The Urge to Write

Children International encourages its Sponsors to write to their children, to share life experiences and build a connection from across the globe. However, they also suggest a few limitations: they recommend that letters be no more than one page in length, and they recommend limiting correspondance to once a month. These recommendations help keep their processing and translation costs down, and also prevent the children from being overwhelmed with a bombardment of communication.

For the most part, I am content to operate within these limitations. I understand why they are in place, and in general they still allow me adequate communication with my girls.

Sometimes, though, I just have an itch to write. Various things can trigger it: reading an article about a program that I think one of my girls would enjoy, receiving a letter from one of my girls, a momentous change in my own life ... all of these make me yearn to pick up a pen, even if it's only been a week since I last wrote. I have a horrendous time trying to suppress these urges, and despite my best intentions, in the end I usually cave in and write again.

I'm thinking of starting letter books for each of my girls--fancy notebooks in which I write these sorts of letters, letting them gather in one place for an extended period of time and then forwarding them on as a memento. I'm thinking of doing this in addition to and separate from my monthly mailed letters. This would allow me to write as often as the urge strikes, and would make a unique gift to show my girls how often I think of them. I can paste in photos, too, and family and friends could write short greetings and encouragement as well.

Shopping for and decorating the notebooks will be fun! I'm just wondering now when would be best to start/send the books. Christmas? Each girl's birthday? They would make a special gift for either occasion, I think.