Package

We got the opportunity to send down a package to Gus today. Insiders call these packages "Ziplocs of Love." Now you know. They're very strict on how the package thing works. Not wanting the Bethany Guatemala reps to be overburdened with gifts to pass on to children's foster homes, the rules are:

• Packages must fit inside a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.
• Packages may not be mailed to Guatemala. They have to be couriered down in the luggage of another set of adoptive parents traveling to visit or bring home their own kid.

We've been on a package-sending list for a month or so, and this week we finally got notified that a nice couple in Iowa City will be willing to bring our package down with them later this month. We've had a bunch of stuff ready to go for a while, so today we bundled it all up (had to tape the bag shut) and mailed it off to Iowa.

Package manifest:

• Two disposable cameras.
• New onesie outfit supplied by Jim's parents.
• Blanket with ribbon tabs made by Reb, designed for chewing on. Jim slept with this under his T-shirt for a month to try to make it smell like him. He's been told it was effective.
• Stuffed heffalump, spritzed with a bit of Reb's perfume to make it smell like her. Definitely effective. Quarantined into another plastic bag to prevent everything else smelling like her.
• Portable voice recorder with cassette tape of us singing songs and reading stories.
• Spare batteries.
• Rattle.
• Small picture album of Gus' family.
  
• Chocolate for the foster mother. It's traditional.