MY SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE

Now that I have your attention, let me explain 🙂 Last week I decided to sponsor a child in Rwanda. Ever since I made this decision I have been on a personal high. I have been very fortunate in my life. I have two very loving parents who worked their tail off to provide for me and my brother. We always had more than just a roof over our heads and food; we had top-notch educations, the latest and greatest toys, the “cool” clothes, family vacations, etc. But more than those material things, we never had to worry whether we were going eat every day or have clean drinking water; we also did not have to worry about things like malaria, incurable diseases, physical safety from war and famine. Recently I have been doing some house hunting and looking at getting a new car, and this shiny new thing or that [I am going through a midlife crisis, I think!], and then last week it just kind of hit me how lucky I am. I still want the fancy house in the fancy neighborhood but what else am I doing to help the world around me? I do community service projects through Junior League, I give my extra change to the homeless, but what else do I really do?

At work I sit next to one of the most giving people I have ever met. He and his wife run a non-profit organization called Best Family Rwanda to help care for children. For months he has had pictures out of the children available to sponsor. Until last week I never really looked at the photos or asked about his organization. I did not want to get “sucked in” like one of those infomercials on T.V.. How horrible does that sound? I didn’t want to get sucked into helping a child in need? I wasn’t going to write those last two sentences but then I realized that I am probably not alone in my thinking. But as I was perusing Zillow looking at homes that a family in Rwanda would never even dream of, I thought, what is $35/month? I spend more than that to get my nails done. Heck, I spent WAY more than that getting my hair highlighted last week and I left the salon in tears because it didn’t look different enough. Then I returned to work and saw this little guy’s face sand realized that there was so much more to life than what I was focusing on. Our upbringings could not be more different and yet, here is this little 4-year-old boy smiling ear-to-ear. That was all that it took for me that day. And now I am proud sponsor of this little cutie. For only $35 a month I am able to give him food, clothes, mosquito netting for safe sleeping, a mattress (yes, I said a mattress, not a bed!) and help pay for his education. Thirty-five dollars! AND, not only that, we can email and send pictures and I can watch him grow up and hopefully have a much better shot of having a good life than he would have otherwise.

If you are interested, there are 13 more children that need sponsorship through this organization. You can set it up to be recurring (that’s what I did) or just give a one-time donation. And yes, there is a tax write-off 🙂 If you already have your own children, this would be an awesome way to open up your kid’s eyes to the world out there. It would be so neat to see your kids writing to other children in Africa and learning about their life and culture. It truly is all about awareness. Sometimes, we just have to take a minute to stop focusing on our own sunny side to see how we can help others find theirs.