Tuesday, November 21, 2006




Queen of Packing!
My mother-in-law has officially been crowned. It was so nice to have someone come in and help lift the physical and mental fog that has been hanging over my head (and most of my dining room table as well). Everything is neat, orderly and so well organized that my dear husband need only reach into a suitcase, not even looking, and pull out a completely clean and matching outfit for the kids. She came over yesterday morning and after a couple of hours and a few cups of coffee, we had two (of four) suitcases packed! One suitcase is completely filled with the donated items we collected during the Sacrifice Sale as well as toothbrushes and
dental floss from our dentist's office. The second suitcase is specifically for H and Baby T. We coordinated outfits for each of them, including for H--matching socks, hair accessories, etc... For Baby T, we took all the great toy recommendations everyone sent and gathered them together and rolled one toy into each of his outfits. He now has a little surprise when he gets dressed each day (and possibly more than one should he need to be cleaned up and changed again during the day!) We then wrapped each outfit with a ribbon and I wrote a little note to attach to each of H's outfits and to Baby T's special Embassy outfit. I'm hoping that H will take pity on my poor attempts at writing Amharic and chalk it up to my ability to write using Roman characters only. Hopefully, I haven't written anything offensive or terribly strange. I can just see it now...H will show a note to one of her friends at Layla House and the friend will say, "How nice. Why is it your mother says 'Your shoes are so tired.'" To which H will respond, "Oh, you know her, she only knows how to speak English."

5 comments:

Julie Cooper said...

Impressive!

Julie Cooper said...

Oh, one suggestion... You might want to make sure that P knows which items are for donation and which you FOR SURE want to see again in the suitcases when they return. I thought Brett knew, but in his rush to pack for home, he left A LOT (did I stress A LOT?) of clothes at the orphanage that I wanted Baye and Mikias to have. Of course, I'm glad that the kids back at the orphanage had more new clothes, but at the time I was a bit annoyed because I specifically bought those clothes for my new kids. (He even left the t-shirts that I sent in their Welcome Bags -- boo hoo!) :)

Ginger said...

So organized! One thing to think about is to put some of each person's stuff in each suitcase rather than all the kids' in one, all your hubby's in another, all donations, etc. I've known too many families recently whose luggage didn't arrive when they did. The older kids especially look forward to their new stuff and when the airlines don't deliver on time, it disappointing. Just make sure, as Julie says, that he knows which are tagged for donations.

Jane (a.k.a. patjrsmom) said...

Good suggestions. Again, my mother-in-law (seriously, she is the QUEEN of packing!) has already had us set an outfit aside for each of them in their carry-on luggage (plus one extra for my husband, in case Baby T messes him up). As for the donations, they are all in only ONE suitcase. All he needs to do is deliver that suitcase. I also let the Boy know which one was donate-able. Just in case, Dad wasn't paying attention. :-)

Anonymous said...

My Thanksgiving prayers multiply every time I check in on your blog these days. What a beautiful array of textiles! I've been reading and not replying this week but we are excited for all the joy you are generating over there.