The Gifts: The Twin Holy Days Part 1

In what turned out to be a fitting tribute, we spent the Birth of The Bab preparing for the Birth of Baha'u'llah. I love that. The whole day was filled with service and I got some extra one on one time with Ruhi and Bayan as Anisa had school and graduation photos and Maryam had a excursion that neither she nor the teacher wanted her to miss. We picked up Mami and Anna at lunchtime as they both had a math test that morning and Qi came home after school. She is doing year 11, in a foreign language no less, and didn't want to risk missing two days in a row.

So, here is what we did:

Despite the fact that Mehran has started a charitable foundation and he happily whisks any unwanted or excess items, especially clothes, out the door before you even know what is happening, the kids all went through their closets and found things that they were willing to give away. This is part of the pile that will be taken to one of the Families SA offices (along with cookies and a card) and given to children who have had to flee their homes so suddenly they leave with only the clothes they are wearing.

Ruhi and I got busy packing little care packages for the homeless. Each one contained a bottle of water, a packet of chips, a granola bar, shampoo and conditioner and an inspiring quote. (More on that in a minute.)

By the time we needed to pick up the older girls, we had shopped for and filled 65 little packages.

After lunch our baking marathon began. According to my extremely rough calculations, as I wasn't counting, we made approximately 500 cookies (give or take) about 100 muffins and 1 batch, at Anisa's insistence, of Salted Caramel Brownies, which I heard were really good.

Here are a few of the finished platters and plates.

And here are a few more... One thing I decided to do differently next year is to put the cookies in Tupperware or some other means of storage as carting all these plates into and out of the car as we went to our various destinations was much easier said than done. And yes, there were casualties along the way.

Anna and Anisa got busy making inspirational cards to include in our little care packages.

This, along with the quotation from 'Abdu'l-Baha that I didn't get a photo of, that says: "Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. " were two of my favourites.

Maryam helped add the quotes to the packages and Bayan carted the stash from the table to the living room and back again.

Our collection of goodies for the RSPCA. This is one of the kids favourite places to visit.

Qi and Maryam helped make paper flowers for the nursing home.

In addition to the balloons we bring every year to the children in the hospital this year we made something extra. It was kind of a labour of love, but oh so worth it in the end. For the last few months the kids have been helping fold paper cranes. We brought paper everywhere we went and whenever there was a bit of extra time we would fold. This mostly happened during Bollywood rehearsals. Maryam got pretty good at it and was my trusty sidekick the entire time.

The other moms were awesome too and would give us a head start by helping do the first couple of folds.

During breaks the daughters would descend and help with some of the trickier folds.

It was a team effort and I loved watching these amazing girls dance while doing something productive at the same time.

Sometimes we even had extra helpers during rehearsals.

Their mad paper folding skills were seriously appreciated.

We also folded during family movie nights and I was sure I got photos but for whatever reason I can't find them.

So it took us awhile but we got to 1,000.

Then we had to string them together to make the "senbazuru". The group of 1,000 that actually hangs together.

It was the story of Sadako who inspired us to do this. For anyone who doesn't know, she survived the bombing of Hiroshima as an infant but developed leukaemia as a result of her exposure to the radiation. She heard the legend about how anyone who could fold 1,000 cranes would be granted a wish and she longed to be well again. So, while in the hospital, she began to fold cranes using any scrap of paper she could find. Tragically she died before she could finish. It was her classmates who finished for her. Today her story still continues to inspire children all over the world and her statue stands in the Hiroshima peace park as a symbol of hope that we can all live together in harmony and a reminder that each one of us can make a difference.

We made little cards to accompany the extra hundred or so individual cranes that we made for individual patients to receive.

We tucked the cranes into the cards and packaged them up to make life easier for the nurses who would be giving them out.

By this stage the kids had long since gone to bed and I was setting up the dining room for breakfast the next morning. My camera is currently missing so the only photo that I have is of a close up from some of the quotes that I put on each plate. Everyone read a quote to help set the mood for the day and we talked a little about each. Love these quotes.