Parts Of My Heart Live In Colombia

At our first pre trip meeting our leader,

David Hynson, asked us what about our trip

excited us most.

Several others and I said it was meeting our

sponsored children.

I felt like I should have been more broadly 

"evangelistic,"

but it wasn't a good time or place to tell a fib!

I did not realize AT ALL how much the other

facets of our trip would affect me.

Every single day was important for its own reason.

But all week I kept looking for my older girl.

(I knew my younger girl was being flown in from

a distant part of Colombia.)

I looked for her when we arrived at San Miguel.

She was not there.

I looked for her in that stadium where the

Compassion Olympics were held,

but there was really no chance of finding 

her in that crowd. (Again, she wasn't there.)

Finally at Villa Katy I met someone who

knew my girl and assured me she was coming

to meet me!

In fact, here are pictures from Villa Katy of

her pastor and his wife!

They had just come to see the progress, but

they were responsible for ramping up my excitement!

As a reminder, our meeting with our sponsored

children takes place at a waterpark.

It did not compare with our Hurricane Harbor,

as I had predicted, 

but it was a much nicer place than I expected,

with three large, sparkling clean pools.

Here is a picture of all the things I was taking to

meet my girls.

We filled backpacks for each of our kids.

We went to a huge grocery store the night before

and bought Colombian candy and goodies.

We had sunscreen and bug spray.

We were prepared.

Meeting the girls seemed so surreal.

They brought me my younger girl first.

She was precious beyond words.

Her cuteness, her darling hair, and the fact that

everyone knew she had been flown in for

this occasion, pretty much stole the show!

(Compassion had included her mother and her

tutor on the trip.)

But...standing by waiting was a big chunk of my heart.

I have sponsored this girl since the day I heard

about Compassion at Fielder Church.

She was only about 6 years old, and she

is almost a teenager now.

The picture on my refrigerator walked toward me.

 And there she was...another beauty.

This one brought tears to my eyes!

She had gotten all grown up!

We are Fam-i-ly!

Each girl had a tutor with her who helped them

change into their swim duds.

We also had an interpreter who was a sweet teenager.

Since there was such an age difference between my 

two girls, I didn't know how they would do

in the pool together.

No problem. Before I knew it the younger was

riding around on the back of the older as they enjoyed

the shallow pool! (Joined by the interpreter!)

At 4 and 12 a pool was a new experience for them.

The baby and the interpreter

The girls with their backpacks

Not everything was perfect to my standards.

It is miserable not to be able to just talk with them.

(If I had my life to live over, I would learn Spanish!)

The clothing purchases about which I agonized 

were not going to fit my older girl.

The day is short and goes by much too fast.

It is so hard to leave them.

But...they are now a part of the less than 2% of

 Compassion children who get to meet their sponsor.

David quotes his Compassion 
leader on his very first trip (of 4) to Colombia
as stating,
"The tragedy of poverty is not just that you are
poor; it's that poverty tells you that you
don't matter."

These two girls know that they matter to someone

in the United States--ME.

They are real to me and I am real to them.

They will be getting far more letters from that

real someone who cares than they did before!
And I will be telling them how much they
matter to our Almighty God.

And if He sees fit, I will be going back to see 
them next year--without question or doubt.