Book Blessings

When I first started teaching the preschool at MTC- I was immediately impressed with the room's resources. Art, Math, language, fine motor- we had excellent toys and tools for all of them. But being the avid bookworm that I am (and attempt to brainwash all my kiddos into being) it didn't take me long to realize there weren't very many books. Just one smallish shelf.  Some very obvious classics were missing, for instance-  The Cat in the Hat. Don't worry- that got added in a hurry. But there were others that were harder to track down. Whenever I went to a thrift store I would scour their childrens book section. Over time I realized what we needed were not more books in general, but specific books about specific things. There were a few topics -like moving and new babies and dealing with loss and change, that were conspicuously absent. These kids will deal with those things on a regular basis, and the books can provide a good talking point for how they are dealing, and can deal with those things. And of course, we needed a few books about dragons and dinosaurs to suck some of the boys more into reading :) So I made  a mental (and eventually physical) list of books I hoped would help meet some of those particular needs. But two years of thrift store hunting produced less than a third of the the list.

This spring, God started nudging me to do something I am far too loathe to do. Ask for help. So after hemming and hawing as long as possible (why do I do that?), I attached the list to a prayer letter, saying if anybody had any of the books they would like to donate, they would be very gratefully accepted. I was nervous. I hoped SO much I wouldn't sound incredibly greedy (it was sort of a long list- over thirty books). And quite honestly, I didn't really expect much of a response. Maybe- MAYBE  3-5 books total from it. But hey- 3-5 of those books would still be a help.

Well as you may have guessed. from the huge stack in the picture- God provided WAY more than 5. Some sweet, sweet ladies in several different places got totally excited about the project and between them bought nearly the ENTIRE LIST.  And two extra boxes of books that I would never have thought to ask for but the kids are loving. In the pic above you can see them holding up a few of their  new favorites.. Thank you so much for the help! It was a huge blessing to me to see new people excited about helping the families here!

And the kids are LOVE reading the new books. Very nearly as much as me :)