Every Time We Say Goodbye

Last week I received a phone call from Compassion International informing me that one of the children I sponsor left the program. The message they left on my voice mail was very encouraging. Her family was pursuing opportunities in another area where there wasn’t a Compassion site, but she planned to finish school and hoped to continue on studying medicine. In the meantime, she has gained computer skills through the Compassion center that will help her find work when she does finish school and she has heard (and I believe accepted) the Gospel.

Knowing that she has moved on has caused me to reflect on our relationship. I started sponsoring her when she was 10 years old. The first picture of her I received showed a little girl with big eyes, a smile, and two braids tied with colorful hair bands. Since then, more pictures have come and I have watched her grow from a girl of ten to a young lady of 17.

When I moved to North Carolina, I met a man who is on staff with Compassion. He was taking a trip to the Dominican Republic—where this child lives. He graciously agreed to take some small presents to her from me on his trip. Soon I received a picture of her wearing bows in her hair that I had sent.

There have also been letters. In them, she would tell me about her hopes for the future, her progress at school (I even received some of her report cards), and her desire to see her friends and family come to Christ. She also faithfully inquired about my parents’ cat, Lizzy, who was my cat when I began sponsoring her. Somewhere in the Dominican Republic, there are pictures of Lizzy and her successor, Cosmo.

It is disappointing that I won’t get to see her finish school and exit the Compassion program ready to support herself; but I am thankful for the years we’ve had. I am excited to begin a relationship with another little girl the Compassion folks are mailing me (information about her, not the actual child). I look forward to Heaven, where I will get to meet these kids and where we will be able to talk without translators.