The Passion Returns

I have to admit, my passion for Sponsorship had waned quite a bit over the past year. I don't know why. I still thought about my girls every day, and I knew I *should* be writing to them and connecting with other Sponsors on MSC ... but I didn't. I regret that time that I've lost, and I am SO relieved to feel the passion returning, hovering just beneath my breastbone.

A lot has happened since last I wrote.

Jessica from Ecuador moved, and left the program. I did not take a replacement child for her.

Anna Marie graduated from the CI program. She is still attending college, which is funded until 2017. It's nice to take a break from the constant fundraisers for her! I'll probably start up again next year to fund her senior year of college. Although she has graduated, I am still able to support her through CI because her younger sister is sponsored. Thank goodness! I was not keen on the idea of dealing directly with her college, and I did not want to sponsor her younger brother.

Joyce has finished her first year of college. She is attending a private college in another city. With Anna Marie's schooling funded, I have been able to turn my own resources to supporting Joyce. I've also inquired about sponsoring her younger sister Jocelyn, who I know from one of Joyce's past letters isn't sponsored.

Yojana will graduate from the CI program in a couple of months. I had originally intended to sponsor her youngest sister in her place, but now I don't think I'm going to. Yojana is working in the city to help support her family, and she writes that she likes her coworkers.

I still have my twins Cindy and Sandy in Guatemala, but I'm finding more and more that my heart for sponsorship is in the Philippines.The twins still do not write their own letters, even though they are now nine years old. I hope, once they begin to write on their own, that I will be able to feel more of a connection with them. I do not write to them nearly as often as I should, for which I feel terrible.

I'm waiting for an updated Family Report from Jie to see if she is still in school or not. I think she was just old enough (like Joyce) to graduate high school under the old system at 16, but I don't know if she's gone on to college. I would be surprised if she has--her family is desperately poor and has recently expressed struggles with even feeding themselves.

Piyu's most recent letter speaks of her upcoming exams, for which she is studying hard and expects to do well. I need to find some way to support her if she scores high enough to continue her education--I'm so frustrated by my lack of finances! That pay cut I took when I stepped down from being a supervisor *really* hurt my ability to provide for my girls.

There's not much to report with my young teens and youngest girls--probably because my focus has all been on the struggle of keeping the older girls in school. For this reason, I am *very* glad that the new educational system is in place in the Philippines and all the rest of my girls will be in high school until they are eighteen.

With the exception of taking Jocelyn when Yojana graduates, I have made the decision to not take any "replacement children" when any of mine graduate or leave the program for any other reason ... not until I get down to five sponsorships. As much as I love having so many, I feel like I am doing them a disservice by stretching my resources too thin. So eventually, if they do not leave the program beforehand, I will be down to Ruth, Danise, Anikka, Jasmin, Cindy and Sandy. The twins will graduate at the same time, of course, and at that time I will *finally* take a new child. That'll be ten years from now. That's mind-boggling.

Lots of Updates (and Lots of Photos)!

My dear friends, I have been remiss in keeping up with this blog lately. As many of you know, life hit me pretty hard in late spring and early summer. I'm finally feeling like I may be on the upswing ... just in time for the holidays!

Let's begin with simple updates:

Annual Photos!

Dianne

Jasmin

Jessica, August

Jessica, December

Jie

Paola

Maria

Yojana

Next, we'll talk about new Sponsorships!

Jannati

Luke and I decided to jointly sponsor a young lady from India. Her name is Jannati--some of you may recognize her from a Spotlight Child blog I wrote several months ago. Jannati lives in Delhi with her parents and five older siblings. The family's three-room home is entirely brick--floor, walls AND roof! They have regulated electricity, a private water pump and a septic tank, and they cook on a gas stove. There are two beds in the home, but Jannati sleeps on a mattress on the floor. She attends school, where her favorite subject is languages. In her free time, she likes to run and play hide-and-seek with her friends.

In November, I was looking through the list of waiting children to find another candidate for a Spotlight Child blog. As I clicked through the girls in the Philippines, I noticed several photos that were very different from what we're used to seeing. Most of the Philippine children dress in their very best clothes and smile charmingly for the camera, and the photos are taken with pretty floral backgrounds or on nice benches at the center. These new photos ... were different. They all seemed to have been posted in the same seven day span, and nearly all of them had the bright yellow "Most Needy" marker.These photos looked like they may have been taken right in the children's neighborhood. They're not smiling. They're not dressed in freshly-washed, new-appearing clothes. Many of them are barefoot.

They're the sort of images that appear in the television ads, actually.

And they were heartbreaking.

Danise

Anikka

Two of the little girls in particular grabbed at my heartstrings: Anikka and Danise. Their birthdays are only two days apart; they both turned five a couple weeks ago. They both have dirt floors. Anikka's roof is thatch, her family has no electricity, and they get their water from a nearby stream. Danise's family has a palm-leaf roof and illegally-tapped electricity. There is so much I can do to help both of these girls--they have so little! So I tightened my belt a little more, and decided to sponsor them both.



And updates from my other girls:

Anna Marie

Anna Marie has successfully completed her first semester of college, studying in a Bachelor's program for Business Management with a focus on Human Resource Development. The funds for her second semester were submitted to Children International in September, and the semester began in October! I want to thank everyone who contributed to the fundraiser--all together you provided over half of the total amount due! If you are interested in helping again, I do have a fundraiser set up for her third semester (or, of course, you can always contact me directly if you don't want to donate via FirstGiving!).

Joyce's Birthday

Joyce's Family

Joyce turned fifteen at the end of August. I sent an SNG for her in celebration of her special day. Most of it was used to buy food and clothes, of course, but they did use some of it to have a birthday party for Joyce! Her whole class and her teacher came, and she had a birthday cake for the very first time in her life. CI sent me a LOT of photos, including some of her family AND one of her with her classmates and teacher--how cool is that?!

Joyce's Class and Teacher

When a fellow Lifter, Macky, traveled to Guatemala this autumn to visit her own sponsored children, she offered to put together a collection of goodies for my three girls there, too! Of course I took her up on her generous offer, and the smiles on my girls' faces make me so glad I did!

Cindy & Sandy

Yojana

Whew! I think that MOSTLY catches everything up! I'm sure there were a couple other SNGs that I haven't even scanned the photos for yet ... I'm getting there! =)

Two Letters Today ... Again!

I'm on a roll this week! When I checked my mailbox before work today, I found the welcome kit for Jessica AND an envelope with the CWs from Cindy and Sandy, my Guatemalan twins! Both letters were written by the girls' aunt Alicia.

Sandy's letter says:

Estimada Padrina,

Ms. Dillon Sandy Fabiola le saluda con carino. Le cuenta que esta muy horguyosa con su familia. Ella le cuenta que esta muy bien de su salud. Ella esta muy feliz de ir en la escuela por su primer grado que va ir este ano. Le mando muchos abrazos por aberla apadrinada. Se lo agradesa mucho. Ahora esta muy feliz con usted por aberme elejida como su aheijada. La agradese mucho a usted padrina por aberme elejida. Esta agradecida con usted. Le mando muchos abrazos y un saludo.

Alicia Veronica
Soy tia de Sandy Fabiola

Translation (mine, not CI's):

Esteemed Sponsor,

Ms. Dillon Sandy Fabiola greets you with love. She tells you that she is very proud with her family. She tells you that she is in good health. She is very joyful to go to school for her first grade that she will go this year. I send you many hugs for having sponsored her. She is very grateful for it. Now she is very joyful with you for having selected her as your sponsored child. She thanks you alot Sponsor for having selected her. She is grateful to you. She sends you many hugs and a greeting.

Alicia Veronica
I am the aunt of Sandy Fabiola

What a grateful letter! I don't think I've ever been so profusely thanked before! I am happy to know that she is going to attend first grade this year.

Cindy's letter is, unsurprisingly, similar:

Estimada Padrina,

Ms. Dillon Cindy Fabiola la saluda con carino. Le cuenta que esta muy bien con su familia. Quiere agradeser mucho por aberla aseptado como su aheijada. Ella esta muy contenta de recibir su carino y su ayuda. Cindy le cuenta que ella va en la escuela en su primer grado. Ella esta muy feliz por aberla aceptado. Ella esta muy horgullosa. Ella agradece mucho por aber empadrana. Se ciente muy feliz. Le manda un habrazo.

Alicia Veronica
Soy tia de Cindy Fabiola

My translation:

Esteemed Sponsor,

Ms. Dillon Cindy Fabiola greets you with love. She tells you that she is very well with her family. She wants to thank you a lot for having accepted her as your sponsored child. She is very happy to receive your love and your help. Cindy tells you that she goes to school in her first grade. She is very joyful that you have accepted her. She is very proud. She thanks you a lot for having sponsored her. She feels very joyful. She sends you a hug.

Alicia Veronica
I am the aunt of Cindy Fabiola

Again, the gratefulness just spills off the page!

On the back of both letters, I have learned that the area where they live has churches, schools, forests and rivers, but no volcanoes (thankfully!). They both like a wide variety of fruits, and they celebrate birthdays and Christmas.

Looks like I'll be spending my days off writing back to all my wonderful girls!

Two New Sponsorships!

I was working on this week's Spotlight Child of the Week blog--the first of 2013. I intend to focus this year's Spotlight on the minority and indigenous children in the countries CI serves, and so I was browsing specifically for these children in the Waiting List, opening each child's profile in a new tab as I found them. As I started to assemble them into order for the blog, I found myself thinking that two of the Mayan girls must be from the same area--their clothes were very similar. Then I noticed that each of their family incomes was listed at $78. And then I noticed that everything else about their family and home matched. "Siblings!" I thought excitedly.

Then I noticed that they will both celebrate their seventh birthday on January 18th. "OMG, TWINS!" I've been intrigued by the idea of sponsoring twins for quite a while, and so I was fairly bouncing off the couch with excitement.

Two quick clicks of the mouse, and two new Sponsorships were born.

Without further ado, allow me to present Sandy Fabiola and Cindy Fabiola!




















Sandy (left) enjoys playing with dolls, and her listed talent is drawing. Like her sister, Cindy also enjoys playing with dolls, and her listed talents are drawing and painting. The girls live with their parents and one other sibling--a younger sister named Natalia--in a concrete block and corrugated metal home. They have water and electricity, and they both attend school.

I can't wait to write to them, and to receive their first letters!

I love their outfits--they're so pretty! Green is my favorite color, and their blouses caught my attention long before I even had a notion that they might be related.