Meet Nicholas

For many years I worked with children, and during that time I realized that many only children have an issue that I dubbed 'the only child syndrome'. Not all, but many had difficulty understanding that the world does not revolve around them. I never intended Elaina to be an only child, but it seems Heavenly Father had other plans. As a parent, I want Elaina to have all that is good for her, including the ability to see beyond her wants. I felt this recycling project of hers could be so much more than a recycling project, which is why in the last post we asked for help to find a charity to be involved with. Heidi (Zink) Bolling pointed us in the direction of P.A.W.S. -Performing Animal Welfare Society. Check them out at http://www.pawsweb.org/
It was an eye opener, and made for some hard questions for me to answer about why people are mean to animals, but Elaina is determined to help them. She found which Elephant she wants to adopt, and this past Friday after her first full week of Kindergarten she was super tired but was determined to do her pick-up rounds so she could help Nicholas.

She picked Nicholas because "He looks like he's laughing." She really enjoyed watching the videos of him playing in his new safe home, and will sometimes ask to watch them again using the youtube app on my phone. Yesterday Elaina purchased her first prize using her portion of money. She was very excited about her new book until this morning when with a worried look she asked me if she used up all the money for Nicholas. What a sweet girl, I was glad to relieve her mind by reminding her that I was keeping the money for Nicholas, College, and her money separate. She has quite a long way to go to save enough to adopt him as adoption is $200, but I really think this is a goal she will see through. Now I need to save enough money on my part to make the trip to Northern California so once she has earned enough she can meet her Nicholas : )

Once again please go check out the PAWS web site at http://www.pawsweb.org/ Elaina might have picked Nicholas because he's funny, but I'm glad she did as I was shocked to read about how few male elephants are kept alive in captivity; due to their size, strength and cost, most are euthanized instead. While adoption is expensive they do accept donations of any size. Even if you don't plan to donate still go read about the work this group is doing.