Finally, THE PIG

Carina’s Birthday is August 27th. For her 2nd Birthday, she received a piggy bank from her Ba-chan (Japanese for Grandmother).

For her 3rd Birthday, Ba-chan sent another!

The day after her third birthday, Carina proclaimed that her next birthday would be “a piggy bank birthday”  I thought she would forget, but she did not.  By the time July 2010 rolled around, she was still telling everyone that they were invited to her piggy bank birthday party.  Planning her party was quite interesting, but in the end it turned out well.

Instead of gifts, we asked guests to bring their pocket change.  We lined up Carina’s growing piggy bank collection (some guests brought Carina a bank as a gift) and the kids had a blast “feeding” them.

The kids also each colored their own little piggy bank to take home with them.  Daddy made a pig pinata, mommy baked a pig cake, and we ate pigs in blankets (among other things).

After the party, we took all the change that her friends had fed the piggy banks to the bank. Carina had fun putting all the change in the change counter and giving the teller the receipt to deposit.

When we got home, I pulled out a Heifer International magazine with an article about a family in Honduras who had received a pig through Heifer’s Pass on The Gift program.  We talked about how some families in the world don’t have very much money or food, and we talked briefly about how giving a family a pig can help them make more money.  Carina was fascinated with the idea that families could make money from pig poop! (The manure is sold to farmers as fertilizer.)  Carina also liked the picture of the family with their hands pressed together in a gesture of thanks.  “Are they praying for a pig?” she asked.  I told her that was their way of saying thank you.  She agreed that it would be nice to take her piggy bank money and buy a pig for a family who needed it.  That evening when we ate dinner, she quickly folded her hands and said, “Thank you for our food, and for pigs to help people make more money!”

We are lucky to have Heifer’s headquarters right here in Little Rock, and the recently completed Heifer Village, which has exhibits and programs about Heifer’s work.  Earlier this month, on a cold and windy day, the kids and I made the voyage across town to buy “Carina’s pig”.

The ladies at the front desk of Heifer Village were very helpful and put on a great amount of excitement for Carina’s big purchase.  With the change from her piggy banks plus the birthday money her grandparents sent her, she had enough to buy a whole pig.  Carina made sure to specify that she would like to purchase a pink pig, and the ladies assured her that they would make sure the pig was indeed pink. I filled out the donation form while one of the women pinned a pig pin on Carina, and then she popped the form in the donation box.  Imagine her surprise when the box made a long, loud “MOOOOOO!”

Afterward, the kids and I did a scavenger hunt in the exhibits (provided by Heifer), and while the general concepts are a little complex, the kids actually learned a lot!  Later, while Callen was telling Craig about our day, he would say, “The poop goes down, the water goes up, and there’s fire!” (This is an approximately correct description of how a bio gas system works.)

Finally, we made a little visit to the gift shop, where a half price Christmas ornament afforded Carina the opportunity to have something to remember “her pig” by.

A few nights ago, Carina told Craig, “There are three ways to make money.  Go to work, work on the computer, get a pig.”

*For those of you who are concerned: in addition to several new piggy banks, Carina also received several other birthday presents.  We also matched her donation to Heifer with a deposit into her 529 college fund.  She does not want for much, except maybe a real kitty and a unicorn.

Related posts:

No related posts.