Fully Sponsored!

Last night while I slept we had a number of emails and Facebook messages come in and now all of the families presently in the project are Fully Sponsored!  I am stunned, humbled, honored, excited and full of gratitude this morning.   It has been a fun 48 hours as we literally watched the desire to see families get sponsored go viral as one person shared on their Facebook page and then another and another and another.  We had people advocating for kids and inviting their friends to join in.  Thank you for trusting us enough to share with your friends and family.

What has been incredible is to look at a blog Post that I did the end of May where I posted the photos of a Wall of Children to be sponsored.  At that point we had 52 slots remaining.  Last Wednesday we were sitting at 30 sponsorship slots remaining when I shared our dream to have all of the slots filled before we leave for furlough on this Saturday.  Now, 1 week later we not only have all of the slots filled, but we actually are over the top! Thank you for allowing God to stir your hearts.

This is so much more than “sponsorship slots.”  What this means is that we can return to the States with Phase 1 of this project fully funded AND now we can share the vision with churches and individuals about the dream of adding another 20 families to the project, as well as petition the gov’t here to allow us to do so.

Every day we turn away families.  Yesterday we turned away 5 families before 9:30 am.  Just in this last week we have had 3 stories in particular that have touched us deeply and that we’ve longed to partner with.  One is a father who has a 9 month old daughter, but mom just left.  He shows up crying at the gov’t office daily because he is going to lose his job because he now is the sole caregiver for his child.  Another is a baby whose Mom is in school but is facing having to drop out because there is no way for her baby to be cared for and no food.  And third is a mom who was raped when she was in the 9th grade…and now she has a 9 month old baby and a job waiting for her about a 30 minute walk away, but no one who can care for her child.

NOW, we are able to begin planning on helping families like these and I am ecstatic at that thought while at the same time knowing that our current families are funded.

We’ve got a fun 48 hours planned here as we meet with some visitors who are in Addis and are stopping by the Day Care as well as celebrating with our staff and all of our moms tomorrow a sort of “See you later” party.  It will be so great to be with them all tomorrow and know that the support is in  place for the partnership to thrive for these moms and their children whom we love deeply and are staff.

Thank you for being an instrument which God uses in the process of seeing families embrace hope in all of life…and thank you for generously being a blessing as He has blessed you.