Shoe Donation

So one of the first pictures I saw of our son had him in two different shoes that not only did not match, they were different sizes. This stuck with me and bothered me enough that I decided our donation to the Transition Home would be shoes. So I put a note in the bulletin at church and asked at Dagny's preschool if they could send a note home with the kids that we needed shoes of all sizes to take to Ethiopia.

The response was overwhelming!

My living room has four boxes of shoes, with still a few more pairs from other families coming. I can't believe it. There are tiny shoes for newborns, and shoes for teenagers, and all the sizes inbetween. People gave us nearly 200 pairs of shoes. I am not exagerating. It's just amazing.

Not only did we get shoes, but friends from church gave us a suitcase to carry them in. It's a very old suitcase, it's seen better days, but it will work and the family asked that we just leave it there (which is great - we don't have to carry it back!) It looks big in this picture, but wait until you see the next one...

Yeah, the kid fits in the suitcase. Easily and with room to spare, actually, and she's almost 40 inches tall! I'm hoping we can fit all the shoes in there and then just pay a surcharge for an overweight bag. Cross your fingers!

I can't believe the response we got. It filled my heart with joy to see that people wanted to give to these kids who are in such desperate need. In fact, the piles of shoes in my house make me cry because they're a testament to the human spirit. We WANT to care for each other, we just need someone to lead the way.