A group from our church was going to Guatemala in the beginning of March. When I originally heard about the trip I wanted to go, but since I was pregnant and due at the beginning of February that wasn't going to happen.
We were thrown a baby shower for Nathaniel. People were very generous and gave us all kinds of stuff. We didn't really need anything since we had gotten gender neutral stuff for Abby so we ended up with lots of clothes and a few odds and ends of little things that we felt we should have new for the new baby. After Nathaniel died we didn't need any of that stuff.
One day at church the thought came to me that we could send stuff with the Guatemala team. They were going to be working with an orphanage there. I figured they could use baby stuff. I talked to the trip coordinator and she said that they would be able to use it and to bring it to church in the next few weeks.
I decided to go through the stuff we had for Nathaniel and figure out what we wanted to keep and what we should return. I was going to use the credit that we would get to buy seasonally appropriate clothes for the kids in Guatemala. I knew it was going to be hard to go through the stuff, but I wasn't attached to much of it. He had only worn two outfits at the hospital. Everything else wasn't really his. A lot was hand me downs from Abby or had been bought used and I didn't associate it with him. After going through everything I had a big pile to be returned and a large bag of clothes to donate to the trip.
One day Dave and I went out with Abby and returned everything in the return pile. Surprisingly, I didn't even cry. I thought it was going to be really hard, but it wasn't. It was actually kind of fun once the returning was done and I started shopping. The store happened to be having a clearance sale and there were racks and racks of clothes for $3 or less. We ended up getting 37 things, most which were outfits or multi-packs and 8 light blankets. Because of Nathaniel lots of kids were going to get new clothes.
I've heard a little from a few people that went on the trip about what happened to the clothes. We were told that they went to kids that live in a slum that probably only have a few things that are theirs. Those things likely came from the garbage dump where their parents work. They have probably never gotten anything brand new just for them in their life.
The team is speaking at church this next Sunday about the trip. I am excited to hear about it and how our son impacted the lives of kids in another part of the world.
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