Proud, defined

Gemmas 6th Birthday Party

Our Dear Daughter #1 (DD#1) recently had her 6th Birthday. When we were talking with her, planning her party, she said that she wanted a "skating party". So we booked a room at the local arena and started making plans.

However, when it came to WHAT she wanted, she blew us all away. She said she wanted to raise money for the people in Haiti who had suffered through the recent earth quake.

So the invitations went out, and the children came.

All in call, our DD#1 raised 181.50$ for the Haiti Relief Fund!

There were a few moments where are parents, you worry about the decisions your children make. And we were worried about this one. Did she realize then that at her party, she would get no gifts? Would she regret her decision?

The weekend before her party, she attended a birthday party for someone else. There were tonnes of gifts, a virtual mountain of toys. Towards the end of the party, my beautiful wonderful marvelous wife saw our DD#1 standing by the toys just staring at them.

Again, my wife asked her "are you sure you don't want toys for your birthday?". Our DD#1 said, "no, I want to help the people in Haiti".

From that point on, I felt so stupid and silly for doubting my child.

I think that our children are developing a wonderful world view of what they see around them. We have not tried to hide them from the injustice in the world, and though adoption, they have been able to see more of this world, both the good and bad, than other children their ages.

They have seen orphanages, but they have also seen their sister Ping.
They have seen poverty, but they have also seen Jasper (a child we've sponsored for many years) grow and do well in school and his family buying live stock.
They have seen natural disasters, but they have also seen their sister help people effected by these disasters.
They have seen many things, but in all, I hope they see God and his love.

Gods love that can move the heart of a family to welcome another person in and love them unconditionally.
Gods love that can help reach out to a child a world away and be consistent and provide in real tangible ways that I think God meant when he said to "help the poor and the weak".
Gods love that moves a 6 Year Old Little Girls heart to raise almost 200$ to help people she doesn't know.

And what I've seen, is Gods love reflected in the lives of our children - and for that, I believe there is still hope in this sometimes hopeless world. :-)