Feeling more motivated to write!

I think my letter drought is officially over (fingers crossed).  I received 2 letters from Vincent in Togo this past week (unfortunately, I still needed to do the inquiry about the gift, because he didn't mention what was purchased with the gift in either letter), another letter from Nayan in East India today, and my 7th letter from Willy in Rwanda as well as more pictures of Alphonsine in Rwanda!

As the letters start rolling in again, it's easier to be more motivated to write to the kids.  I have to admit, I was really feeling less than motivated about writing monthly to all of my sponsor kids.  I wondered if I had too many, and was starting to DREAD letter writing.  Ugh.
I made the decision to send off online letters to my Compassion and World Vision kids for the month of April (I still sent off hard copies to my plant a book kids), and I started formatting some "form" letters of my own.
May's letters will be about where I live, and June's letters will be about what a typical day is like in my house.  I also printed off a list of questions to ask my sponsored children.
All of that has me much more motivated to write to my kids again!

I also put in an inquiry about Sabnam, my girl from East India.  I've been sponsoring her since August 2013, and have not received 1 letter that she had any input in to during my sponsorship of her.  The 1st letter was the pre-written letter, and the 2nd was a list of what she purchased with the birthday gift money I sent her--no info about how she was doing, no drawing, nothing.  And this was after I put in the inquiry about that gift.  After some initial resistance, Compassion agreed to do an inquiry for me, because I am kind of wondering if she is even still attending the project.
I am still thinking about just dropping her without even waiting to see what the results of the inquiry are.  I mean, unless they tell me she is longer at the project, do I want to spend another 6-8 months getting 1 letter from her that gives no information?  Of course, letters from Nayan in East India have been picking up, and that also makes me wonder if letters from Sabnam will start picking up, as well.

Speaking of Nayan, his photo updated recently!

He still looks worried, but so much older!  And more well nourished :-)

Another Compassion inquiry

Today, I sent off another Compassion inquiry for a gift I sent to my Vincent in Togo in September.  It was a birthday gift, sent on 9/28/13, and I have heard nothing back from him.
This means that every single gift that I've sent so far to my Compassion kids has needed an inquiry to get an acknowledgement from the kids (or, in one case, from the project worker, ugh).  I even waited beyond 6 months this time (5 days short of 7 months), as other sponsors have said that they sent the inquiry at 6 months, and then 2 weeks later, the original thank you note arrived, and then 2 months later, ANOTHER thank you note resulting from the inquiry arrived.

It's disappointing.  The entire correspondence part of my Compassion sponsorships is disappointing.
In addition to the inquiry about Vincent's birthday gift, I realized while checking my records, that I've received 1 letter from Vincent in 7 months of sponsorship.  I know sponsors say that the first 6 months of a sponsorship are the most difficult, as letter writing hasn't developed into a pattern, but because it hasn't been the case with World Vision, the lack of letters from my Compassion kids has left a sour taste in my mouth.