September is the month for Compassion Blogging and I just feel stumped.

I love Compassion, love our Compassion kiddos (this year we both lost and gained one), believe in the necessity, the success and the sustainability of it, but I feel parched for an angle with which to add to the conversation. My brain feels clogged and my heart is just plain distracted.

These days, I’m focused on the three kiddos living in my home. Their hearts are the top priority of my own at the moment, these uprooted and displaced shoots. Oh, they’re doing fine, really. More than fine. They love life, enjoy school, run circles around me and one another. They walk with heads held high into church or school or playground.

They smile, always.

But it’s a delicate dance, this new life. Eight months in, now, and we are all a bit tired. Dinner table conversations are a bit heated. They are a bit short with one another and with us. In truth, I am a bit short in return. Tears fall a little easier than they used to. And they are not sad, no, just… weary, or frustrated.

I am so thankful for the country we now live in, for the teachers and the programs and the youth workers and the lay people who guide them, shape them, teach them and love them. They have no want for people in their lives, and for this I am so grateful. But still, my attentions are those they seek most… and when I could be writing letters to Daphine or our new little guy in Colombia, I am instead slicing apples or my lap is occupied by one little person or another. When I could be writing about poverty in Uganda, I am instead writing about bedtime routines and the way Jack lowers to one knee as he reads a book on the floor.

And when I think of Compassion month and the children around the world marching into their sponsored programs in their own uniforms and with their own school books, I think of the classmates of my children, who themselves are from around the world: North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe. They’ve all come here, too, just like we have. These wee ones, uprooted and displaced shoots, just the same.

I wonder at it all… how small this world is, how strong the need for love, how children are so much the same, no matter the skin or the country or the language or the heart. I wonder what I could give to them, how much I have to offer them, when I am consumed by the well-being and survival of my own.

Can I make room?

Will I make room?

Our children here have ample support, education, health care and love. But, so many children go without, and as you know, Compassion aims to change that. Child sponsorship IS a necessity, it is successful and it is sustainable… if only people like you and me keep saying, Yes, I’ll give. 

Even when I can’t go, even when I have children here who need me, I’ll keep saying yes.



The goal for Compassion Blogging Month 2013 is 3,160. Last year we superceded our goal! Let's do it again.

Five Friday (and/or Saturday) Favourites

A day late, but here are the goods:

1) yankee BAKER :: Our friend Sheryl is running a fabulous little bakery business out of her home in Dublin. For our anniversary, we enjoyed her amazing cinnamon rolls and I'm sure we'll be frequent customers (and weight gainers). If you're local, please visit her page and order some tasty treats!

2) Loop Head :: One of the perks to our job is we can frequently "take our kids to work," especially when we are visiting other members of our organization. So this week we grabbed the fam and visited a coworker on the west side of Ireland. She was so gracious to show us around and let our kids explore a bit this beautiful area. At one point it felt like we had reached the edge of the earth. So remote, so beautiful, up high on the edge of the sea. Thankful for moments like this that keep us refreshed.



3) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society :: After five years of this sitting on my shelf, I finally read this quick, enchanting novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the characters were so rich, funny and endearing, and the unfolding history of this literary society was surprisingly profound. Especially after visiting Loop Head this week, I could so envision the Channel Islands and the community of Guernsey. I want to go to there.

4) This video mashup of The Lumineers' Ho Hey and Will Ferrel's impersonation of Harry Caray.

5) Compassion on Instagram :: Celebrating their 2nd anniversary on Instagram, Compassion International is sponsoring a Photo Scavenger Hunt. Through the end of July, you can participate by capturing an image of one of several items including - but not limited to - a baby scale (representing their Child Survival Program), a flag of one of the nations where Compassion works, a goat or cow (representing the livelihood of the developing world), a stethescope, and many more. I've just joined Instagram for android and am already bummed I missed so many cow picture opportunities on our trip out west. :) For more image ideas and how to enter, visit Compassion's Blog. And don't forget to use the hashtag #compassionhunt. And if you're not on Instagram, no worries! You can also join in on Pinterest, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter. Oh, and did I mention there are prizes...?

Ok, so what are you up to this week? Any favourites?

Compassion Blog Month :: A girl just like me

You say you love windows
You sit next to them, feel the breeze on your face
We have no windows here
Our door has no door

You say you love rain
Hearing it, smelling it, tasting it
Our rainy season is just beginning
Our sick season is just beginning

You say you love hills
and the river that runs through your city
I live on a hill, walk these hills
Carrying water, searching for firewood

You say you have children
a girl just like me
You say Jesus loves the little children
even a girl, just like me.

***

The truth is, I am so woefully ignorant as to what her life is like, if she has shoes, where she sleeps. But they tell me she sings and runs and plays hide & seek and farms the land alongside her parents. That is enough to imagine her running, singing, digging hands in the dirt alongside the girl I've got here. The same heart, the same fire, the same sky.

This is the fourth and final post for Compassion Blog Month. Our goal? 3108 children sponsored this month. It's not too late to sponsor a child from an impoverished nation, a child who needs medical care, an education, friends to play with and skills to live by. 

Will you visit Compassion right now, will you click on her name, will you change her life?

Pinterest + Compassion = Love

Ok, so two of my favourite things are joining forces to love on some kiddos. Compassion is sponsoring a Pinterest contest where you can show your love and support for your own sponsored child and the amazing work that Compassion does around the world.

Here are the basics:

1. Create a Pinterest board titled “My Sponsored Child.”

2. On the board you create:

• pin the image in this post and associate the following link with the pin: compassion.com/my-sponsored-child.
• pin any one of the following and tag this second pin with #mysponsoredchild:
• A photo of you and your sponsored child together.
• A photo of you with a letter from your sponsored child.
• A photo of you holding a photo of your sponsored child.
• pin anything else you want that is relevant to your sponsored child or Compassion.

Courtesy of Compassion International: http://blog.compassion.com/my-sponsored-child-pinterest-contest/#ixzz26wkIR3Kv

The rest of the rules can be found here, but the best part is the prizes:

Ten separate sponsors will win a $25 gift for their sponsored child.
Five separate sponsors will win a $100 gift for their sponsored child’s family.

So get started! Contest is on! Get pinning. 

This is the third in a series of posts for Compassion Blog Month. Our goal? 3108 children sponsored this month. Will you hop over to Compassion right now and sponsor a child (or two, or five)? And if you do, leave a wee comment here, or tell me about the child(ren) you already sponsor. :)

Compassion Blog Month :: First, Lord, Forgive Me

First, Lord, forgive me. I'm a terrible sponsor. I forget and I am distracted. I don't write that often and when I do, I'm never sure what to say. So please, Lord, don't let my total lameness at child sponsorship affect these precious children. I know you won't, I just feel like I needed to say it. Repent. Turn this thing around. Go in a better direction.

Can you help me do that?

Also, God, would you please move in their lives in visible, nearly audible, irrepresible ways? I want them to know you, seek you, follow you, worship you. I want them to feel your presence, walking with them down the road to school or home or the market or wherever. Sometimes, as a child, I'm not sure I knew you were there, always there. But those kiddos, especially the teenager, Lord, walk beside him and tap him on the shoulder and turn his face to you. 

They say they pray for me, and I just fall apart at that. I don't pray for them very often God. Not really. And when I do it's quick and to the point, with the kiddos at night so they don't forget. Thank you for their prayers. Thank you for simple faith. Thank you that even in my inadequacies as a faithful prayer and sometimes belated Christmas gift giver, you take care of them, always, ever. I know they belong to you. And it overwhelms this lazy mama's hear to think they ever utter my name before you.

Help me to love them, even from afar. 

Give us, Lord, this family of five in comfort and health, your heart for those in need. 

Your heart, Lord. Yes, your heart.

This is the second in a series of posts for Compassion Blog Month. Our goal? 3108 children sponsored this month. So far, over 830 children have been sponsored through this event, but more are waiting! 

Will you hop over to Compassion right now and sponsor a child (or two, or five)?

Compassion Blog Month :: Projectile latte in hand

I'll be honest: It's been a crappy week, in which I suffered from many First World Problems, not the least of which was tripping up stairs whilst carrying a screaming toddler and shattering (projectile spilling, really) a nice, cold iced latte in the process.

So when it came time to meet a cousin/friend for some H&M therapy - aforementioned screaming toddler in tow (what, baby, you no like H&M?) - I was awash in self-pity and anxiety. But we shared stories, soup and coffee (and cheesecake), she deftly handled the toddler who adores her, and filled me in on the latest developments in her life, including the 5 (five!) children she and her husband began sponsoring.

"How on earth did you end up with five?" I ask, with curiousity.

"Well, I read your blog!" she said.

Stunner.

Sometimes I write to an empty room, and sometimes I open my heart and words spill out on a barren road.

And sometimes - sometimes - accidentally and sloppily, something of value blooms, and this brilliant and beautiful young woman ends up with five kiddos from Africa and Central America, through Compassion and World Vision. Her husband wanted to surprise her and she wanted to surprise him, and in comparing both programs they just couldn't decide and kept adding to the bunch, and really, "You can't look at that face and say no," she says.

So this September, today actually, I'm asking you to visit Compassion's Sponsor a Child page and look at a face. For me, it was a face landing in my lap at a concert 10 years ago, or showing up on this here page, staring at me from beyond frayed red ribbons in her hair. Hoping. Pure.

Choosing which child to sponsor is such a first world problem. A really excellent first world problem. And actually, it's not a problem. It's a privilege. So go on, tell your friends, visit the page and pray over a child. Pray over all of them. Think about me and that freaking latte and what it takes for God to wake us up from the lazy, hazy American Dream.

They are worth so much more than that, God's children, desert blooms.


This is the first in a series of posts for Compassion Blog Month. Our goal? 3108 children sponsored this month. Special thanks to Karin for helping me wake up this week. Is it just me, or does anyone else need awakening?

I'm being committed (to Compassion)

I'm being committed.

Wait, that's not right. I mean, I'm about to commit to something. You all know how terrible I am at that: committing, staying faithful, following through, and finishing well. But I'm gonna give it a go again, for Compassion.

The thing is, I'm a terrible Compassion blogger. I get the newsletter telling me what my assignment is, and I sit paralyzed in the nice, clean chair at Starbucks, wracking my brain for anything of worth to say about poverty, about the orphaned, about Jesus in the the less-frequent-than-ought-to-be letters and drawings and family photographs I lick and stamp.

I am bereft of words. I am afraid of digging deeper into discomfort. I am lazy. And I am happy to just sit right here, drinking my latte, in a comfy Starbucks chair.

But we are in the business of challenging people, pushing them gently past their comfort zone, partnering with us in going and sending and sacrificing. So, really, it shouldn't be this hard for me to put my hand to the plough for these little ones (ok, maybe just my laptop keyboard; i'm not even entirely sure what a plough is), children we may never meet but still know through the short, shaky handwriting of a 6 year old or the intelligence and prayers for wisdom from the growing teenager.

So next month, with these two brilliant children in mind, I'm going to commit to Blog Month at Compassion. There's only four I really need to write, so should be easy-peasy, no? The kicker, the great big bonus, is that Blog Month has a goal: 3,108 children sponsored between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30. The most ever for any September ever. And that is worth writing about, worth digging deep about, worth praying and fretting and hand-wringing over.

It's the least I can do. For the least of these.

If you give to Compassion, you should blog about it. And if you don't have a blog, you should start one. And then you should join us here for the blogging month. There may or may not be prizes. Ok, there are prizes. 

Our Compassion Kiddos {and how to sponsor one yourself}

In our family, only three of our little people actually live with us. You already know one is in heaven (though it was an early pregnancy loss, I still wince at that statement), but the other two live far, far away from here. We affectionately refer to them as our Compassion Kids. The boy is 13 and the girl is 6. And they are adorable and amazing, send us verses and pictures, and tell us how they pray for us.

They pray for us.

But that's not what I want to write about. SO KEEP READING!

I don't want to brag on them or how awesome it is that we sponsor them. I mean, I do feel awesome about sponsoring them, but not because it makes me feel more important or extremely generous or super spiritual. But because it's the least we can do - we who are in the 1% of the world's wealthiest based solely on the fact we live in America - for children who belong to the world and grow up in poverty.

What I really want is to share with you why and how you can sponsor a couple of Compassion Kids of your own.

WHY? 

• Because chances are you can afford to feed, clothe, shelter and educate your children. 
• Because there are people in other parts of the world in which the very culture is rooted in systemic poverty. 
• Because these parents are just trying to keep their kiddos alive (if, in fact, the parents themselves are even alive). 
• Because they need help in feeding, clothing, sheltering and educating these awesome little people.
• Because you would empower these families, invest in a child's future, and impact society.
• Because for the cost of a couple lattes a week (or one dinner out a month), you can provide benefits to a child which include: education, health care and instruction, nutrition and life-skills training.
• Because this is what their local church does and what our global Church was meant to do.
• Because that child will see the Gospel.
• Because he will discover Jesus there.
• Because you can. 

HOW?

This is the super easy part, and the part that gets awesome. All it takes is a look at a face (or a click on a link). 

Our first Compassion child was passed down our row at a concert until he stopped in my lap. And when I saw that face, he became our kid. Back then (almost ten years ago), the interweb wasn't as trusty as it is now; I actually had to fill. out. a. card. (gasp!) to start sponsoring that little guy.

Now, it's so much easier! And the impact in their lives - and your heart - that much greater.

Visit Compassion's page for children who have been waiting. They've been waiting for you. And some have been waiting a long time. Our second compassion kiddo popped up on my blog last year. I saw her face and I clicked.

It's just that easy to open your heart and be the typing, giving, letter-writing hands of Jesus.

For more information, visit www.Compassion.com. But click on that link above. Click on it! Do it. Now. Those kids are waiting for their future. And they really, truly cannot wait to thank you for it. You'll be in their hearts, too. 

And though you may never touch them, hear their voices, check their temps, or sing them to sleep, I believe God brings these little people to us to care for all the same. Even from miles and miles away.


Sponsor a Waiting Child from Compassion International on Vimeo.

Compassion Blogging, Take One

I've recently become a Compassion Blogger, someone who blogs on behalf of Compassion International, hoping to bring attention and support to Compassion and the children they so greatly impact. Today is my first such post, and I have no idea how to do it, really, but here you go. Our chance to make a difference.

Achile is 8. He needs heart surgery. For years he has lived the life of a sick little boy in Burkina Faso, and now, his situation is critical. Compassion has supported Achile through his illness, but now they need our help to see him healed.

To see Achile transported to India and receive this life-saving operation, please click the link above. Any funds received that go above and beyond the $20,449 needed for Achile's surgery will be rolled into Compassion's Medical Assistance Fund.

If you don't have cash, pray, or perhaps blog. Maybe just one person will read this and donate. Who knows? Could just save a life.
More on how Compassion aids children with heart conditions: http://blog.compassion.com/holistic-child-development-civ-heart/