I think they’ve come to expect it. Kind of like children on Christmas morning. They know that when we come, we don’t only have bags full of art supplies and toys and vitamins for the children. They know that somewhere in those bags is something for them. And, I love that they’ve come to expect it. I love that they know I’m never going to come and forget them.

It’s always a challenge for me though. What can I bring that wasn’t made in China? What can I bring that speaks their love language, that is easy to pack, that I can bring lots of because there are lots of them.

With only a month before this trip, I still had nothing. My mom, who has become pretty adept at Pinterest surfing, had an idea–aprons. She made one that I loved and hand wrote instructions so I could enlist some other helpers. We asked three more women to join my mom in making them, each one the same but different so that each ayi could pick her one that was her own. I had a plan–each of us on the team could wear one as we served and then we’d give the ayis their own before we said goodbye. I had no idea how many we’d need in order for two different orphanages–maybe 40? Maybe 50?

Emily’s aprons were the first to arrive in a pile of beautiful color. She made way more than I had asked for. I started making plans for the extras. My mom’s motherload came next. She too made more than I had asked her to make. Valerie’s and Angi’s aprons had not yet arrived, but they were most certainly going to be overflow. When Valerie’s package arrived, the 10 I asked her to make was 14. That’s okay. I would just save them for the next trip when we would go to a different place.

A few days before we left, I got a message from one of the orphanages. They told me that they had 32 caregivers. Okay, so that was a few more aprons than I thought we’d take there we’d be okay still; we had extras. I counted out 32 aprons and left the rest in a pile. Two days before we left, I got a message from the other orphanage finally answering my question from weeks earlier. 56 caregivers. Oh no. I panicked. 56? There’s no way we’re going to have enough aprons! Wait, no need to panic, I know what we can do. We’ll skip the part-time caregivers and give them something else little; only full-time ones would get an apron. But, I panicked again when I asked the director how many of those 56 were full-time and how many were part-time. They were ALL full time.

Angi’s 10 aprons had not yet arrived, and I had not counted how many made up the stack I had. But, I knew we’d be short. A day before we left, Angi’s aprons arrived. Like the other women, for some reason, she made a couple extra, sending 12 instead of the 10 I had asked her to make. I opened the package and marveled at her work and all the color, amazed at how all four women are able to take a flat piece of fabric and make something out of nothing. As I started to count up all that we had, I thought about how I could make up the difference. Should I run out and get nice hand lotions? Would Target have aprons that I could spread among the handmade ones?

10 became 40 and then 60. Aprons laid in stacks of 10 on my living room floor. Stacks and stacks until I counted the very last one. We needed 88 for all the ayis. We had 93–the exact number we needed for each ayi and the 5 of us.

Perfect.

I don’t know how it happened. But, it did. And, it was just the message I needed that He’s going ahead of us, even to the point of directing these four ladies to make just a few more…just in case.

I even got this picture sent to me later–this ayi very proudly added to her apron to hide any dirt.

Perfect.