Fun in daughter Cindy's Washing Machine

Want to share with you a blog post that daughter Cindy posted today...I loved it...the content, the message, the heart...we have so much to be proud of in this young woman we call our daughter.

Her blog was titled

"There's a whole lot of fun going on in my washing machine!"

Ok from just the headline, you may wonder what the heck I am talking about...Well I have been collecting small beanie babies to send over on the coming TOP Vietnam Veterans trip to Vietnam & it's time for them to get shipped to the gal that will coordinate their further adventure.

You see their adventure started when they were originally made at the toy factory. They then got to be prizes in Happy Meals at McDonalds - making many smiling faces for children as they got their special meal. They got played with a bit & then probably stowed away in a toybox. Then the toy box probably got cleaned out and they found their way in a box to Goodwill. Goodwill gets so many little toys and such that they can't put all the stuff out at their regular stores & they end up putting out bins and bins of stuff at the Outlet Goodwill (or treasure chest as my kids like to refer to it as). That's where we found them.

My children & I look for them any time we are at the Goodwill outlet, knowing they are just waiting for us to find them, purchase them in bulk 59-99 cents a pound depending on how much more "treasure" we find that day.

Then they get to come home with us, be sorted and put into a nice warm tote to wait for more friends to be added in with them & then ultimately the adventure that started up again today. Today is WASH DAY... Any of them that don't have unwashable parts got to go into the wet spinning ride. They were all so excited to go in their together. Round and round they go.

After this they will get to go into the warm wind tunnel for more fun spinning. Then a bigger adventure will begin when they get to go into a box and with the UPS man to head to Arizona.

They will have a note with them about the adventure they have already had and instructions on how to be sure they make it to their next destination.

"We have had so much fun already, we want to make sure you know that we don't mind being crammed into shoes, hats, or any nook or cranny you may have in your suitcase. The ultimate goal is soon coming - the smiling excited face and hands of a new owner in a far away place..."

In just about a month from now they will head into suitcases, to airports, through customs, and on airplanes going to Vietnam. There they will be given to new owners that don't have as many toys or luxuries as my kids take for granted here in the US. They will be loved, enjoyed and played with... They will be home...

I love collecting these and sending them on. We were lucky enough to see pictures of the kids playing with them last year & it is just so precious to see such a small thing make a little one so happy.

I plan to keep collecting them as long as the groups that go over will find places to cram them into their suitcases & enjoy the fun of passing them out. I also hope that someday I can have the privledge of being one of the ones passing them out... And not only be able to share these small toys, but be able to understand and learn more about an important part of our history & my father's life. There is so much more to learn, share & discover.

It has been Gary's dream to take Cindy on a trip to Vietnam and now, with her expression of a desire to go, it seems we are one step closer to the realization of a number of dreams.

God is good to us! and I feel so blessed !

Linda