Dear Children of Mine,

I need to tell you right off the bat–we already have four kids. SPONSOR KIDS, that is. In 2005, I began sponsoring Umuhoza Albert, a little boy from Rwanda. I was a sophomore in college, with no real “home” church, but a conviction that I needed to tithe from what little money I made. I asked God to honor my design to begin sending my tithe money each month to this gorgeous little African, born August 5, 2000.

A year and a half into our journey of infertility we were approaching our second Christmas of yearning. (Doesn’t everyone dream of making their big “We’re Expecting!” announcement at Christmas?!) As we were preparing to pack our yearly shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a thought occurred to me:

What if we sponsor a new child every Christmas that we don’t have a child of our own?

Kevin easily agreed this was a great plan and so we set off contacting International Child Care Ministries, of the Free Methodist Church. We chose a little girl this time – Alison Carolina Bayas Taco. (yes, her last name is Taco…isn’t that awesome!) Alison lives in Quito, Ecuador and was born on September 30, 2004.

At Christmastime 2012, we perused the ICCM website once again, searching for a young boy from a different country. Blaise Irumva jumped off of the page, perhaps because his name is Blaise, but also because he smile was so kind and genuine. He is from Burundi, a neighbor of Rwanda, and was born May 7, 1999, just a few months older than Umuhoza.

And suddenly it was our FOURTH CHRISTMAS of longing. How could so much time have already passed? With the same longing filling our hearts, we searching the pages of ICCM and found a little girls from Nepal. Sapana Prajha was born July 23, 2002 and has the prettiest grin filling her face.

I wish I could scoop up each of these little ones and hug them tight. Hear their stories and dreams, know their fears and pain. I wish I could mother them as my heart desires. But I am thankful for the opportunity to love them from afar, to care for them as best I can. While I wait.

How many children will we have by the time you join us? You’re going to have lots of pictures to color and send to your brothers and sisters around the world. 

Coloring without you, for now,
Mama