have probably not had a special pack of school supplies just for them and we hope that they will treasure them. 

As we focus on school supplies for birthday gifts, I hope we are able to encourage the children to dream big and start on the path to realizing those dreams.