We started sponsoring Katherine in December of last year. We were blessed to attend Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God concert in Richmond. I pretty much informed Super-Awesome that we would be sponsoring a fifth child that night (We already had Maria, Andres Camilo, Allan, & Tania). I usually don't try to tell things to Super-Awesome this way, I usually ask, we discuss, but this was something that I was adamant about. We had been to BtLoG twice before (driving down from Ontario to NY & CT) and I knew they were strong supporters of Compassion. I had heard Bebo Norman share very eloquently twice before about Compassion and their work, but it hadn't been the right time for us. It was the right time this night. Bebo was no longer on the tour, so Andrew Peterson shared about Compassion. At intermission we headed (or rather, I dragged Super-Awesome) to the Compassion table, manned by one of the tour members, Gabe Scott, a very talented multi-instrumentalist. Gabe and his family are very involved with Compassion. His wife, Keely, is one of the photographers that accompanies bloggers and sponsors on their trips to visit their sponsored children. Her photos are breathtaking!
Back to Katherine... I surveyed the table and scanned the faces and dates. I definitely felt that the Lord wanted us to stick to Central and South America. None of the dates were specific to anyone in our family, no one's birthday, anniversary, etc. Three things did jump out at me about Katherine and these made me pick up her packet, fill out the information and commit to sponsoring her.
First was her name: Katherine. Super-Awesome and I have had numerous discussions about baby names in the past on our many drives everywhere. (You can ask him... it was the number one topic of discussion before we had kids... maybe even before we got married). Catherine was/is our choice for a second daughter if that should ever happen.
Second was her sad face and eyes. Some of the photos do feature happy looking kids, but Katherine was not one of these. Michelle, over at Blogging from the Boonies has a post about why the children in the packet photos often don't look happy. Click here to read about it and see a video that Kees Boer had taken on one of his trips to Bolivia.
Third was a blue box on the packet (below her name, birthdate, and country) that said:
PRIORITY
THIS CHILD HAS BEEN WAITING 10 MONTHS
IMMEDIATE SPONSOR NEEDED
Those three things sealed the deal for me. This was the child that the LORD intended for us to sponsor. I later learned from Compassion that Katherine had already had two sponsors and had been dropped by them. So, while the usual photo difficulties can account for some of the sad faces, this was not the case for Katherine. I believe her sadness, beyond the poverty that she lived in, came from having had not one but two sponsors who had to discontinue their support of her. After I learned that information, I (again) told Super-Awesome (really, it's not my usual style) that if our finances changed and we had to stop supporting any of our children, she would be the absolute last one to go, I would find someway to get the $38 a month.
Happy Birthday, dear Katherine! I pray for blessings from God in your life!
