It’s a Boy!

One Katyite has found a way to ‘give back’ on a global scale

Movies like Hotel Rwanda and Slumdog Millionaire have always been an issue for me.  On the one hand, I’m glad truth finds it way into pop culture, but on the other, I spend a lot of time wondering what truth is really worth when there is little I can do about problems so huge. 

I’ve known of Compassion International my whole life but it has never been very real to me.  I mean, it sort of seemed like a “good” thing to do.  

But suddenly all I could think of was movies like Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener and even dear ole Jack Bauer in 24: Redemption.  I mean, there is so, so much pain in the world and here I am, somehow, just by coincidence, born into the wealthiest nation in the world.  I mean, who am I that I was born into such wealth?  I could just as easily have been living among the millions and millions all over the world who starve to death and die of things like diarrhea because they drink bad water.  

The way Compassion International works is you pay a set fee per month to sponsor one child in a third world country.  The monthly fee provides this child with food, clean water, medical care, and an education.  The sponsor and the sponsored child exchange letters as well.  There are other charity organizations out there that do amazing things for children as well.  This just happened to be the organization I was most familiar with.

So, we decided to sponsor a kid.  I guess I thought it would cost a lot.  $32 ya’ll.  $32.  I mean, we’re on a pretty tight budget and $32 is half of what we spend on date nights each month.  And – get this – it is MORE THAN what our new child’s dad makes in a month.  When he can find work every day.  Which he sometimes doesn’t.   Suddenly our “tight budget” seems like extravagance.

We went online, filled out some info, and got to the part where we get to select a kid.  You can choose a child based on birth date, country, whatever.  Or you can choose to sponsor the kid whose been waiting to be sponsored the longest.  Which of course brought to mind images of those beautiful starving kids in all of those movies.  So I picked that. 

My husband and I have been joking around, wondering if our new kid is a boy or a girl.  I mean, we reasoned, with two girls of our own, we’re so good at girls.  But, we thought, maybe this is our chance to have our boy.  Haha.

Our Compassion information came today, and I’m excited to announce: It’s a Boy!  We’re proud “parents” of Aravind, a little man from India.  I have to be honest here, I wasn’t sure how much this little guy would really mean to me.  I mean, really.

Oh, man.  I love him.  I love looking at his sweet little face.  I’m hooked.  I am already thinking of ways to cut our excessive American budget more so we can sponsor another child.  This is what life is about!  I’m just so excited about Aravind.  Our little man.

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