For Aria & Kien

This all began with a blog entry from Karin Faulkner, my dear friend, who is adopting eight-month-old twins from Vietnam, . . . and for whom I have been pumping and freezing my excess milk. Poor Karin seems to be at her wits end these days, longing desperately for her two youngest children to come home. Lots of prayers are going out for her. The news will come any day now, but in the meantime, . . . well, you can read Karin's post for yourself:

Money for Heaters
Our adoption agency does a lot of humanitarian work in Vietnam through a separate foundation. Also in order to do adoptions in Vietnam, agencies are required to support the orphanages from which they adopt children. Our agency is the only US agency that adopts from our babies' orphanage. There are also older children who live there, as well as elderly people. Apparently they have been experiencing record cold temperatures there this year, and there is no heat! I've been praying that our babies are staying warm enough. So now the orphanage director has requested money from the foundation to buy heaters ASAP. They need 10 heaters at $815 each. So far, our little group of 16 families adopting from this orphanage has raised over $5000 since last night! That's 6 out of the 10 heaters. If anyone has any interest in contributing to this project, it would be greatly appreciated! I could just give you the email address of our agency contact.

The rest of this story would best be summed up by the email exchange that followed (Jenny is Karin's contact with her adoption agency):

Hi Jenny, Noelle again. Just a heads up. My little daughter, Leia, was saving her extra Valentine money to give to the poor (and waiting to find a suitable poor person), but then she heard about Kevin's babies (Aria and Kien) living with no heat, she said, "Yes, YES!!! Because I don't want the babies to freeze!" So she's sending exactly 41 cents (my $50 will come in a separate envelope). I didn't want to up her amount so as not to make her offer seem insignificant. So, perhaps she'll remind you of the widow in the Bible. ; )
Love,
Noelle

Dear Noelle,
No fair!
You have to provide tissues for this kind of email!!!!!
That is VERY sweet!
How old is she?
Hugs,
Jenny
Leia was keeping the money in her booster seat cupholder.
She's laughing here because I told her to "hold the coins up to her face" so I could fit it in the picture, but she put it so close that it looked like she just spit them out. : )
Here she is taping her 41 cents to a special card to send to the adoption agency.

And just as a follow up (also from Karin's blog):
Heat is Coming!
It's amazing what one small group can do!! Enough money has been raised to purchase the 10 heaters for the orphanage!!! Apparently they are like heat pump units, which will also provide a/c in the hot summer!! And I learned a little more about why 10 are needed. Apparently there are multiple buildings, and also the walls are concrete and not set up for central air. The units are being ordered this weekend... that's all I know! :)
I've just got to wonder if Leia's contribution sent them over the top. ; )