Falling In Love All Over Again

By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)

[Editor's Note: Chuck and his wife returned home safely yesterday, exhausted but excited to share their experiences with everyone. They spent their time in Honduras visiting families, working for Compassion, and spent a day visiting with the three kids their own family sponsors. To give Chuck time to get settled back in town, and at his 'day job,' as well as give him some time to write a new article for us, he asked us to re-post his blog post about the day he spent with the kids his family sponsors. Enjoy.]

(Thursday, May 21, 2009) Today was child visitation day! This was the day two years ago that changed my life forever. Those that know me and know my story understand the impact that meeting my sponsored child meant and how Compassion became my focus. I can never really put into words what a day like this is truly like. The emotional highs and lows are hard to describe. The doubts and fears that I had two years ago were not present. It was more like nervous anticipation about the entire day. We would be seeing Linda and Jeyelly for the second time and meeting Jorge for the first time.

We actually arrived this time after the children. They were all lined up in front of the park as we got off the buses. It was pretty neat seeing sponsors looking for children and children looking for sponsors. Of course we had to stay in our groups but there were lots of pointing and waving. Toward the front I saw her. Linda! This time she was wearing a denim cap and looked like a teenager but was as beautiful as the last time. As soon as I saw her my eyes watered up and I fell in love one more time. Two years and we were back!

As we waited Jeyelly saw us and true to her personality she broke ranks and ran to us and gave us big hugs. The last time we just happened to sponsor her when we visited her project. I am not sure at that time she understood what sponsorship meant. Now two years later she clearly understood and was so excited we had come back. Now we looked around but did not see Jorge. Anyways it was time to move into the park. Once we got in Sponsors were on one side and the children and their family members on the other. I happened to look over and Linda, Jeyelly & Jorge all were standing together. Not sure how they found each other or even knew Jorge but there they all were together.

Names were called and we all were reunited. Oscar from the Country staff would be our interpreter. I cannot begin to tell you about the whole day. I am sure over the next weeks I will post various thoughts that come to mind. At this point I will just tell you some interesting tidbits- those little God Moments.Linda and Jeyelly immediately bonded. They were like best friends! Hanging and having fun together. Jorge was shy at first but then blossomed into that typical six year old. He was all over the place and all we could do was laugh. He was hard to keep up with and thankfully his Mom handles him well. I happened to have a pair of goofy glasses in my backpack from VBS they were a great icebreaker AND many Sponsors now have pictures of their children looking goofy. :)

I had talked to Compassion about getting a birthday cake and having a little celebration if possible. Linda and Jeyelly celebrate their birthdays the first week of June and Jorge had his on Compassion Sunday. Well food can't be taken into the park but at 2pm we told our group we had to do a special photo. We went out of the park and surprised them with a tailgate birthday party in the parking lot. We had a large cake and soda and sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish. It was a great moment and Compassion made it possible.

We also were able to call back home and let our daughters, Courtney and Stephanie, say hello to the girls. Karen crocheted a lot of hair scrunchies that we have been giving out at the projects. Turns out Linda knows crochet as well as her mother. She asked Karen to show her how to do these and now maybe this "craft" will be another source of income for them. Of course all good things must end...after giving our children their gifts (that we had brought) goodbyes, hugs, and tears were shared and the day was quickly over. Right now it is still too hard to express our feelings but I will in the future. I just know there is no doubt that we will be back again!