Adding to our family

I read an anonymous quote the other day that said this...

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.”
“Well, why don’t you ask Him?”
“Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”

The truth is (according to Micah 6, Matthew 25:31-46, Isaiah 58, ...) me doing something about those things is pretty important to God.
I believe God IS doing something about it and it is through His people that He accomplishes that. And really, its not that hard to be a participant in what God is doing.
The opportunities are there.
The question for me is not about opportunity, it's about willingness.
Willingness to possibly give up some of MY comfort, MY luxury, MY time, MY, MY, MY.
The crazy thing is, NONE OF IT was MINE to begin with. I only have it because God gave it to me and I am humbled by the thought that I probably spend more at Starbucks in a month than some families in other countries make in a month.

Imagine what could be accomplished if WE as Christians just cut back (I'm not even talking about giving it up completely) on our Starbucks addictions (or maybe your addiction is Diet Coke, or Cold Stone, or Target, or ....) and used the money we didn't spend to help someone else.

Did you know that for around $30 a month you can help a family not only survive but find hope and joy in Jesus? (Do you spend more than that on your cable bill or maybe the gym?)
There are SEVERAL ministries out there set up to do this.
I don't know if you noticed it or not, but there is a new widget on my blogs for one of those ministries. And at the bottom of my photoblog, there are a couple of links as well.
These particular ministries are ones that I have researched to make sure that the money isn't used up in administration costs. But if they aren't something you feel like you can get behind, I encourage you to find something that you can.

As I have prayed about choosing what to do, I have really focused on finding something that our kids can be involved with. Something that will help them develop a sense of unselfishness, even at their young ages now. I pray that they can already see others through God's eyes and have hearts of compassion -that they will learn to see the importance of helping others before splurging on their own selfish desires. (Don't hear that my kids don't get nice things that they want and don't need. They do. Too much.) So when we went to Catalyst I felt pretty strongly that the answer was sponsoring a child that each of my children could relate to. I decided to let them pick the child and started praying for God's divine intervention in who we would eventually choose. And the more I prayed, the more I felt like we could and should do more. So earlier this week I started telling them about the opportunity we would have to help someone in need on a regular basis and then last night I sat at the computer and let each boy choose a boy that was their age to sponsor through Compassion. (side note... one of the things I love about Compassion is that you don't just send your money. You actually get involved in the child's life by writing letters, sending gifts and even possibly visiting.)

Merritt is SOOOO excited about this. Once he knew we were going to do this, he wouldn't let me be until I sat down at the computer with him to pick the boy we were going to sponsor for him. He picked a boy from India because the boy had been waiting for more than 6 months to get a sponsor and he liked the same things Merritt likes (playing ball games and reading). Once we finished processing the request he asked me to print out the boy's picture and name. He has shown it to everyone he has come across since then. He even took it to the neighbors house to show them. He can hardly wait to get the packet in the mail so he can send his first letter. And for the first 1/2 hour after we finished he kept coming over to me and kissing me and telling me he loved me. Sooooo excited!!! He has lots of questions, but I love his outlook on it all. He said to me, "Mom, it's like God gave me another brother that won't ever live with me." And when he asked if he would ever get to visit his new brother, and I told him that I wasn't sure because of how far away he lived. He told me, "Mom, we CAN visit him. If we really want to some day I just know we can!"

Mason is excited too, but not like Merritt. He has been home sick with a pretty high fever, but he didn't want to wait to pick the boy for him either. So I sat at the computer with him on my lap and we look through all the 5 year old boys needing sponsors and he picked a boy from Peru. When I first opened the sponsorship pages, the boy Mason finally picked was the first boy he pointed to and said he was the one. I encouraged him to look through some more and make sure because Mason is the fickle one of my children. The more we looked though the more certain he was of the boy he wanted to choose. Once we were all done I asked him why he picked that boy, he said it was because he liked his shirt the best. (He did comment on every boy's shoes too.)

I am soooo looking forward to how God is going to use this bit of willingness on our parts in not only the lives of the children we are sponsoring, but in the hearts of my own children. Merritt is particularly concerned about Molly having a sponsored child too. I told him we would sponsor a child for Molly when she was 5 and old enough to handle the responsibility that comes with it. Merritt even suggested that we have some new family rules that include praying for our sponsored children at least 1 time a day and writing them a letter at least 1 time a month.
Sounds like GREAT rules to me!

If you want to read some awesome stories about Compassion.
Check these out...
http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/holding_hands_with_uncle_john/
http://www.flowerdust.net/2009/04/28/lakshmi/
http://jonesbones5.com/2009/05/01/doll/
http://www.pensieve.me/2009/04/compassion-international-india-day-5.html
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2009/05/revelation.html
http://www.spencesmith.com/2009/04/30/street-kids-prostitutes-slums-and-a-better-future/