Stahlke Adoption

The Last Day

The first year or so that the five kids were here, we'd go on outings and they would find an amazing amount of money that people had dropped or left behind. For example, they'd look under the mats at each McDonald Playplace we visited and find coins. Eventually some of their friends would even give them coins, knowing that they were collecting them.

Jonathan and I learned quickly to keep their money in our own room so it wouldn't disappear. The voluminous number of coins was becoming unwieldy, so we gave each child bills for them and used the nickels, dimes, and quarters for offering at church and milk money at school.

The pennies, however, were so heavy that I could hardly lift the container. I took them to the bank to convert them to bills, and the teller refused to take them. "Too damaged for us to use," she told me.

Since Christmas, I've been sending pennies to school for Sarah and David's milk money. That's 35 pennies per child per day. It's now April 24, and today I finally used the last penny!

posted by Stahlkes @ 10:32 AM