My First Kids

My first kids, twins who are three years apart in age, live in different countries, and are of different races, began a journey of love that knows no end.  Nearly twelve years ago, Monica, a beautiful 8-year-old Colombian girl, and Enoche, a cute and somber little 5-year-old Haitian boy, were born into my life on the same spring day.  I began writing to them instantly, and through the years we shared many wonderful letters and even a few photos.  Each would tell me about their school activities, their families, and what they were learning in Bible school or camp.

One Christmas, early on, Monica received a shiny pink bicycle from me.  I believe it was her favorite gift of all time and she could not stop expressing her joy and love for me.  How could that not warm one’s heart?  Enoche’s gifts went another direction.  He received babies of his own…baby goats and chickens and other livestock.  This thrilled me, for it was important to him and his family.

After many letters, I could not bear the thought of knowing my kids, but not ever meeting them, so I set off on a journey to Haiti in November 2003 with many other Compassion International sponsors.  We stayed in the now unhappily famous Montana Hotel on the hills overlooking Port au Prince.  My experience in Haiti was wonderful in many respects and certainly eye-opening to my American sensibilities.  I saw a picture of life that I was entirely unfamiliar with, and deepened my desire to help release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

My visit with Enoche and his father was all too brief.  I met a very shy 9-year-old boy who rarely smiled.  He rarely spoke except the occasional “Oui” to answer my questions.  Yet he let me take him swimming in the pool and in the ocean, new activities for him, and we played constantly for hours.  Upon my return to my American home, he wrote me something that will always and forever bring joy to my heart.  He said, “You were the most beautiful of all the Americans!”  I love that boy, who is now a young man of nearly seventeen.

In June of 2006, I had the wonderful opportunity to be among a large group of Compassion sponsors making the first trip to Colombia for more than a decade.  For safety reasons, tours had not been taken to that nation for many years, but many children in need were still being sponsored by caring souls in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.  We flew into Cartegena on the north coast, where we stayed throughout this trip.  It was important for the Colombia Compassion staff to carry this tour off without any glitches if they were to schedule more such sponsor trips in the future.  Their work was truly outstanding.

The morning I was to meet Monica, she arrived by bus with the children of all the other sponsors.  We all watched with great anticipation as the kids descended the steps and came out into the sunlight along the ocean bay.  Even from afar, I recognized her immediately and we were soon together.  There was no distance any longer.  We knew and loved each other.  Our day took us to an island resort where we played in a pool and in the ocean, and we even took a quick dance lesson.  She was graceful and I was not!  It was hard to leave this beautiful young girl, but we continued our frequent letters thereafter and I made another trip to see her in Bogota in 2008.  My girl was growing into a lovely young woman by then, and by 2009 she had graduated from high school with a dream of entering a university to study law.  Her difficult economic circumstances were not holding her back because she had and has an advocate whose name is Jesus, and he has been at work through me in Monica’s life.  And you know what?  He works through these kids to touch my life more than anyone could ever imagine.

But Monica and Enoche were only my first two kids.  I’ll tell you about my Ethiopian kids in the next post.  In fact, it won’t be long until I’ll see them face to face, and you will too.  Time moves so slowly as my anticipation grows…