Her chocolate-brown eyes stare at me from the photo that sits on our piano. My fingers dance over the keys and I wonder what she does to relax, whether she’s ever even seen a piano before.
I wonder if she’s had adequate access to food and water today, and my stomach lurches guiltily as I think of the long shopping list I will tick off later.
Her birthday is coming up soon. In my mind I see streamers, toys, loud music and party games, a large chocolate cake laden with icing and candles. The way so many children celebrate their eighth birthday. The way I undoubtedly celebrated mine. But I know it will be a different picture for her. I hope it will in some way be special, but I know there won’t be cakes or presents.
She likes to play netball and go to Church. She enjoys helping out her mum and she sends me little drawings she sketched out after reading one of my letters.
We pay such a little through Compassion – the price of a few coffees out a month – but I know it changes her life. She gets food, education, support. And she changes us, too. We get relationship, stories, prayers. I can’t help but think that her prayers for our family are some of the most constant and powerful in our family life. There is such power in the prayers of a child, and I am grateful to be supported spiritually by a girl who is so poor in money and yet so rich in grace. She teaches me humility daily.
I feel a kick in my womb and I am overwhelmed with gratitude – that God has given us all we need to look after our own child, and He’s given us more, as well. In His generosity, He has provided for us that we might provide a little for her, too.
We are blessed.
But more than that, we are blessed so that we might bless.
**If you would like to sponsor a child through Compassion International (and do not feel like you have to – that is not the point of this post!), or if you just want to find out more about what they do, then visit their website by clicking here.
