Has anyone sponsored a child from another country through a group like Compassion? Please share your experience. TIA

It's interesting you say that. My mom is sponsoring an African boy through compassion! He gets to write us letters. Well the letters are more like fill in the Blanks kind of stuff.you get to learn about his personality and what he wants to be when he grows up that way! And you can updates on how your money is helping him. You also get a notice of their birthdays! It's really great! Makes my mom cry sometimes. tears of joy!

Thank you very much for your reply.

Hi Diana!

We sponsor a boy (Noah) from Ghana through Christian Children's Fund...we've been doing it for 4-5 years now and have watched him grow through his photos and letters. We get one letter a year usually, and an occasional update from the organization. We are not great about writing to him, so I can't say if the letters might be more frequent if we were.

We have the opportunity to send additional gifts at Christmas and his birthday. I'm committed to sponsoring him until he finishes school and begins his working life...he is 14 now. I don't know for sure if I'll sponsor another child when we are finished, but I probably will...likely a girl next time.

Angie! Where have you been? I sure have missed you! I have looked under your profile every month to see if you came back. I'm not stalking you, BTW. How are you doing?

Thank you for your reply to my post. I took the plunge and sponsored a little girl last night. I read about everyone feeling joy once they signed up. I didn't feel joy. Immediately, I started worrying about what if I couldn't afford to continue and how would she feel, etc. And then I worried about sending letters because I'm not used to talking with children, etc. UGH! I did something good and now that worries me.

I am great thank you! I hope you are as well. I just came back to the site a few days ago, I'm starting a new plan after regaining 50 pounds!!

I worry sometimes about being able to afford it as well, but I've managed so far, even through 8 months of not working last year. I just remind myself what a huge difference it makes in his life and how little this much money really means in mine, comparatively. My donation is $39 a month, and really for Cameron and I, it's a small sacrifice -- like maybe not going out to dinner one time each month or skipping a movie.

We keep Noah's photo on the fridge, and it's a reminder of how lucky we are. I'm sure they will tell you this, but in the letters they ask us to be very general...talk about the season, the weather, small details about your life. They asked us to avoid mentioning things like Cameron's toys and trips to Disney, for example, for obvious reasons. I just sent off our birthday letter, talking about the weather here, our dogs and I sent a school photo of Cameron.

They will send the first one, unless you are very eager to get one off to her, and then you'll get an idea of the subjects and length -- they are ususally quite short.

So what is your little girl's name?

Angie,
I sent the first letter as soon as I signed up. I picked her because her birthday is the same as my Mom's. They said that it takes 2-3 months for correspondence to get to each other. I sent the letter via the email function on their site. Is that how you do it? I'm not actually sure what her first name is. There are 4 names listed. I will say it's Epe Reine. The donation through Compassion is $38. Do yo give extra for birthday, holidays, etc. They allow it though Compassion. Her birthday is at the end of the month. I thought about sending her $10 for her birthday along with the birthday card/email I can send. For me, the email makes it so much easier.

I am glad to see you are back. Is that the puppy in your avatar that you got? I'm not sure if you remember when we lost our dog. We got another dog. He is a Boykin Spaniel and his name is Cody. He was a very difficult and bad puppy. Thank goodness he grew out of that!

I'm sorry you were out of work last year. I hope things are looking up for you.

How is Cameron doing?

I wish we had the email option - I would love that! I'm so bad about mailing real letters.

I usually try to send something at Christmas or his birthday, but I haven't always.

Yes, that is our beagle/hound Jigsaw, he just turned two and he was a little bit of a naughty puppy, but he's getting so much better now. He's a very sweet boy. We also adopted a 10 year old pug/shepherd mix last year; her name is Faith and she is such a good girl!

Cameron is great, I'll have to share a photo of him...he's so big now! He plays football, and does well in school -- generally an all-round good kid. I remember how much he used to love getting to choose a bunch of emojis to post in our group!! lol

Angie I couldn't imagine having 2 dogs at one time. I guess it's OK once you get past the bad puppy stage. A friend of ours had a new puppy and she is seriously questioning as to why she did this. I remember now about Cameron liking the emojis! Thanks for reminding me! I forgot a lot of stuff from that time. I had just lost my Mom, etc. It's amazing how the brain works/protects you with painful situations. That is awesome that he plays football now. I'm glad he is doing well and well adjusted. I just remember the picture of him from your profile. I hope you have a great day!

Diana, my husband and I have had 2 dogs throughout most of our married life, 35 years. As it happened, most of the time our dog would be around 5 years old when we would get the new one. One was a puppy, but after that when one dog died, we would hear of another dog that needed a home and twice we took in dogs that were already 5 years old. It's sometimes easier than training a puppy, but then sometimes the dog has ingrown habits that can be hard to break. Now that we're older we are down to one dog and DH says we're not going to have 2 this time. We'll see. Somehow when we hear of a dog that needs a home we can't resist.

Wannabehealthy Many years ago, DH and I had multiple dogs that we kept at our shop, not home. We became very close to one dog in particular, Magnum. He is in my profile. He went back and forth to work and home with us. At that point we only had one dog and it was him. When Magnum passed we went 2 years without a dog. I didn't want to get another dog because it just about killed both of us when it was time to put Magnum down. We also suffered the loss of my Mom so it was a very tough time for us. DH was completely miserable during that 2 years. He says now that he will never go without a dog. Everyone recommended that as Magnum was getting older that we should get another dog so there would be no lapse in time. I'm not sure if we will do ever do that but I know DH said he would never go without a dog, again. He will get another one immediately. He is totally in love with our current dog, Cody, who is a Boykin.