Friday, June 20, 2014

Bursting at the seams!

With a couple kids dropped or graduated from sponsorship programs, and more than a couple kids I've picked up over the last 3 months, it was time to expand my sponsorship binder into 2.
Previously, I had one 3-ring binder for all of my sponsor kids from all organizations, with their pictures, info, and all letters I've received.
However, it just isn't going to work long term, or even now, with the number of children I have to write to.
Since I now have the most children through World Vision, and I get a ton of letters from WV kids, I've given World Vision its own binder.


You'll notice my 2 "new" blurred out faces.  I've sponsored 2 additional children through World Vision in the past month.  A 7 year old boy from Myanmar, and a 4 year old girl from Ethiopia.  Unfortunately, I am unable to show their faces online due to their country's privacy restrictions.

Anyway, I felt like a school kid again as I made that cover sheet for my binder.  I cut out their pictures with scissors, glued them to the card stock, and slid the sheet into my binder.  It was kind of fun, and I love organizing.
For now, the rest of my sponsorships will have to go into my other binder.  This means 8 Compassion kids, 2 Plant-a-book kids, and 1 Children International child will share a binder. We'll see if that ever has to change.  

Thursday, June 5, 2014

What is the point?

I'm starting to wonder what the point is of Compassion's correspondence program.  I've had 2 correspondence kids since mid-September 2013, and I've received exactly 1 letter from each of them, despite writing every 3-5 weeks to them.  I've had my other 2 correspondence kids since the beginning of January, and I've only heard from one of them.  In 3 days, I will be putting in another inquiry on Juan, my Colombian correspondence child who I haven't heard from at all in 6 months.
I'm also at the point where I want to sponsor another child with another organization, but I feel as though I already have too many kids to write to.  There is a huge part of me that wants to drop all 4 of my correspondence kids through Compassion.  Let someone who has more time write to them, and that frees up some of my letter writing time to sponsor another child.
But, I also think, why not just decrease the number of letters I write to my correspondence kids?  Do I really need to write to them monthly when it appears as though I'll be hearing from them 1 or 2 times a year?  Could I drop it to every other month, or the program's minimum requirement, which is 3 letters a year?
I do feel badly, because I willingly signed up for the correspondence program, having very fond memories of it from back in 2010.  Some of my correspondence kids were my best writers.  Now, it seems, as with all Compassion kids, letters are few and far between, but I still feel obligated to write regularly to them, and thus cannot take on another sponsorship at this time.