I just wanted to give a little introduction of myself and how I got
involved with Compassion! My husband, Kevin, is currently attending grad
school to be a physical therapist and I work in a public school
district as a speech/language pathologist. With student loans, rent, and
bills, we were tight, but that didn't stop me from spending and racking
up rather large credit card bills (I really enjoy shopping for workout
clothes). Our pastor did a series on Godly money management back in
January and February and we read a book about tithing and learning to be
on a budget to live within our means. I was super convicted! How many
more Under Armour tank tops do I really need??? ZERO!!! What a waste of
money. God really spoke to us both and we started budgeting, paid off
credit card debt, started to tithe regularly. We wanted to do more,
though, and when we went to a couple's date night featuring Jay and
Laura Laffoon, they passed cards down the rows of seats with a
Compassion child on them and asked that you just pray over the card to
see if God wanted you to sponsor that child. Well little Septora's card
came our way and I didn't even really have to pray. I got all warm and
tingly and excited! I KNEW that this was OUR kiddo and Jesus was
entrusting us to help touch his life.
Once we started sponsoring Septora, I knew that we should write him a
letter, but I just didn't know what to say. Part of me was scared that
I'd say something wrong that you aren't supposed to say or that I'd use
words that he wouldn't be able to understand. We received a letter from
Septora yesterday and that was just the boost I needed. My husband
texted me while I was at school and told me that we had received the
letter and I couldn't wait to get home. When I got home and read it, I
just started to cry. All of the sudden, Septora was REAL. He wasn't just
a picture to me anymore, but I was looking at his fingerprint that he
put on the letter, I learned about his 2 best friends, he loves the
color yellow, and he wanted me to pray for his family and his health.
Not only did he share about himself (it was just tiny snippets, but they
were beautiful, amazing snippets), but he wanted to know if I had a
family! Imagine that... he is curious about boring ole me! Needless to
say, I sat down with my husband and we immediately wrote him a letter.
It was hard to keep it short because, all of the sudden, I had a million
things to say. We included some stickers, a picture of us, a picture of
our cat, Emma, and some bandaids (I made sure that I found some YELLOW
bandaids... It's really important to me that he knows that I read his
letter know he likes yellow). Now I'm thinking of things to include with
our next letter.
Sponsoring a child is such an amazing opportunity! When my husband
graduates in August and enters the working world, we hope to sponsor
more children. I think that sponsors are blessed just as much (if not
more) than the child they sponsor. I don't mean monetarily, but blessed
emotionally. It was like the Grinch... my heart grew three times its'
size after I read that short little letter. Amazing!
