Imagine New Clothes and Shoes

A majority of the children at the Pingliang Social Welfare Institute--the orphanage where Henry lived for 21 months in western China's Gansu Province--are older children, longer term residents with little chance of adoption. Many if not most also have special needs. The charitable organization Love Without Boundaries (LWB) will help us provide these children with new clothing and shoes. These are the items that the orphanage's director told us are most needed. It's been our experience that this kind of simple project with direct equal benefit to a substantial number of children can be the best we can offer from this distance at a relatively low cost. A brand new set of clothes and a new pair of shoes is a very personal gift to an older child with little else. It will help.

A LWB representative in China has contacted the Pingliang SWI for information about individual sizes needed and the orphanage is anxiously targeting about 32 children for this project. The cost of clothing for ages 7+ is only around $15USD/set and shoes are around $8USD/pair. Warm sweatshirts or jackets are similarly inexpensive when purchased by LWB in China. So a donation of any amount will make a difference.

If you would like to join us in contributing to this project, you can do this easily online. Go to the LWB web site (http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/) and at the top of the page click on the circle icon labeled Donate Now. Under Category select Orphanage Assistance and enter "Pingliang" in the Notes section. Then complete the form. To donate by check make your check payable to Love Without Boundaries and write "Pingliang Orphanage Assistance" on the memo line. Mail your check to: Love Without Boundaries, 306 S. Bryant St., Ste. C, PMB 145, OK, 73034.

Love Without Boundaries is the same group that successfully helped us provide clothing and other supplies for young children at the Pingliang SWI immediately after the earthquake in May. It's a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed and supported by adoptive parents, and with overhead costs of only about 3%. Your donations are tax deductible.