Speaking of India...Again!

As you may have heard (if you've been reading my blog at all, you've definitely heard) I've been advocating for boys from the IN860 project. Those precious boys.

I've been praying for these boys every single day, multiple times a day. I've been asking God to show me how to find sponsors for these boys. I've been praying that each boy will find the perfect sponsor who will be the perfect fit. A sponsor who will love them and write to them and encourage them and be able to meet their specific needs.

A couple days ago, as I was praying, God began to nudge me towards a boy named Sagar. In his picture, Sagar is standing perfectly upright, with his head slightly raised, a very serious face on, like he's trying to show the world that he's a man and nobody can mess with him, not even poverty. However, his eyes tell a different story. In his eyes, you can see that he is still a child and there is even a hint of sadness in there.

God was certainly nudging.

I knew the nudge and I couldn't argue with it. I sponsored Sagar last night. I just had to, I wish I could explain the feeling. And after I sponsored him, I felt like everything was right in my heart. I just know when it's meant to be and God rewards me with so much happiness afterwards.

I know that I've said it before, but this really will be my last sponsorship for a long time. I will have no extra money rolling in until I get my yearly raise at work, in May. Check back then! ; )

Without further ado, here is the boy that I'm calling my teddy bear, Sagar...

 

Here's aleady such a little man!

 

 

More information about Sagar:

 

Age: 9

Birthday: March 3rd

Grade in School: 5th

School Performance: Average

Family Duties: Carrying Water & Caring for Children

Hobbies & Sports: Group Games & Running

Guardians: Mother (Father is No Longer Living). His mother works as a house maid.

 

Your sponsored child lives on the plains of Miraj Red Light Area, home to approximately 4,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of wood, bamboo or tile floors; wood, tin, bamboo or plastic walls and cement, tin or tile roofs.

The regional diet consists of maize, bread, rice and potatoes. Common health problems in this area include tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition and waterborne and vector borne diseases. Most adults are unemployed but some work as sex workers and earn the equivalent of $34 per month. This community needs improved sanitation, safe drinking water and vocational skills development.

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Now that I've introduced my new Indian boy to you, I want to share a letter that came from my other precious Indian boy, Kalpesh. I found out yesterday that I have a total of five letters on the way from him! This is the second letter that I've received. He is such a wonderful writer!

 

In March, I sent my kids a letter that was all about sea turtles. I sent each child a card with their name and a picture of a sea turtle on the front. Inside the card, I wrote a few facts about sea turtles. I also included a few pictures of what sea turtles looked like.

 

This is Kalpesh's response to that letter...

 

 

 

Dear Friend Kayla,

 

Greetings to you in the loving name of Jesus Christ. Once again it's my great pleasure to write this letter and I am very glad to receive your letting, and knowing about sea turtles and some facts about turtles. I never seen any kind tortoise, on see in pictures. Is it any difference between sea turtle and others? I mean in shape, size, color, etc. I liked very much learning about sea turtles. Thank you so much for writing and sharing with me. Waiting for your letter. Take care of yourself.

 

With Love,

Kalpesh

 

 

He is just so inquisitive! I love all of his questions and I send him emails right away answering his questions. This is the first child I've sponsored who I've had more of a pen pal relationship with. He answers every letter that I write to him, always commenting on what I write and asking me more questions for me to answer. It's just wonderful.

 

I will be stalking my mailbox looking for the next three letters that he's sending me. I'm still hoping that one of those letters has a picture of Kalpesh with the birthday gifts he bought with the money I sent him. I'm at least hoping for a list of what he was able to buy. I just want to know so much!

 

I hope that I get to spend many more years writing to Kalpesh.

 



 



Letters to My Kids: August 2012

At the end of each month, I like to share the letters that I wrote to my sponsored kids in the hopes of giving some people ideas of what to write. I know that everyone gets writer's block occasionally and it's nice to see what other people have been writing about.

The first letter I wrote was about school. I copied mostly the same letter for each child, but I changed each letter a little bit depending on how old they are. I put in details of myself when I was that age so it was more personal. Here is the letter I wrote to 10 year old Celeste...

________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Celeste

Today I want to write you a letter to learn more about your school and what it's like. I'm also going to tell you what it was like for me when I was your age and went to school. The picture you see at the bottom of the page is what I looked like when I was 10 years old, just like you.

How do you get to school each day? I took a bus to school when I was your age.

What is your favorite subject to study? What subject do you struggle with? When I was your age, I liked learning reading and writing. I struggled with math. It was very hard for me.

Do you wear a uniform to school or your regular clothes? My school did not have uniforms when I was younger.

How long do you spend at school each day? When I was your age our school day lasted for 7 hours. We spent time learning, eating lunch, and playing outside. Do you have time to play outside during your school day? What kinds of games do you like to play at school?

Who are your best friends at school? When I was 10 years old, my best friend was Megan. We spent time together at school jumping rope and swinging on swings.

How many children do you have in your class? When I was 10, I had around 25 other children in my class. My teacher's name was Mrs. Stout. What is your teacher's name?

Don't worry about answering all of my questions. I would love to learn anything about your school that you want to tell me. I wish to know more about you and your studying. I hope you are working hard at school and getting good grades.

I love you,
Kayla

________________________________________________________________________________

A few days ago, I wrote each of my children and told about our tooth fairy custom when it comes to losing their teeth. I asked each of them to share what customs they have when it comes to losing their baby teeth. Here's the letter:

A few days ago, a friend and I were talking about different customs for lost teeth across the world. We think it is interesting that child all over the world do different things when their child teeth fall out.

In the United States, when a child loses one of their teeth, it is a very happy day. The family is very happy and the child feels like they are beginning to grow up a little bit more. They often share the news with their friends and everyone is very happen.

We have a custom in my country that there is a very small girl called the Tooth Fairy. She wears a very pretty dress and she has wings and is able to fly. Before a child goes to sleep that night, they take the tooth that fell out and they put it under their pillow on their bed. When they are asleep, the Tooth Fairy comes and takes their tooth away. Children are taught the tooth fairy uses the teeth she collects to build big houses for her and her friends, made out of teeth. When the Tooth Fairy takes the tooth, she leaves behind a small gift for the child. The gift is usually a coin, a piece of candy, or a small toy. When the child wakes up in the morning, they see that their tooth is gone and that there is a gift there for them in the tooth's place!

Children in the United States have a good time when they lose their teeth. Then they start the long wait of another tooth growing in!

Do you have any special thing like this when children lose teeth in your country? I would really like to hear about what children do with their old teeth after the fall out.

Love,
Kayla

________________________________________________________________________________

There you have it! Feel free to use these letters for your own use!

Speaking of India...

I received another letter from my dear Kalpesh! It's only been two weeks since his last letter. Kalpesh has been averaging 2-3 letters each month. I'm just so amazed and we are really getting to know each other. The letter isn't dated, but I'm guessing he wrote it sometime in late April or early May.

In the letter I sent, I wrote to him about a trip I took to Chicago to visit a friend. I sent him a picture that my friend and I took in the reflection in the famous "bean" there. He apparantly wants to know much more about it.

Here's his letter...

 

 

Dear Kayla,

 

Greetings to you in the sweetest name of Lord Jesus Christ. I am very glad to receive your letter with wonderful pictures which you sent for me. I like it very much. One thing you wrote the mirror is very large, but actually how much large is it? Other you asked, is it ice skating in India? I don't know about it but I see it in the bielims (?) and listen about it. One more thing, nowadays we have summer vacations and our school will reopen on 2nd week of June and coming academic year I will go to 5th grade. Please pray for my study.

 

 

With Love,

Kalpesh

 

 

Such a sweetheart! He's so inquisitive and I have a feeling he is a very intelligent and good student. It looks like my response letter to him is going to be telling him more about the giant bean in Chicago. I'm going to find a picture of it from above so he can see how big it really is compared to all of the people around it.

 

Can't wait!

 

*Update* After posting this entry, I called Compassion to find out if I had any letters on the way to me from my sponsored kids. I do. It turns out that I have four letters coming to me...all from Kalpesh! I'm just amazed on how much he loves to write. I have a regular pen pal on my hands! The woman I talked to from Compassion told me that they received a letter from him on the 22nd, the 24th, the 27th, and the 29th. They are all in the U.S, so be on the lookout for many letters posts about Kalpesh coming up!

 





Touching Thursday (IN860 Little Boy Edition)

As you can probably tell, I've grabbed onto the Compassion project IN860 with both my hands and my heart and I'm not going to let go of it. I just don't like the idea of any child living in a red light disctrict. Who know what kind of horrible things they see just walking around their community. Sex workers everywhere, most likely drugs around every corner, women being treated horribly and young girls being sex trafficked each day. Ugh.

By sponsoring one of these boys for just $38 a month, you can provide him with healthy food, clean water, proper healthcare, and a wonderful education that will fill both his mind and his spirit. With these advantages, these boys can escape their communities and lift themselves up out of poverty. Please help them!

At top of the 5 packets I have from this project of 5 handsome young men, I also searched the website and found some little boys from the project too.

I just had to share them!

 

Oh my tiny cuteness! This is Soyal. He is 3 years old. His birthday is January 1st. At home, he helps by carrying water (a 3 year old having to carrying water. Heartbreaking) and cleaning. Soyal lives with his father and mother. His father is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother maintains the home. Art, running, and playing group games are Soyal's favorite things to do. He attends preschool where his performance is average. To sponsor Soyal, visit his page here.

 

 

Vanayak has been sponsored too!
 

 

 

Rohit has been sponsored! I hope this little boy is loved beyond measure.

 

 

Our Compassion is a True Blessing

If you sponsor children through Compassion International and you aren't yet a member of Our Compasion, you need to get on it.

Seriously, before you finish reading this blog entry, go to Our Compassion and sign up.

I'll wait.

Make sure you come back though, that website has a lot to offer, but you may return after you check out what I have to say, haha.

Through Our Compassion, there are wonderful forums that you can visit to talk to sponsors all over the world. One of my favorite forums is the Sponsors Only forum. It's private between you and other people that sponsor through Compassion.

On this forum, people often talk about trips that they are planning on going on with Compassion. People going on these trips usually save room in their suitcase to bring gifts along for children of sponsors that are unable to go on the trips.

There is a trip to Uganda in Januray, 2013 and a wonderful woman named Beverly has offered to take a gift with her for my dear Eric there. I got to fill a gallon sized bag with things for this wonderful boy who lives so far away from me. She's going to drop it off at the main office and they will be sure that Eric gets it. Here's what I sent him:

An Illini basketball shirt, colored pencils, pencils, pens, a pencil sharpener, erasers, a puzzle showing a world map, a watch, two bouncy balls, two toy cars, balloons, and an apple notebook. I also sent him a toothbrush, but it seems to not be in this picture. Weird.

Here's everything packed up in the the gallon sized bag.

Yesterday, I posted in the forum and asked if anybody was going on the trip to Ethiopia in November of this year and would be willing to take along a gift to my new sponsored child, Yonas. Within hours, I got a response from a truly caring person named Hope. Without hesitaton, she told me that she was going and would be able to take gift for me. She allowed me to fill a gallon sized bag for Yonas.

Being the excitable person I am, I couldn't wait even one day to go shopping. After work today, I headed to Target to buy everything I wanted to send to Yonas and I spent a hour or so tonight packing it all up and praying that everything gets there safely and in one piece. Yonas's birthday is in December and well...so is Christmas, haha, so this will be a wonderful dual birthday/Christmas gift.

Here's what I bought for Yonas:

A t-shirt, an apple notebook, colored pencils, pencils, toothbrush, beach ball, a dinosaur puzzle, mini playdoh tubs, bouncy balls, calculator, toy cars, Cars flashlight, mini spoon and fork, pencil sharpener, erasers, Ironman/Batman socks, ring pops candy. Whew!

I had to try a few different packing arrangements and then I worked very hard to get the bag closed, but it's all in there! I just pray it doesn't burst open on the trip there.

 

 

 

I'm just constantly blessed by the people on Our Compassion. There openess to embrace strangers and bring gifts to children they don't even know just amazes me. I hope to do the same thing for others when I go to Honduras next summer. 

It's Blog Month!

September is Compassion International's official blog month! Get excited!

Why get exicted?

Well, for the next four months, Compassion has set a goal to see 3,108 children sponsor through the blogs of the Compassion Bloggers, more than last year. Think we can do it? I do!

To start it off, check out these children that I am currently advocating for, I would love to see them sponsored during the month of September.

Boys in an India red light district

Two Below Average Students

If none of these children feel like yours in your heart, check out Compassion's website to sponsor.

Compassion International

Anyway, onto Compassion blogging.

Compassion is going to send me a new blogging topic each Monday in September. Each week, a blogger will be chosen to win a prize for that week. I'm not exactly sure how the winners are chosen the first three weeks, but on the last week of September, the blogger who gets the most children sponsored through their blog will win A Free Trip with Compassion! I would love to win that trip, clearly, who wouldn't?

Are you thinking this sounds like a great idea? You should totally join in on the Compassion blogging experience. Follow this link to Sign-Up.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for next Monday!

Boys Waiting for Sponsors: Miraj Red Light District

This project is located in a red light district in India. The main occupation for much of the women there is sex working. Men either find themselves working as sex traffickers, are unemployed, or they simply don't stick around there for very long.

Lately, the topic, in the blogosphere, has been on the young girls in this community waiting for sponsors, and for good reason. Getting those girls as far away from the life of potential sex work is of upmost importance. I am so happy to see so many of the beautiful girls there being rescued by Compassion.

I am now shifting the focus in this project to the boys in this project. After doing some research, I have learned that girls are not the only ones being trafficked for sex. Young boys are often seen has prizes too in the sex work world. At the risk of getting too graphic, the virginity of any child, male or female, can be sold at a high price. It just makes my blood run cold. Disgusting.

I'm also advocating for these boys because they need to be taught how to be wonderful men of God. Men in their community are taught that it is okay to treat women as objects. Men come into the community, use and abuse the women, and then move on with their lives, not showing women the respect they deserve. I want to help these boys learn how to get out of this community, to respect women, and to teach their future children that treating women in this way is not acceptable.

So without further ado, I have five boys to share with you. I asked Compassion to send me the oldest boys in the community, so each of these boys is 9 years old.

If you are interested in sponsoring one of these boys, you can email me at Groth.Kayla@mail.ic.edu . If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!


Sagar is sponsored! (By me!)



Rohit has been sponsored!


This little guy is Saifali (I love his name!). His birthday is January 11th. He lives with his father, mother, and 4 siblings. His father is sometimes employed and his mother maintains the home. Saifali helps at home by carrying water and caring for children. (Seems to popular chores for these boys). For fun, Saifali enjoys art, running, and playing group games. He attends church activities and has average performance in primary school.


Azad is sponsored by a wonderful woman in Canada. Yay!



Shivraj has been sponsored!



In the Miraj Red Light District, typical houses are constructed of wood, bamboo, or tile floors; wood, tin, bamboo, or plastic walls; and cement, tin, or tile roofs.
The reginal diet consists of maize, bread, rice, and potatoes. Common health problems in this area include TB, malaria, malnutrition, and waterbourne and vector borne disease (rat, flea, mosquito bites).
Most adults are unemployed, but some work as sex workers to earn the equivalent of $34 a month. (Can you imagine selling your body and only making $34 a month? How degrading). This community needs improved sanitation, safe drinking water, and vocational skills training.
40% of the children in this project don't attend school because commercial sex workers do not understand the importance of education and they lack economic resources.



I have these packets until September 28th. I'm praying that each of these boys finds a loving sponsor in the next month. Your prayers and support (and sponsorship) is much appreciated!

Six Word Saturday

 

 

Mailing a Gift for Eric Today

On top of the six words, I would like to share a few more words with you to explain what's going on. A lovely woman that I met on Our Compassion (I think) that I'm also friends with on Facebook (I'm not sure if facebook or OC came first) is going to Uganda in January. She offered to take a gift to Eric for me!

She gave me until December 1st to have the gift mailed to her. Being the excitable type I am, just three weeks after hearing the news, I have bought all the gifts, packed them up, and am sending them to Beverly today. I just couldn't wait. If she's anything like me, she's started packing and unpacking and packing again to see how much room she has for other gifts. Maybe not. Either way, I trust her to keep the gift safe until she goes on her trip in January.

In February, Eric will be holding these gifts. I just can't even contain my excitement. I don't get many letters from Eric, but the two that I've received have been very nice and  I also want to do more for my sponsored children. I hope he loves everything I send him, and is even nice enough to share some of it with his 7 year old brother. I sent two of some things in the hope that he would.

 

17 Year Old Eric

 

 

I'm sending him an Illinois basketball shirt, colored pencils, pencils, pens, a pencil sharpener, erasers, a puzzle of a worl map, a watch, two bouncy balls, two toy cars, a bag of balloons, and a small notebook with apples on the front.

 

 

 

Surprise! I got it all to fit in a gallon sized ziploc bag! I hope the bag stays intact and nothing falls out during the trip to Eric. I tried to label as many things as I could in the bag with his name and ID number, but most of the little things aren't labeled. I hope everything stays together!

 

 

 

I can't wait for him to receive this. I am praying that an extra letter gets to be written to let me know that he received the gift. A picture of him with the gifts would be absolutely wonderful. Praying!

 



 

 

Touching Thursday (Below Average Student Edition)

I'm only sharing two children with you this week instead of the usual three.

I have these two childrens' packets until September 14th. 

If you wish to sponsor either of these beautiful children, please email me at Groth.Kayla@mail.ic.edu and let me know. I will send you to the page to fill out your information and then I will mail you the packet so you can have all the information yourself.

First up, this precious girl is Ungkhana. She is 8 years old and she's from Thailand. Her birthday is May 16th.

She lives her her parents and 3 siblings. Her parents are both sometimes employed as farmers. Ungkhana helps at home by carrying water, gathering firewood, and buying/selling in the market (so much work for a little one!). Singing, telling stories, and playing house are Ungkhana's favorite activities. In primary school, her performance is below average. She could use a sponsor who is going to encourage her in school and let her know that education is important.

The regional diet consists of chicken, pork, fish, rice, and vegetables. Working adults make, on average, $29 a month.

 

 

This little cutie with the sad face is Jean Mary. He is from Haiti. His birthday is September 23rd and he will be turning 8 years old.

 

Jeans lives with his father, mother, and three siblings. His father is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother is sometimes employed as a seller in the market. Jean helps his family by carrying water. For fun, Jean enjoys rolling a hoop, singing, and playing group games. He attends church activities regularly and is in primary school, where is performance is below average.

 

The regional diet consists of maize, fish, cassava, plantains, goat meat, and mango. Common health problems in the area come from drinking bad water. The adults that work in this community make a U.S equivalent of $43 a month.

 

 

 

Please consider sponsoring these two children!

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday (When Poverty Meets Compassion)

Uganda

Bangladesh

Indonesia

Brazil

Sri Lanka

Dominican Republic

Tanzania

Burkina Faso

Indonesia

Colombia

Haiti

Rwanda

Haiti

Guatemala

Burkina Faso

India

 

 

 

All rights to these pictures belong to Compassion Internationl and can be found (along with others) on this blog. http://picturesofpoverty.com/

God Provides for His Family

Like I said a couple of days ago, my sponsorship family is complete. I can't tell you if it's complete forever or not, but my heart is telling me that at this moment and for at least awhile, it is complete. Instead of calling me to sponsor more children when I have extra money, God is calling me to help the kids I've got.

One of my boys' mothers is dying from kidney failure and needs to have a transplant.

One of my boys is separated from his mother and siblings because she can't afford to take care of all of the children after her husband's death. The eldest son, who is only 12, dropped out of school to support the family through working.

One of my girls has a main diet of apples, oranges, and biscuits. That's it.

God has blessed me with this family and I am trusting him to help me take care of them when I need to.

I took a leap of faith and sent $50 to Kalpesh's family in the hopes that it will support their family enough for his older brother to re-enroll in school. The day after I sent the money, I receive $20 from a friend who wanted to help, somebody ordered $20 worth of tie-dye, and I found a website where I can sell unwanted DVDs and games and I made $20.

I shelled out $50 and God gave me $60. I'm just amazed. I can't wait to find out if the gift helps that 12 year old boy go back to school. If it does, I will continue to send the family money to keep him in school.

God is constantly surprising me (I don't know why I'm surprised that God provides) when it comes to my sponsored children. Just the fact that I've gone from 2 to 9 kids in less than a year is a little shocking. Now God is helping me to make a huge diffrence in the lives of these little ones.

My next goal is to call World Vision and see how I can help with that kidney transplant. I'm praying to God they need thousands of dollars, because I have no idea how I'll raise that.

Praying. Praying. Praying.

Sagitaria's Previous Photo!

If you didn't know, Compassion keeps one previous photo of each of your sponsored/correspondent children, if they have been in the program long enough to have a previous photo, as they are only updated every 18-24 months.

Anyway, I emailed a few days ago about getting previous photos of my newest correspondent children; Sagitaria and Sadiya.

Sadiya doesn't have any previous photos as she was registered with her current photo (which is actually going to update in about six months!). But, Sagitaria did have an older photo in the system. Wait until you see this!

Age 6

Age 8

Such a cutie! 

Willow Creek Global Leadership Conference

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilage of representing Compassion International at the Global Leadership Conference. The conference, which was live in the Willow Creek Church in Chicago, IL, was broadcast live into over 200 locations across the country. There were several wonderful speakers who blew me away in what they had to say. A couple of the speakers truly changed how I viewed things when it came to faith and how things work in the world. The speaker who spoke on the trafficking of young girls for sex all over the world made me sick and made me want to change the world.

Anyway, between speakers and music performances, I was working in what was called the resource room. People came in on the breaks to get a snack, buy some books, and walk past the display I had about Compassion International, haha.

While most did just walk past with the occasional glance, I did have about 15 people or so stop by and ask questions about how Compassion works and what kinds of things they do to help children. Questions are great, I love questions, I'll answer questions about Compassion all day if I need to. Several people told me that they were going to do some more research about Compassion online and consider sponsoring. You gotta love those logical business people, doing the research first, haha. I definitely encourage that. I know they are going to find good things when they do.

After the two day conference, four beautiful children were sponsored. Three girls and one boy.

Two little girls from Asia were sponsored immediately after the speaker who spoke about sex trafficking. Both women were grandmothers who have grandaughters. They both shared about how they could never imagine that happening to their grandaughters and had to do something to help a little girl in another country. No child should have to be pressured into sex. I agree with them completely. I'm glad they are rescuing two little girls.

One little girl was sponsored by a man with two daughters. He told me that both of his daughters and grown up and moved out on their own. He said he felt like he needed to add another daughter to his family. He sponsored a beautiful young girl with braids in her hair, from Bolivia. What a sweet story. For some reason, my heart melts even more when men choose to sponsor. Compassion in men is very attractive. (Side Note, haha)

But, my very favorite sponsorship story of the conference was mother who came to the table. She said that she wanted to sponsor a little boy who is the same age as her son. We found two boys who were born the same year as her son. She left telling me that after the conference that day she was going to go home and get her son. They came back that night and her son chose a little boy from Indonesia to sponsor. He was immediately in love with the idea of sponsorship. He asked his parents, "We can only sponsor one?" I understand just how he feels, haha. The next day, the woman approached me and told me that night, her son disappeared into his bedroom for about a half hour. When he came back out, he was holding a box of toys and clothes that he wanted to send to his new friend in Indonesia. So sweet! The woman said she just didn't have the heart to tell him that he wasn't going to be able to send those things. She took the box and had plans to donate it to a local shelter. The little boy was just so happy.

I love Compassion International!

Completeness

I sponsored my first child when I was 18 years old. I was a freshman in college. I had no money. I didn't work. I just knew it was something I needed to do. I was a relatively new christian and didn't really have too much experience in having God lead me to do something and actually listening to it. But on February 14th 2008 (also the 4th year of me being a christian), I sponsored my lovely Abu from Sierra Leone through World Vision. I had zero idea where I was going to come up with $30 a month, but every month, without fail, the money was there. A random check from my grandma, a tax refund, a kind friend who wanted to help. God lead me through Abu's sponsorship pretty much just like that every month until I graduated in 2011.

In November of 2011, I felt that call again to sponsor a 2nd child, then I received two correspondent children in December of 2011, then I sponsored again this March, and again this June, and again this July, and I added two more correspondence children just this month.

It may sound crazy, but everytime I added another child, I felt that constant pull on my heart that I was meant to do more. I was meant to sponsor another child or email Compassion about another correspondence child. It was always there. No matter how much I doubted that the money would be there, God has continued to show me that I can afford this if I continue to trust that God will give me the provision to.

This week, when Sadiya was (surprisingly) added to my account as my 4th correspondence child, I felt a brand new feeling, that I have not felt in the last year.

Completeness.

I arranged the pictures of my children in a 3x3 collage. It was both mathmatically complete and complete in my heart.

Something in my heart is telling me that I won't have any extra money coming in for awhile to sponsor another child anyway and I'm not meant to. God has given me a complete family. Nine wonderful boys and girls from 8-17 years old, that I'm meant to love and help and provide for.

While I know that my plans to visit these kids, help support their families, and even help pay for one of my kids' mothers to get an operation is not going to be cheap and it's going to take major pray and trust, I am just so excited to see where God leads me.

Instead of constantly thinking about what child I'm going to add to my family next, I'm constantly thinking about what I can do for my kids next.

I've been praying to God for a family that loves me unconditionally and he's given it to me. Nine children who love me and pray for me and think of me every day. Nine children that I can love and pray for and help in any way I can.

I just can't believe how blessed I am. Anytime I feel alone I can stand in my kitchen and look at these nine precious faces on my fridge and know that I am loved from all over the globe.

It's all got me pretty choked up lately. In the best way possible.

Any and all prayers for God's provision to provide for the needs of these children are greatly appreciated. I have a feeling that a few of these kids and their families need some big help and I want to be able to help. Help usually involves money, which I don't have, but have faith that God will provide when it's needed. 

Six Word Saturday

Please Sponsor the Beautiful Girls Here:

http://letterstoabu.blogspot.com/2012/08/touching-thursday-first-advocacy-edition.html