Viky

The same day I decided to sponsor Ice, I went browsing through photos on Compassion's website.

By the way, if you ever plan on doing this, you better be ready to give up your monthly Starbucks fix. :)

I looked through the photos of the children who have been waiting 6 months or longer for a sponsor. So many darling children with such hopeful faces...and one caught my eye.

A boy in India. Most of the boys in India had ties, but not this one. His clothes looked well worn and not so clean. His expression was a little lost, and his story shattered my heart.

I knew I had to sponsor him. I went looking for one child and ended up with two.

Viky lives with his grandmother. Both of his parents are alive, but his father is absent from the picture and his mother is in a mental institution. (the details of this are a little sketchy)

He loves to play games and out of all my sponsored children, his letters are the sweetest. He is 8 years old. I don't really know what Viky's daily life is like, but he's a pretty talented artist. He can draw a lovely house, just like an American child would, and many other things as well.

For his last birthday, he bought clothes and chocolate with the money I sent him. I was so excited to see that he spent it on something like chocolate, because I firmly believe in my heart that everyone deserves a little fun gift now and then.

I hope you will consider sponsoring a child if you don't already. I know the blog probably seems like one long commercial this month, but I want to make something clear.

In the beginning, you feel like the hero for sponsoring a child. But in the end, it is a profoundly humbling experience and the blessing outweighs the small strain the 32 dollars a month puts on you. The letters you will receive from your child remind you of what is important...life. Their lives.

Each of these children are real. They are real people. And because Jesus loves us, we get to love each other. How cool is that?

Compassion is taking a trip to East India later this year and I really want to go--to meet Viky. Of all my kids, I just really want to hug him. But it costs $4000!! Do you know what kind of chunk that is out of my annual salary? I want to meet my kids even more after reading the Ugandan blogs and so here's what I'm thinking....somehow I just need to multiply my daily traffic by about a million and maybe I could blog for them on such a trip.

Will blog to meet Compassion child. :)

(next Friday I'll introduce you to my fourth and final (for now!) Compassion child. Then the following Friday, I'll wrap up Compassion blog month with some yet-to-be-determined really cool post. I forgot when I started this series that this February has five Fridays! and three paydays!)

(Shaun has invited us to submit our Compassion stories...I chose this one because it's most recent--read more here)