99 more days

Drew may not be able to tell time yet, but perhaps he has some sort of internal calendar sending him messages of good cheer.

While the rest of us are complaining that Halloween candy has taken over our grocery stores, some people have already started planning for Christmas. We do only have 99 days to go.

And, while I’m standing in our basement and staring at the mounds of unfitable clothing and unwanted (at least by me) toys and games I’ve collected to sell at an upcoming consignment sale, I’m wondering how we could possibly need more “stuff.” I’ll clear this basement out in October for the sale but no doubt will have another basement full to sell at the sale come Spring.

I’m all about shopping with a purpose — remember our May fundraising drive to build the nest for The Sparrow Fund? Then, there’s Jiayin as well as The Sparrow Fund’s little shop with all the beautiful things from the women in Nairobi. And, I’m always visiting the fundraising families’ page at WAGI to see what new things families may be selling to raise money for their adoptions. By all means, support good causes with your “Honey-I’d-really-like-this” lists and your shopping and gift giving.

But, I want to show you another option too–a new website we just learned about called Shift My Gift. You can actually create what is sort of like an online registry of sorts for any occasion you want–adoption fundraising, a birthday, Christmas, wedding, anniversary…you get the idea. Then, you choose any nonprofits you’d like to shift your gifts to–though I definitely would encourage you to check this option out. Then, with one click, you can tweet your registry or post it to Facebook or simply enter in email addresses to show it to people.

Instead of asking your kiddos to write a long Christmas list this year, you could sit with them in front of the computer and let them decide which nonprofits they’d like to give to instead of receiving more gifts. What a neat opportunity to grow generous hearts…and declutter your play room just a little.