The Beginning of an Adventure

It all started with a very well-timed email from Compassion International.  If you are a Compassion sponsor, you probably know the email I’m talking about.  The subject line starts with your sponsored child’s name and says she or he “would love to meet you”.  I’d gotten these emails before, since my husband and I have been sponsoring thru Compassion for about 9 years.  This time, it came ON our Haitian child’s birthday in early March. 

There it was in bold type:  “Kimberlie would love to meet you”. 

When I opened the email, my husband was sitting nearby.  I said, “I’d love to meet HER, too”.  He said “Then you should go”.  Well!  We talked about it a little, and I said I’d pray about it.  Going to Haiti was something I really had not thought much about before.

We had only sponsored Kimberlie for about a year at that time.  When I had thought of going anywhere to visit a sponsored child at all, it was usually to Rwanda, where we had been sponsoring a girl for much longer.    We’d only had 3 letters from Kimberlie - there had not been much time to develop a relationship yet.  But the Lord had now really put in my heart the desire to go, and - as the Compassion email went on to say - “Come See My World”.   

Maybe it was a great time to go... to get to know her better now - in person!

My husband encouraged me, and I prayed about it.  I thought the Lord was pointing me in that direction.  

So, a few days later, I took the next step and clicked on the “Registration” button in the email.  The page it took me to said something like “This trip is now closed”!  I felt such disappointment!  Could it already be full?  The email had said “don’t delay, these trips fill up quickly”.  

The dismay I felt made me realize how badly I wanted to go!  I decided to try a different way to register, by logging into my Compassion account first.  Success!  I was able to register and begin the process of going to Haiti!