Saturday, January 3, 2009

January - New Beginnings

With a title like New Beginnings, you might be expecting some seriously weighty thoughts for the new year. If so, you may stop reading now. If you expect only a modicum of newness -- stay with me.

One of the things Father and I are involved in is the county-wide foster parent support group. I carry the title of President, and he does the heavy lifting, if you know what I mean: sometimes it's figuratively, and sometimes literally. Today, we (in a very loose sense of the word WE) did some rearranging in the storage facility where we keep our "stuff" for future use. Just after Christmas, we were blessed with a large car-load of new toys that another agency couldn't use, and also with a load of other new toys and clothing from various sources. Our storage was in serious need of rearranging, because what good is it if you can't find what you need when you need it?

Father had salvaged some racks from his work a while back, and we had some boxes of donated clothing stored on them. He decided to use some formica covered boards (also salvaged from work), and placed them between the two racks to increase the storage, and keep things from being piled on the floor. Now we have a huge U shaped shelf, with one side of the U longer than the other.


It's hard to see in the picture above - but the top shelf is actually a 4'x 8' sheet of plywood supported by 2 x 4s, and the lower shelves are 26" deep.

On the right end, we have the school supplies and back-packs that we've begun to gather for our annual school supply picnic. In August, foster families come to eat and play together, and all the kids leave with new backpacks and school supplies for the upcoming school year.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of Father as he sat up high, contemplating what he was going to do next. I told him he reminded me of modeling for a photographer, and since I had a camera in hand . . . .

Next to the school supplies, we were able to pile bags and bags and boxes of the new toys on the top shelf (a lot of surface area - and full to the ceiling) and have lots of room for other things, including several boxes of clothing, and with all the new things put away -- we still have shelf space to spare!

To the uninformed reader/viewer -- this may look like mass disorganization, but I promise you - it's sorted, labeled, and ready for summer, and when it comes time to get ready for Santa next year (which for our group actually means October), we will be ready! The stored toys will be added to other toys and clothing donated through a Foster Care Giving project, and distributed in early December to foster families in the area. For many families - this is a great blessing; and for the children, a brighter Christmas for many -- some who weren't able to celebrate Christmas in their birth homes, because of the multitude of problems they had.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Father for your help with this, and for all you do to help us support the kiddos and their families.
(Don't you think that he's cute in that modeling picture?!)

1 comment:

Ours said...

I LOVE IT! Wow, you two have been busy little elves, or whatever you want to call yourselves! I am impressed! thanks to both of you for everything that you do!