Compassion

I am really excited today about a new commitment our family has made!  For some time, we have been wanting to sponsor a Compassion girl close to Hannah's age... and I thought it would be cool if they even had the same exact birthday!  I was starting to get impatient though because kids cannot enter Compassion's sponsorship program until they are 3, and then, the organization isn't so big that you can easily be picky about a child's birthday.  I have been watching and watching, and today, a little girl popped up with Hannah's exact birthday!  I was so excited; I took her immediately!  The little girl's name is Valkhiria Calamani, and she lives in Bolivia, South America! 


All through Jesus' teachings, we see that we are called to help those less fortunate than us.  I often feel like my kids have SO MUCH... too much.... much, much more than they NEED.  Yes, it's fun to have cute clothes and fun toys, but there are kids who need FOOD and MEDICINE.  A statistic from Radical that I can't shake from my mind is that 26,000 children die every DAY due to starvation.  Really??  We have got to stop this! 


All kids deserve to know that somebody loves them.  That God loves them.  That someone else in the world thinks enough of them to help them have the food and medicine which I'm sure their own families desperately wish they could provide.  Why were my kids born in America, where we have so much?  Why was I born in America where we have so much?  It's amazing to think that on the SAME EXACT day that I was at Carle Hospital, being flown in by helicopter, surrounded by an expert team of medical professionals watching Hannah's every breath, little Valkhiria was born in Bolivia, with a much more modest arrival, I'm sure.  


My hope and prayer is that this little girl will be a part of our family (through financial support, prayers, and letters) until the girls are raised, and maybe even then, the girls will continue conversations, exchanging letters.  Who knows?  Maybe one day, we'll go to Bolivia and meet her (wouldn't that be cool?).  My ultimate prayer is that through Compassion, this little girl will know that she is loved by God and that she will love him back.  And hopefully Hannah will learn something about giving along the way!