The Diaper Drive (and the Amazing women that made it happen!)

My facebook friends are probably aware I ran a little diaper drive a little while back. In a previous post, I wrote about my time in Honduras, mostly spent at an orphanage called Emanuel Children's Home. When I was there, the Home's policy was not to accept infants and toddlers as the amount of staffing was just not appropriate for such young children (and to be completely honest, was not adequate for older children either!) and there were no extra funds to provide such staff.

 

There have been amazing changes recently, in great part due to a wonderful woman Vivian who donates her time to act as director of the Home, as well as to people here in the states, especially Bill and Rona who spend so much time raising funds, planning, coordinating and organizing trips and work projects, writing newsletters and doing sooooooo many awesome things to help the Home. I have, unfortunately, not made it back for several years now, and am pretty sure I will barely recognize the place with all its new buildings, programs and children! 

One of the biggest changes, and the one that inspired the Diaper Drive, was the construction of the Sala Cuna, the building that houses the infants! Thanks to the aforementioned hard workers and wonderful donations from both the US and Honduras, there is now space for 10 babies, but only enough funds for staffing for 4. This is such an amazing accomplishment and a blessing for these babies; though there are excellent children's homes in Honduras, there are also many with very poor conditions.  How wonderful to be able to give babies an amazing home before they suffer through more years of poverty!

The Home currently has 3 babies in the Sala Cuna; disposable diapers in Honduras are expensive and the Home is unable to purchase them for daily use.  As many mothers in Honduras do, they buy (by our standards) inexpensive flat fold diapers and pins for at home use, with NO covers.  I know that many of you cloth diaper-ers do this at home, but I honestly cannot imagine having to be continually changing diapers as soon as they wet to avoid wet bouncers, exersaucers, swings and carpet!

So I put out a call on my yahoo co-op for diaper fabrics, as well as a few other co-ops I'm a part of as well as on facebook for used cloth diapers to send to those beautiful babies! And to my great surprise, I very quickly got responses!  And even greater suprise: I got boxes in the mail! I was honestly flabbergasted that these women would be willing to send hundreds of dollars worth of cloth diapers to a person they'd NEVER EVEN MET! Thank God for their willingness to trust a stranger because those diapers were AMAZING! And while the vast majority were used in excellent condition, some were (or at least appeared to me!) to be new!  And one woman sent something that hadn't even crossed my mind (though I use them myself and love them), a HUGE stack of fabulous cloth wipes! Yummy luxurious sherpa, cotton velour and flannel ones that made me want to run out and buy new fabric for my own set! I wish I'd taken some photos before I shipped them away so you could appreciate this wonderful gift, but alas, I didn't. 

Rona, however, has sent me a few photos of these beauties in use on the beautiful camara-shy babes! 



Lauren (2 year volunteer) and one of the baby girls.



The 2 little girls with Lizzeth Thomas (whose husband is one of the founders of the Home) and Lauren (2 year volunteer).

So much much much thanks to you, lovely ladies, for your wonderful generosity!

And once again, to see more pictures of the beautiful kids at Hogar Emanuel and of the home itself, to support the Home financially (you can make a one time donation, or choose to support a child or staff member monthly), or to find out more information about joining a work group or recieving the monthly newsletter, click here go to the Hogar Emanuel website.

Several of the women have etsy shoppes where you can check out their beautiful handmade items! Click on the shoppe names to check them out! (they did not know when donating that they'd be getting a smidgen of free advertising!) If you make a purchase (or even if you don't) let them know how you heard about them and how much you appreciate their wonderful gift!

Stefanie's shop is called Itty Bitty Bums and she sells wonderful cloth all-in-two diapers and diaper covers, in adorable prints!

Sharon's shop Junktique offers gorgeous handmade Cutie-Patootie diapers as well as patterns and diaper making supplies. (I've seen her seconds and they are fabulous so I can only imagine...)

Gretchen's website is Small Wonders Wipes and she sells the fabulous reusable cloth wipes she donated to the Home along with her diapers (FOUR boxes full!), as well as flannel recieving blankets, and bibs!

Karen does not have a home biz, but was gracious enough to send EIGHTEEN!!! washed but UNUSED Fuzzibuns! I seriously swooned when I opened the box! (Ok, that happened with everyone's donations, but...)

Her daughter does have her own shop called Panhandle Girl for handmade soaps, cremes and lip balm!  You can get 3oz soaps in ten yummy scents like  Cowgirl Love Patchouli and Hard Candy Peppermint, or purchase it in a slab (12 bars worth!) She also has 2 scents of body creme, lip balm, and 2 options for easy gift giving like the Vinyl Fever Gift Basket below.





So thanks again ladies and the rest of you, feel free to go check out their shops!

A bit of biography

Those of you who know me might know I spent about 4 ½ years in San Pedro Sula, Honduras at the Emanuel Children’s Home. (Honduras is a small country in central America, bordered by El Salvador and Guatemala.) I went for 2 months the summer of 1998 (after my freshman year of college) with 2 dear friends and loved it. My aunt and uncle were involved with the children’s home I went to and made connections for us to be able to go. Four years later (or so) I found out they were going for a three month stay to raise the roof (literally!!) on the orphanage. Low ceilings and no a.c. made that a HOT place for all those precious kids and so a massive remodeling project was planned. I decided to leave my job and go help out for 2 months (“and no more!”) During that time, I had several different jobs… translator, chauffer, grocery shopper,tour guide, big sister… I’m sure those that were along on those trips could add more, but my mind is blanking there.

Here's the after picture!  The entire roof is raised, but especially the courtyard in the center.

The view from the courtyard.  See that crazy guy way up there on the peak? Yep, that's my dad!

I did of course decide to return and continued to coordinate work groups, translate, and help with all their errands and other needs while they were there, as well as helping out with the children as I could, helping to set up a rewards system for behavior, planning and executing monthly “rewards trips”, celebrating birthdays, loving on those awesome kids, chauffering them to church, church activities, and music lessons, working on setting up and translating materials for a transition program for older youth transitioning out of the Home (unfortunately this was never implemented).

I loved so many things about being there; the children were amazing, I loved  the staff, the people at our church were great; I love the country; there are beautiful places to vacation (hmmm, topic for a later post?!), life is very laid-back.



Little peek at one of the most amazing places in Honduras...



Which brings me to the things that were difficult: I did not have a rough time assimilating, though one thing that was difficult was Honduran’s concept of time! I, of course, would be ready at the stated time; only to wait. And wait. And wait. Til everyone got there much later. Public transportation is slightly frightening (those drivers can squeeze through the tiniest opening!) and also the main method of transportation! Driving in Honduras will also get your heart rate going sometimes. And of course, the HEAT! You take a shower, get out and sweat. You leave the breeze of your fan and sweat. Heck, you sit in the breeze of your fan and sweat! I remember coming home to visit during what everyone else said was an awefully hot and humid summer. I thought it was great! When I can sit in the shade and not sweat, it’s not hot! And bill-paying! When I moved into my own place I realized what a crazy mess that is! It takes a ridiculous amount of time to pay bills at each individual office, and the bank. No online bill pay or checks in the mail there!

I did get used to all these things though; and it would not take much to convince me to move back for a time. My Honduran husband, interestingly enough, would have a much harder time moving “home”! He’s grown accustomed to large, nicely paved streets and drivers who actually obey most traffic laws, courteous no-questions-asked (or at least not many) customer service, etc.

I met my husband in Honduras as he worked with the worship team at church, teaching the younger youth to play instruments and forming the current worship team at the church today. He also spent time hanging out with the kids at the orphanage; I found out later, much of this was to meet and spend time with me! We married in Honduras at the children's Home, with more of my family present than I would have every expected, for which I am ever grateful! I’m so blessed to have family members who would travel to the poorest country in central America to share in our day.

My husband's neice and our lovely ladies and gents

My Daddy! and my Maid of Honor, my dear sister!

Our wedding was right around twilight, and our reception area was little with candles on the tables and Christmas lights!

I eventually did leave the Home, and taught elementary school for a time, and later taught English classes. But those children will forever have a special place in my heart. If you’d like to find out more about the home, receiving the monthly newsletter, becoming part of a work group on a trip, financially supporting a child or a staff member each month, or supporting the Home financially or prayerfully, please see their website. They continue to make amazing changes with the support of people like you!

The next post will share the reason for this long rambling biography as I share about my Diaper Drive and the wonderful women who have donated cloth diapers for the Home’s precious new babies!