An Early Christmas Wishlist

Hello dear family & friends!

One of the truly beautiful things about living in India is that November is only a few days away, and yet I still have not seen any Christmas-related items on the shelves at our local grocery store.  Amazing! :) Because of that, I would probably forget it’s nearing those two months of relentless holiday spirit back home, except that many of the volunteers will be heading home for the holidays—be it temporarily or permanently.  

I realize that thousands of individuals and organizations raise funds around holiday-time:  police and firemen, schools, Salvation Army, etc. and you can now add me to the list.  I have two main propositions, both of which I believe to be good causes, both of which involve my children.

The more fun, less “necessary” proposition is this:  a toy drive.  My girls range from as young as 3 years old to 13.  There are eight of them living in a 3 room apartment, sharing maybe ten toys total.  I know we have three dolls—one of which I believe is headless.  We have two tiny stuffed animals, and I’m just going to assume there are a few other toys somewhere because saying they only have 5 toys sounds tragic.  I recently purchased 50 or so books on a trip to the city, and I have several DVDs, but I would really like to give them an abundance of toys this Christmas.

So, would you help?  Would you have your six year old pick out a few of her toys that she almost never plays with?  Would you like to hit up a few garage sales or Goodwill’s or Dollar General’s?   My girls will love anything.  Simple puzzles and games, crafts, coloring books, dolls, easy or educational computer games, pretend kitchen items, pretty hair items, you name it.   Two of my girls are blind, and anything with sounds/audio input/vibration is an extra bonus!  But, really, we appreciate anything. 

To give you some ideas, I created a Wal-Mart Baby Registry.  (Laugh all you want, but the “wish list” registry wasn’t accessible when I created it).  You should be able to find it under “Marla Davison,” “due date: December 25^th,” “India, MO.”  Side note:  If you look at the registry, you will also see a few items like deodorant, Lucky Charms, Reese’s cups, pancake mix, taco seasoning—don’t judge, but these are the weird things I miss from home, and it’s “my” Christmas list. :)

 

My other Christmas wish is for one of my girls, Paula.  Paula has cerebral palsy, and she is unable to walk.  She crawls everywhere she goes, which, despite her impeccable biceps, triceps, and deltoids, is still hard on her hands and knees.  She has been measured and fitted for a wheelchair, along with 28 other children here at SCH.  Her chair will cost somewhere around $1,000.  Let’s get that covered, okay? My actual goal is to get at least 3 chairs paid for, but we can start with one and then work our way up!

If you would like to donate (and I hope you do!) you can give the toys, cash, and checks to my mom.  I have people coming to India in early December and January, so the sooner you are able to get items in, the more likely they’ll get here for Christmas.  (For those of you who don’t know my mother, you can shoot me an email at amerikiladki@gmail.com).  

You can also transfer funds into my account via Paypal (amerikiladki@gmail.com) if you have a specific way you’d like me to spend the money here, or you can go the tax-beneficial way and donate at http://www.schindia.com/get-involved/donate/ .  

Thank you so much for reading this far, as well as considering to help out my kids.  

Much love from all nine of us,
Marla, Paula, Stephanie, Jeanette, Naomi, Rebekah, Jackie, Heidi, & Angel