BAG IT PROJECT FOR LANG SON

When we received the referral pictures of our little girl she was wearing pants that had a few holes in them. I decided we would bring over a bunch of new clothes for all of the babies when we went to pick her up. I found a lot of pants for infants on a great sale, have ordered long sleeved shirts (harder to find since the orphanage doesn't use onsies), hats and socks. We have 60 complete outfits. Then I wrote something about collecting things for the babies on a WC yahoo group I am on and the founder of it said that it would be great if we all did something for the chidren that live there permanently. (Great idea, Catherine!) I don't think I had even known there were children living there who couldn't be adopted for one reason or another. I asked my caseworker and she gave me the names and ages of the children. There are 47 children who live there ages 7-18 years old. I asked the women in the local MOM'S Club that I am part of to sponsor this project. I had volunteers to fill a 2.5 gallon bag for each of the children within a week. I included a list of names and ages and a list of suggestions for things to put in their bags based on their sex and age. I also asked for infant blankets.
Originally I had asked for the bags to be delivered by the first week of September, but after being told I would be traveling by then I moved the due date for them to this coming Monday. I started receiving the filled bags a couple of days ago. It is so fun to get them! Like having a secret santa. It seems like whenever we open our door one or two filled bags will be there!
They are filled with things like toothpaste/toothbrushes, hats, t-shirts, underwear, hair accessories, brushes, deodorant, balls, towels, socks, little games, make up, nail polish, blank notebooks, fun pens, stickers, and candy. Each one has the name of the child it is for on the front of the bag. We have just over half of them and they are quickly filling up my office floor. I also asked for infant blankets because in my referral pictures my baby is always laying on old towels and I wanted the babies to have soft blankets. I have a few stacks of baby blankets next to the bags. One of the moms made 22 toggle blankets for the babies!
Yes, it will be hard to pack these all up and kind of pricey to get them to Vietnam, but this is such a great thing. The children are really going to love getting these bags! And it has been a great way to occupy myself while waiting to travel!