Giving

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We are spring cleaning at the moment. A job I despise. It's even worse, because we are re-arranging 3 of our bedrooms and the office space.  We're turning Alexander's bedroom into a playroom, the playroom into Alexander and Sam's bedroom (they've finally got the bunks they've wanted for a year and a half) and we're turning Sam's bedroom into Joel's man cave office.  Actually, I'm not sure why I crossed out man cave.  I jokingly referred to it as that yesterday, and the boys took it seriously. It's what they call it. :-)

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Anyway. Not the point, really.  I have been going a little stir crazy over the mess in the boys' bedrooms and the playroom. It isn't at hoarder/bad reality show proportions, but it's enough to make Joel and I agitated. It takes so little time to get it into an appalling state.  And then an hour to clean the playroom up, with much complaint from Boy 1, and little help from Boy 2. And by little help, I mean he literally just tips the boxes back out and starts playing in the middle of the cleaning spree. Infuriating to Alexander, which then sparks meltdown, which then sparks meltdown from Sam, which then sparks mini-meltdown (grumpy mood) from Joel which has me rocking in the corner of our bedroom pretending like I can't hear any of it.  And breathe.

So.  I spoke to Joel and Alexander (Sam doesn't get a vote. He's too freaking cute and I'd just end up voting with him by default. He has magical powers, that one. Don't say I didn't warn you). I said that I felt (strongly) that we have too many toys. We still have a lot of our baby/toddler toys (despite getting rid of most of our baby toys when Madeline was a baby, sending them her way, there were a lot left over) and a whole host of other toys that they don't really play with.

And tell me we're not the only household that still somehow has all of that crap at the bottom of (more than one) toybox, that's broken/missing pieces/haven't seen for a year.  And..erm....bits of stale bread crust! That was a surprise, I'll grant you (Samuel Thomas!).

And still...not the point. I'm getting there, honest. You should know me by now, and should probably have made yourself a cuppa. Gotten supplies.

So I asked Alexander how he felt about donating some of the toys (I was thinking to Vinnies/Salvos, whatever Second Hand shop is nearby, I confess, I've yet to step into one {Averil, you HAVE to take me} and never even notice who owns which one).  I explained that it could be good for other children who don't have many toys.

And he piped up (ooh! Look! The point. Told you I'd get there!) "Like those children in Africa? With no food and no toys at all? Can we take them there? That's who I want to give my toys to". Silence for a moment from me, as I'm touched that he has paid attention to our recent, lite-version discussions with some (censored by Mama) pictures and video footage of the devestating famine and drought in the Horn of Africa.

All four of these photos were taking by Brendan Bannon and appear on the MSF website.

"Well, darling. We can't really take them there.  Africa is a very, very long way away, and we certainly can't get on a plane and take toys. But it's a lovely thought.  So why don't we just take them to one of the shops near us, and some of the children from around here can have some toys and clothes?". Convince this will satisfy him, I start plotting what I can get rid of.

"No. The children around here have food and water. And they probably have some toys, even if it's not many. But those children over in Africa don't have any. I saw it. They have nowhere to play and nothing to play with. I want them to have it. Why can't we give them to them?". Big brown eyes look up at me as he wants me to fix this. To help him do something to fix this.

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"Well, darling. There are special groups that go over to Africa, and they help the people there.  They decide who needs food, medicine, clothes, toys, houses. They get money from people like us, and they make sure that they get them where they need to go".

"Ok. So lets go to Africa and give them our toys. They can have all of our toys except Penelope". (Penelope is one of the most treasured items in our home. She has been Alexander's best friend since he was 20 weeks old, and we will never, ever be able to part with her).

"Darling. We can't go there. Honestly, we just can't go to Africa and give toys to anyone".

"Well where can we go to give the Africa people our toys and clothes? And some food too".

"I think you need to understand that toys aren't really what they need the most. These people, they really are starving, dying. They need food and water and medicine.  And the only way we can help them with that is to give money to these special groups, so that they can buy the food and medicine and they can keep doing their hard work".

"So can we give them some money? I know we don't have lots, but can we give them some? How do we give them a little bit of money?"  And my heart swells as I look at that earnest face and see he's deadly serious about this. And I could not be prouder, because this is something so incredibly important to me. Raising children with empathy and a social conscience. And here, my autistic 8 year old is just desperate to find a way to help people he will never meet, can never meet, in the only way he can.

So today, small donations(for sadly they will have to be small) will be made in the name of Alexander Mitchell to Médecins Sans Frontières to help them continue their work in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. It is important to me that any donation go to an organisation independant of any church or government, so I feel really comfortable with choosing MSF. And I so admire their dedication, and the fact that while most organisations fled (though I'm not saying I don't understand why), MSF has been determined to stay and do what it could.

So, my little man, sat down with his Daddy last night and explained to him what he was feeling, and what he wanted to do. Daddy left the room for a moment, so touched he had tears. Returned and hugged the hell out of his boy.

We are both proud. It is not a large donation, but it comes from the heart of a well meaning little boy, and for that, we could not be more thrilled to give it.