Backpacks for Foster Kids

Well it's that time of year again, the time of year for school supplies. The time of year when store shelves are lined with products gleaming of all the primary colors, the time of year when it seems that over half the people I know are preparing their classroom for another year of teaching and the other half are helping their own kiddos check pencils, crayons, and notebooks off their teacher specific supply lists.

But this year I've realized something else...it's also the time of year when many parents are stressing, when many parents are wondering if they can afford everything on that list, and many precious children are nervous not about whether they'll have the cool school supplies that the popular kids have brought to class but if they'll even have new crayons or glue sticks or markers.

And this year, our church is doing something amazing. We are sponsoring the same group of children we sponsored at Christmastime, but instead of fun toys and games and dolls...we're filling backpacks to the brim with every. single. thing. on their class-specific list. Through a lot of coordination with Missouri Baptist Children's Home we are hoping to provide complete backpacks to over 100 foster kids.

So earlier this week, Nick & I headed to Walmart and filled our cart. We ended up "adopting" four children, 2 elementary children and also 2 high schoolers (because you know, high school kids need school supplies too!) We filled our cart with... ....binders, and calculators, and backpacks...

...post-it notes and crayons and pens and composition books...

...with markers and #2 pencils and scissors and Expo markers and glue...
...loose leaf paper and colored pencils and highlighters and mechanical pencils...

...with notebooks and paper towels, and Clorox wipes and trapper keepers.

We honestly spent a little more than we had originally budgeted, but we've got some spare from other places and once we got started it just felt so good to mark every. single. thing. off those kids lists!

And here they are...the full backpacks...so heavy that I'm sure the little kiddos won't even be able to carry them on their own...

One for Nathan, a fourth grader...

And one for Kylie, a second grader...

And one for Ramond, a sophomore in high school...

And finally, one for Reme, another sophomore in high school....

We're delivering these backpacks to our church on Sunday where they will then be collected and distributed to the foster parents. We'll never see these kids, or their families, but I know that Nick & I poured our love into these backpacks and I hope that in some small way they'll feel God's arms wrap around them as they head off to their first day of school.