One of the first things I did, when I went back to Sakhalin Island for my second trip, was take my little guy out shoe shopping. I had traced his feet on the first trip to the orphanage so I could buy shoes at home and bring them over, but it took me almost four months to get back there and I figured the tracings would be useless.

In a children's store in Yuzhno, we picked out a cute pair of yellow sneakers, and once they were on his feet there was no taking them off. Not even at the cash register. But I was unprepared for what happened when we got back to the orphanage. "Listen everybody," he announced as the other children gathered around him, "these shoes are only for me."

Shoes are a precious commodity at a Russian orphanage. The kids know they must be cared for carefully because they will need to be passed on to another child. And, too often, when the shoe budget is running tight, they are worn long after they should have been outgrown. My little guy was beginning to show signs of hammer toe caused by his shoes when he came to America. (I've been careful to buy shoes with wide toes since and his toes seem better.)

So it was with great interest that I read up on Buckner International Adoption's Shoes for Orphan Souls program, which sends shoes to children in need. (Dallas, Texas-based Buckner is one of the many adoption agencies with NGO status now awaiting re-accreditation.) Buckner tells me the program began as Shoes for Russian Souls at KCBI radio in Dallas in 1995. The agency took it over in 1999 and has gradually expanded it to all the countries it serves through adoption.

Now other adoption agencies also help with shoes, but the sheer size of Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls is overwhelming. More than 200,000 pairs of shoes have been delivered to Russia since the program's inception. Last year it sent four containers of shoes and other humanitarian aid to Russia; another two have already been delivered this year. In fact, Buckner's domestic and international aid programs are so big that they now command their own warehouse: the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid, which had its grand opening on April 14.


How can you help? You can buy a pair of sneakers, dress shoes or winter boots right through the Shoes for Orphan Souls Web site. The Web site also has information on hosting your own shoe drive. Or you can help Buckner deliver them: The next Russia shoe trip is scheduled for November 8-18.

One more way to help: Fellow blogger Russian Adoption Dva recently wrote about a sock drive being organized by a young Russian adoptee in Texas to go with all of Buckner's footwear.

Surely we can walk a mile in some of these shoes.