Journey To Compassion! We Picked A Child!

SOOOOOOOOOOO where did I leave off? I have to think...So that night we were laying in bed & I tapped Colin & said "are you awake? I think God is telling us to sponsor a little girl from India." Now this was a total shock to me since I have always loved Africa, it is "my" country & my natural reaction even when I was talking to Brit was " Oh I would sponsor a boy, & of course he has to be from Africa." He agreed of course & said it was okay because he trusted my judgement. I believe the reason why we both were lead to India, and a girl no less, was the day before I went to Brit's, we were reading in our Missionary Stories with the kids & there was a story in there about Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India. We just about made it through the story that out of the whole book affected us the most. We were moved to tears as we read about the evil cruelty young girls have to endure there. Okay the next day was busy so we talked to the kids at dinner & told them what God had laid on our hearts & how important this was to us & how it would affect our whole family. They were excited, especially Mia who can write to her & Eli said he will send her a picture he made :) I love that my babies are learning about giving to others & loving those who God places in our lives for a reason. We ate excitedly & hurriedly cleaned up & went to the computer. Colin & I also agreed we wanted to help an older girl too, since most people tend to go for babies & younger kids. We found out on the website that certain kids have hearts on them because they have been waiting at least 6 months for a sponsor. We naturally were all for one of them! Boy was it a hard decision! We read about lots of girls & where they lived, how they lived, what they ate, who their families were...my kids are already learning a lot about the country & poverty. We watched lots of videos on Youtube on Compassion to help them understand what we were about to do. We also commited that we would never leave or abandon this child, that we would support her for as long as she needed us & that she would be a part of our hearts, lives & family always! Well I couldn't decide for a while. the pages sort of blurred together as we prayed & I cried. It felt so awful! How do you chose? Colin & I put the kids to bed after devotion & prayer time & he had to run out to CVS, so I sat with the computer praying. Finally I made a decision, the very first girl I had looked at I kept going back to. When Colin got back I told him I finally chose. When he sat down, scrolled the page down & saw her pic he smiles & said with tears in his eyes :"That's the one I chose". WOW! AMAZING!!!!!! We showed the kids the next day & told them we were going to learn about India & get to know her & her family. This girl lives in a home with a dirt floor & cardboard walls. Sobering. We have so much. They have so little. God help us. To be content. With what we have. To share what we have. To sacrifice & give of ourselves when it hurts. How could we not? She was meant to be. We found her & we love her already! We got a whole packet in yesterday & read all about her & her picture is in a frame in the living room, next to our family photo in a frame. We are going to start our very own scrapbook with the first things we received & look forward to the years ahead. Tomorrow we are going to write our first letter to her & our journey begins................