best day !

i began sponsoring a child through compassion international about 2 years ago(maybe more now) when i was in new zealand. she was from rwanda, and about 5 years old. i got it in my brain that i was going to meet her someday. and today that someday ACTUALY came.

leslie and i got picked up this morning at 8:30 and driven out to the village/project where pelagie and her family live. we were met with hugs, kisses, photos taken, ...all the staff of the project, plus pelagie and her3 brothers, 2 sisters and both her parents. leslie and i were guests of honor and treated so special...we had a big meeting and prayer and gift giving...leslie and i had brought the family things like flour, cooking oil, a few toys and cookies and candy for the kids and some other things..and the mother had made both leslie and i these amazing banana leaf bags.

pelagie is beautiful. she is now 7 years old and in P1 (about grade 1 or 2) and excells in maths(thats where we differ), loves playing ball with her friends and collects the water for her family... being the sponsored child she holds alot for her family with all the other siblings and parents...she was shy when we met her, but after some sweets and tickling and blowing bubbles together...we got some smiles and giggles out of her...and the hoards of children and teens and adults peering in the window to watch the excitment.

i can't express how i felt on the way home. neither les or i said a word for the 3 hours drive. perhaps it was the celine dion tape that played on repeat for the whole time. or maybe the scenery and passing mass grave after genocide memorial after children walking home from school or women carrying clay pots on their heads or prisoners ploughing the fields or..................................................................................................................