2025 Visit Gifts

Each summer, I make a post sharing what I’m sending to my Love Lempira sponsored children in their backpacks, to give ideas to other sponsors.  I plan to do that again this year; but I also have the blessing of being able to visit my sponsored children in person in June.  I used some of my favorite gift ideas of the year on the items I’ll be bringing to them; so I wanted to make a separate post sharing these things.  Even if you aren’t visiting, most of these items will work in your backpack gifts.

Before we get to the gifts, I wanted to show a couple of items I’m bringing to do as activities with the girls.  These could easily be used as gifts in your backpacks too.  For each of the 3 areas I’ll be visiting, I’m bringing a bracelet-making kit and a beach ball to play with the girls during our free time.  For sponsors who are visiting, I highly recommend writing a list of questions you want to ask the families during visits and compiling an album (whether printed or just on your phone) of photos of your life that you can share with the children and narrate during free time on visits.  This will help to keep conversation flowing and get to know each other better. 

Since I enjoy sharing some of my favorite things with my girls, all of my teens will be getting a pretty cosmetic bag with their initial on the front, filled with some of my favorite self care items.  So I don’t have to list the contents of the cosmetic bags multiple times, they each include: nail polish, lip balm, scented spray hand sanitizer, eye gels, a set of colorful hair clips, a spa headband, a loofa, and fuzzy socks.  I included a note explaining how to use each item and why I like them.  The warm socks were something another sponsor mentioned children being happy about receiving during her most recent visit.

Kati (11) loves animals and hair accessories.  Her favorite color is purple.  She will receive a Squishmallow stuffed animal, a plush animal keychain, an outfit including a shirt and pants, a mini backpack, and 3 pretty hair accessories.

Emely (13) is my only girl who hadn’t received a bible from me yet.  She has many favorite colors including green and white.  She will receive the filled cosmetic bag in addition to a pretty bible.

Amy (14) is about to have her quinceañera (15th birthday).  Her favorite color is purple.  Her gift is separated into 2 photos, because after photographing and packing her original gifts, I received a letter in which she shared about how painting and coloring have been therapeutic for her during a difficult time.  She will receive the filled cosmetic bag, a pretty shirt, a tiara, numerical “15” balloons, a paint set including extra brushes, colored pencils with sharpener, and a bible verse coloring book.

Adiany (15) has many favorite colors including blue.  In addition to her cosmetic bag, she will receive a surprise pack that contains a keychain of this Sanrio character who we both love.

Ashley Paola (16) is studying tourism in school.  She travels to different hotels with her school to learn about tourism, and also travels several times per month to visit her grandmother in another city.  Her favorite color is purple.  She will receive the filled cosmetic bag, a matching foldable duffle bag, and a matching luggage tag with her initial on it.

Hiliany (17) will receive just the filled cosmetic bag, but with an extra item inside.  Hiliany is learning to do acyrlic nails as a vocational skill, so I included some stickers to make nail designs.  Her favorite colors are black and red.

  

Books for Sponsored Children

I recently did a thorough look back at all of the books I’ve ever given to the 30 children I’ve sponsored over the past 13 years.  I mainly did this for my own records, for the purpose of knowing which books to send in the future.  But I thought it would also be fun to share a list of books in Spanish for any sponsors who may want ideas.  For as many of the books as I was able to find, I included a link that will take you directly to the book if you click on the title.  I will edit this post and add links in the future, as I continue to send books to my sponsored children.

Bibles:

RVR 1960 (turquoise)

RVR 1960 (pink)

RVR 1960 (black)

RVR 1960 (brown)

Christian Books:

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Queen Esther Helps God’s People

God’s Promises for Little Girls

God’s Promises for Little Boys

What Happens When I Talk to God?

The Prayer Map for Little Girls (guided journal)

The Prayer Map for Teen Girls (guided journal)

The Prayer Map for Women (guided journal)

Live Your Faith (for teen girls)

A Girl’s Guide to Discovering Her Bible (for teens)

A Boy’s Guide to Discovering His Bible (for teens)

A Girl’s Guide to Good Decisions

A Girl After God’s Own Heart

A Teen Boy After God’s Own Heart

You Have a Friend in Jesus (for boys)

His Princess (for teen girls & women)

His Little Princess (for little girls)

Jesus Calling (for kids)

The Princess & the Kiss

The Squire & the Scroll

For Such a Time as This storybook for girls

My Pretty Pink Purse of Prayer 

Christian Heroes (Amy Carmichael)

Christian Heroes (Corrie Ten Boom)

Christian Heroes (Jim Elliot)

The Circle Maker (for teens and older)

Undaunted (ages 15+)

Redeeming Love (Christian fiction, ages 18+)

40 Days of Christmas (devotional)

The Lady in Waiting (ages 15+)

Fiction Books:

Charlotte’s Web

Anne of Green Gables

The Chronicles of Narnia

Kira-Kira (for teens)

Miss Rumphius

American Girl (Luciana)

American Girl (Luciana #2)

American Girl (Josefina)

American Girl (Maryellen)

American Girl (Maryellen #2)

American Girl (Grace)

The Nutcracker

Peter Pan & Wendy

Eloise at the Plaza

Eloise at Christmastime

Frozen

Educational Books:

Dictionary

The Secret Life of Oceans

Dolphins by National Geographic

The Big Book of Flowers

Talk & Work it Out

ABC Picture Book

Poetry Books: 

Love, Women, & Life (18+, requested by my teen)

Mario Benedetti Compilation (18+, requested by my teen)

The Lord’s Prayer (Easter 2025)

For this year’s Easter letters, I wrote a commentary on The Lord’s Prayer, teaching my girls about how Jesus led us to pray.  If you’d like this printable document already in Spanish, click here.  In addition, I shared short message about the tradition of Easter egg decorating and how it symbolizes new life- including photos of the Easter egg museum in Ukraine and a coloring page for them to decorate their own Easter egg.  In the folders with their letters, they will also each receive a homemade card with their name on it.

Hello beautiful! I am sending you this letter in March 2025. We will soon be celebrating Easter! What are you doing for Easter? I will go to church, have dinner with my family, and probably decorate Easter eggs with my friends. In the United States and Europe, it is a tradition to paint chick eggs as a symbol of new life, like the new life we ​​have in Christ when we receive Him as our Savior. In my friend’s home country of Ukraine, they have a whole museum of the most beautiful painted eggs for Easter! 

This year, for Easter, I want to write to you about the Bible passage where Jesus teaches us how to pray. It is Matthew 6:9-13. The words in red are Jesus' words. The notes in black are my comments on it.

Our Father who is in heaven: When we pray, we must remember that we are children of God. Remembering that He is our Father, and a good Father, reminds us to approach Him openly, because He loves us and is on our side. Matthew 7:7-11 tells us that God is a good Father who knows how to give us good gifts.

Hallowed be Your name: When we pray, we must acknowledge that God is Holy, which means He is set apart from others. He is the most powerful.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven: When we pray, we must remember that God's ways are the only perfect ways, and pray that His perfect plans come true even if we don't understand what they are; Perfect as they are in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread: We should pray for God to give us all we need for that day and not worry about the future, because He will be with us in the future too and give us what we need for each day. Matthew 6:26 talks about how God gives wild birds everything they need for each day, even if they cannot save for the future; and how He cares for us even more than He cares for them.

And forgive us our debts: If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, your sins have been forgiven. When we pray, it is good to remember that since we have been forgiven, we can be children of God and go to Him freely in prayer.

As we also have forgiven our debtors: Forgiving other people, as Jesus forgave us, helps us approach God with a clear mind when we pray, so that we are not held back by our lack of forgiveness. 

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil: When we pray, we must remember that we are all human beings who can be tempted and make mistakes. Even followers of Jesus are not immune to this. It is important to pray for Him to keep us from these temptations.

For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen: It is important to praise and celebrate God in our prayers.

The Nutcracker Themed Letter

If you sponsor a child with Love Lempira, the deadline to send physical Christmas cards was in September; but sponsors can also send email letters in November, which should be delivered around the same time.

Since both sets of mail should arrive before Christmas, I did a Christmas theme for both.  Click here to see my Christmas cards, which had more of a biblical Christmas message.  For November emailed letters, I decided to focus more of the celebration aspect of Christmas by including the children in on one of the celebratory events I’ll be attending this year- The Nutcracker ballet.  I wrote:

Hello beautiful! How are you? I am sending you this letter in November 2024. I am very excited because next month in December is my birthday and Christmas. For my birthday, I am going with my mom, my friend Mila, and Mila’s mom to a theater to see The Nutcracker ballet! Have you heard of The Nutcracker? It is a live ballet show about a big Christmas celebration. 

The Nutcracker is a Christmas story about a little girl named Clara who receives a nutcracker soldier doll as a gift at a big party on Christmas Eve. The nutcracker comes to life and Clara has many adventures with him through different magical lands, like a land made of Christmas sweets! Of course this is just a fictional story, but the beautiful party and the decorations of the show bring joy to my heart and make me want to celebrate the real gift of Jesus that God gave us on Christmas.  

I am sending you a coloring page that shows a scene from The Nutcracker.

Our Eternal Home in Heaven (Christmas 2024)

If you sponsor a child through Love Lempira, the deadline to send Christmas cards to your sponsored children is September 5.  If you miss this deadline, you can also send an email letter by November 5, which should arrive around the same time.

This year, I made Christmas cards out of scrapbook paper, and filled them with Christmas confetti for a fun surprise when the cards are opened.  

Inside, I wrote a short message with the theme of our eternal home in Heaven.  I personally moved homes this year and often felt out of place, which inspired me to talk to the children in simple terms about the only home that has a stability and comfort guaranteed to last forever- Heaven.  I wrote:

“I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.  I pray this Christmas celebration reminds you of the greatest joy of Jesus being born to save us and give us eternal life.  This is a hope and stability we can never lose- an eternal home in Heaven where we will always belong.”

I put a little sticker of a decorated house in each card, as a reminder of our home in Heaven.  Another idea is to send coloring sheets or stickers of gingerbread houses to go with the “eternal home in Heaven” theme.  You could even add an extra explanation such as: “Where I live, it is a popular tradition to build and decorate gingerbread houses for Christmas. Gingerbread houses are made of spiced cookies that smell delicious. The shape of a house reminds us of our eternal home in Heaven, which Jesus was born to give us.”

In addition to the Christmas cards, I typed a letter sharing about my recent trip to New York City and sent some photos of the trip.  I shared about the crowds, the tall buildings, the foods from all over the world, and the Eloise painting at the Plaza Hotel.  And last, within the typed letters, I responded to a few questions from the kids’ most recent letters to me.

Love Lempira Backpacks 2024

As many of you know, I sponsor 6 beautiful girls through the child sponsorship organization Love Lempira.  Being a sponsor includes the opportunity to send a gift package to your sponsored child once per year, which will be added to the backpack of school supplies the program provides to them using your monthly sponsorship fees.  I love joining in with other sponsors to share photos and ideas of what we're sending to our kids each year.  

While the program will use your monthly sponsorship fees to provide the children with the basic school supplies, there were a few additional supplies I wanted to include in some my gifts, based on things some of my girls has mentioned needing in the past.  These items are scientific calculators, dictionaries, highlighters, white board markers, and correction tape.  While these items took up a lot of space in the bags, I chose to prioritize them; as providing educational items is the main goal of the backpack project.

The program will also provide some basic hygiene items for the children; but I added in dental floss, nail clippers, and bandages.

For my 6 official sponsored children, my goal was to send each girl at least a pretty shirt, a durable shirt for outdoor activity, a shirt in their school uniform color, a long sleeve shirt for warmth, a pair of jeans, earrings (or another accessory for those who don’t have pierced ears), and a fun activity.  The program will provide each child with school shoes and socks, so I didn’t send these.  I also highly recommend tennis shoes, which are useful both at home and for gym class at school.  I couldn’t make tennis shoes fit in all of my bags this year, but hope to find another way to get them to my girls in the near future.

I am also sending gifts for 2 of my kids’ siblings who claim me as their sponsor but aren’t officially in the program.  Their gifts will be a little smaller and will be mostly fun items.   

Click photos to enlarge

Cristel (10) is the sister of one of my other sponsored girls, Amy.  Cristel isn’t officially in the sponsorship program, but she has claimed me as her sponsor; so I send her things through her sister.  She will receive: 2 shirts, a headband, a set of earrings, a Squishmallow stuffed butterfly, and a bead kit. 

Katrin (almost 11) loves pretty accessories and playing outside with friends.  Her favorite color is currently pink.  She will receive: Jeans, 5 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve shirt, tennis shoes, 3 headbands, a hair bow, spiral hair ties, a set of earrings, Squishmallow stuffed butterfly, a soccer Barbie doll, an LOL Surprise doll, beads, fashion design coloring book, sidewalk chalk to play with friends, a bible, and a handheld fan.

Emely (12) loves the colors black and turquoise.  She likes to make bracelets.  She will receive: 4 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve sweatshirt, jeans, spiral hair ties, daisy hair clip, turquoise Squishmallow stuffed animal, turquoise diary, mini gel pens, beads, and a handheld fan.

Amy (14) likes the color blue and loves spending time with her little sister.  She will receive: Jeans, 3 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve sweatshirt, a purse, earring set, necklace, daisy hair clip, spiral hair ties, blue Squishmallow stuffed butterfly to go with her sister’s, a bead kit to use with her sister who is also receiving beads, and a handheld fan.

Adiany (15) likes the colors black and purple, especially galaxy designs in these colors.  She has written to me a lot about her best friend and how close they are.  Her favorite animal is a butterfly.  She will receive: 4 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve shirt, jeans, spiral hair ties, headband, galaxy print BFF necklaces to share with her best friend, galaxy print journal, mini gel pens, beads, purple butterfly Squishmallow keychain, and a handheld fan.

Saudy (almost 16) is no longer in the sponsorship program, but I still sponsor her cousin who is, so I’m able to send small gifts through her.  Saudy enjoys making jewelry.  She will receive: 2 short sleeve shirts, spiral hair ties, daisy hair clip, earrings, a purse, and a bead kit with instructions to make daisy bracelets.

Paola (16) specifically requested a poetry book.  She recently wrote about her desire to continue to learn more about God, and drew some beautiful artwork containing words about God.  She will receive: 3 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve shirt, jeans, spiral hair ties, daisy hair clip, pair of earrings, purse, poetry book by her favorite author, bible verse coloring book, colored pencils, pencil sharpener, beads, and a handheld fan.  

Hiliany (17) likes the colors black and red.  She is learning nail design.  I already gave her a large set for acrylic nails on our most recent visit, so I’m sending just a couple of related items this time.  She will receive: 4 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve shirt, jeans, an earring set, spiral hair ties, a mini backpack purse, a set of press on nails, red nail polish, a bead kit with instructions to make daisy bracelets, and a handheld fan.