Meet My Girl!

Dale and I have sponsored children for several years. Last March, we received a call that our girl had graduated from the program. We prayed about where to take a new child from. At the time I was in the process of preparing to go to Uganda with Children's Hopechest. God told me to wait. He had a child there for me.

The second orphanage we visited was called Rapha. I learned so much there. The kids quickly showed me what is important in life and what is not. I learned what it feels like to watch hungry children sit in the shadows watching the sponsored kids eat. I learned that soap and shoes and underwear are privileges, not necessities. I learned how to play hand games to count numbers and recite your ABC's, since chalkboards are also not essential.

We traveled on to other sites which progressively became worse, if that is even possible. The situations were dire. Signs of hope faded.

At the end of the vision trip, I still felt a pull towards Rapha. Perhaps it was because the children there shine for Jesus. I told Brandi to find a child for me there. She said I would have to wait because all of the orphans had sponsors. I agreed to do just that.

In my quiet time one morning, I felt God telling me that He had a girl for me(up to this point I was open to either gender).I e-mailed Brandi, informing her of this revelation and she e-mailed right back and said she just happened to have a girl who needed a sponsor. God is so good and works in amazing ways. I wanted to cry that the God of the universe would care about me and my desires and save this sweet girl just for us.

Her name is Harriet. She is standing next to Arthur who is the team leader at Rapha. Isn't she beautiful? One day she won't have those "orphan eyes". I pray that the sadness, distrust, fear and loneliness will be gone. In exchange may her eyes reflect joy, trust and the love of her Savior. Oh how I want to go over and just sqeeze the juice right out of her and tell her that I love her.