How Do You Choose?

Yesterday, as the girls and I were eating lunch, Addison started a conversation:

"mom, when we were at Grandma's, I saw a commercial on tv where you can get a child."

"really? you get a child?"

"Yeah, it was $30 a month and you can choose a child from a poor country and they will send her to you to take care of! It is for children who don't have anyone to take care of them."

"Oh, I see what you mean. It's called sponsoring a child Addison :) They don't actually send you the little girl, but when you send money every month, they use it to buy food and medicine for her. They also let the little girl write letters to you to let you know how she is doing!"

"Can we do that mom? Because I saw a little girl on there who was my age, and she only had her grandma to take care of her...and the grandma is almost blind! I want to help her."

"Yes, we sure can do that Addison. I think it would be very nice of you and Tegan to help a little girl who doesn't have very much."

Just thinking about the conversation brings tears to my eyes. I think about the moms mostly, and the children. I can't even imagine not having the food to give my children that they needed...and watching them suffer because of it.

Something I've heard many times when talking to someone who doesn't believe in God is, "how can a loving God let people suffer like that in third world countries?"

My answer always is...it's not God's fault. It's our fault as humans. When God created the earth, he created everything we need to live! Not just enough to get us by, or just enough to sustain a small percentage of the earth. He created an abundance of everything. He put the earth in our care and gave us authority over what to do with it.

Look how much we have. Look at how much people in first world countries eat...and look how much we waste. We have so much to share, and we don't. I don't want to write a huge long post about governments and wars and such, but I believe that we could solve world hunger much more simply than we think.

Until then, we are going to sponsor a child through Compassion Canada.

Now here I sit...writing a blog post in one window, while searching for a child to sponsor in another window.

How do I choose?

I narrowed the search to girls between the ages of 4 and 7, and there are almost 500 of them.

ok, I think I've chosen. I wish I could pick them all.

I think we'll enjoy getting to know Erica :)