During the last couple of months, I've been taking money out of my savings account simply to pay bills and to buy groceries. I know that sponsoring children is good, but there is no way that God wants me to sacrifice meeting my own basic needs, paying my rent, and paying off student loan debt. In fact, the bible mentions paying off debts quite a lot.
So, I began to pray. Which child was I supposed to cancel? How could I do this? Each of my children have such a special story of how they came to join my family. I just couldn't imagine how I was going to do this. A friend of mine helped me think through it logically. The children I've been sponsoring for over a year and I have developed a relationship with, I need to keep. My three World Vision kids are staying with me. My beautiful girl in Honduras, who I will be visiting next year, I clearly cannot cancel her sponsorship. My kids in India? No way. My heart is so with India and I know that I will be spending time there in the future.
Well, that left one child, my Yonas from Ethiopia.
Yonas is 8 years old and his birthday is December 12th. He's in 3rd grade. He lives with his aunt and brother. His favorite thing to do is ride bikes, his favorite food is soup, he likes horses, his favorite color is red, and when he grows up, he wants to be a scientist.
If you would like to sponsor him, I will gladly share his information with you and you can call up Compassion to add him to your family.
I will be calling Compassion to cancel this afternoon.
Prayers are much appreciated!
Kayla, did you know you can put his sponsorship on hold for a little bit? That might give you a little more time to advocate on his behalf....
ReplyDeletepraying for you and for Yonas
Thanks Jill, I did know that was an option, but for some reason, I felt like that wasn't the path for me to go. I'm not sure why, though. Yonas is off of my account already. Thanks for your prayers.
DeleteI'm so sorry Kayla. I'm currently in danger of feeling the same pain with my Lawrence. (I posted about it on OC, I'm Rachael (Maradoddsy))
ReplyDeleteThinking of you and Yonas x
I saw that, Rachel. I am so sorry about that. I'm going to keep praying for you. I think that God might have something special in store for you. Have you considered maybe asking for sponsorship money in place of Christmas presents from you family and friends?
DeleteAw I really hope so Kayla, I've been in tears several times today at the thought of giving him up. Then was very saddened to come on your blog & see that you have had to cancel. I hope something is in store.
ReplyDeleteI did say that to my parents but they weren't keen, maybe other family & friends though. I'm just praying that something will work out.
There is no easy way to say it, but forget your parents, haha. My parents are completely against child sponsorship. They think it's ridiculous to give money to a child in another country that I will most likely never meet. I currently sponsor 6 kids and my mom only knows about 2 of them. She knows about Abu, because I sponsored him in college and let her know and she knows that I sponsor Celeste, since I will be going to Honduras to visit her next summer.
DeleteBut, other than that, it's between me and God. I feel like it's what I'm meant to do and I've had to learn to basically not care how my parents feel about it. If you're meant to sponsor Lawrence, God will show you a way to do it. Keep praying. Maybe he will show you a part time job or your family and friends will pull through with a few months sponsorship to help out.
I'm in the same situation. I also sponsor six, and my Mom only knows about two: my first girl, Himanshu Lata, in India; and Iuliana, my girl in Romania. She has no idea that I have another Romanian girl, an Albanian girl, and two other Indian girls! LOL!
DeleteIt was definitely very tricky when I was waiting to get the sponsored packets in the mail after I sponsored each additional child, because I live with my Mother, and those packets clearly say "MEET YOUR NEW SPONSORED CHILD" on the front. I have managed to intercept them all, thank God! I know one day she'll figure it out, but you know what, I'm a lawyer, I make my own money, and it's mine to spend so she'll just have to learn to deal with it!
You go girl! That's exactly how I feel. I am 23 years old, I'm a teacher, I know how much money I can put towards sponsorships each month, except for this unexpected loss of work hours at my church that led to me dropping Yonas. I know how to pay my bills and I pay everything on time. I will sponsor how many kids I want to. I will tell her about them as I need to. When I go to India someday, it'll be like I'm dropping a bomb on her, haha.
DeleteAhahahaha, I know, right? I have three total from India right now. Love that country and love sponsoring from there! If I was going to add another, I'd go with India again.
DeleteThe next time I have some money, I will be sponsoring another boy from Albania. I'm feeling extremely called there right now. Unless, when I go to Honduras, I fall in love with a child and sponsor them right then and there. That's been known to happen on these trips.
DeleteI'd love another Albanian child too. There was actually a girl on the WV website the other day that really pulled at my heartstrings but I had to tell myself to look away (lol) because I can't do seven. My Albanian girl's letters are the fastest of any of my kids. They get here in about a month and a half. In fact, I'm expecting a letter from her hopefully sometime this week.
DeleteIt usually takes two months round trip to get letters from my Albanian kids. For example, I sent both of my boys money in September and I just got letters and pictures of what they bought. Unless God has other plans, which He usually does (haha), I will sponsor another boy from Albania soon.
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ReplyDeleteHaha, ignore the parents seems to be good advice. I'm not glad, but it's interesting to see that others have the same issue with theirs.
ReplyDeleteI found out today from World Vision that you can take a 3-6 month financial break if you've been a sponsor a year or more. I'll be a year on boxing day, so I'm delighted to know that that's an option.
In the future, I definitely plan to sponsor more, and have been drawn to Albania from reading your tales about Florenc & Xhuliano! I'm also keen to sponsor in India also. I've plenty time to think about it & see who I'm brought to at the time! :)
Rachael, I'm not exactly sure how old you are, but if you're still in high school, I would at least hold off waiting to sponsor another child, if your parents are too keen on the idea of you even keeping the one you have. But, I say as soon as you're a legal adult, sponsor how ever many you want/are able to!
DeleteOh yes, definitely! My main concern at the moment is holding on to Lawrence. I'm just talking about the future. This could be years, or it could be months, just depends how things pan out :) but I will definitely make sure I'm financially able before adding another child.
ReplyDeleteI'm 19, almost 20 by the way :P I'm not still at school although I do still live with my parents.