30 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 10

I've made it to day 10! I'm actually sort of impressed with myself that I have stuck with this. Guess I don't want to disappoint the 4 or 5 people that read this who might be hanging on to the edges of their seats wondering what I am going to be thankful for the next day!! :) I really should be doing something much more productive now, considering we are leaving town in, oh, about 10 hours, and that everything has to be ready to go so we can just get in the car as soon as I finish teaching at 9. And, this is the little guy's nap time, so it should be my most productive time of the day. I am working on laundry right now....that's something, right?

Well...I've been thinking a lot how grateful I am for all we have...how rich we are. And, I'm not saying this to boast about my own possessions. In my mind, we are far, far, far from being "rich." But, we don't live in poverty. I am fascinated by the Compassion International movement and how much they do for impoverished children around the world. I very much want our family to sponsor a child (and eventually, several children!) through Compassion. I keep waiting, though, thinking that I really want a child the same age as Noah, and children can't enter the program until they are 3 years old. Lame excuse, I know. We should just go for it...and maybe we will. I bring all of this up now because there are a group of bloggers, several of whom I read their posts on a regular basis, who are traveling to Ecuador with musician and Compassion representative Shaun Groves. They go because their blogs are well-read, and they want to provide all of us with a closer look at exactly what Compassion does and who Compassion serves. They meet up with Compassion leaders and have an opportunity to meet and spend time with children in the Compassion program. It just breaks my heart to read what they write, to see the conditions these children and their families live in. I look around at my own house and all we have and just think, why me? Why were we chosen to have all this stuff? Why does my son have a nicely painted bedroom with matching bedding and matching furniture? Why is his room and closet full of toys when there are children who sleep in the kitchen on a board without a mattress? Why is this their house? Yet, through these posts, I've read about how content these families are. What a testimony of hope! This really strikes me as we approach the holidays where the focus tends to be so much on how much or what kind of gifts we get. Oh how spoiled we are.... I pray that we won't be content with material goods, that we wouldn't find our happiness in how much we have, that we wouldn't always seek to have more "temporary" things. What do we really consider our treasures? 

While I don't really want to be thankful for all the "stuff" in my life, I am really thankful we don't live in poverty. We don't have to worry about our next meal or if we will survive a cold winter. We are so blessed. 

If you have some extra time, I encourage you to check out the Compassion Bloggers on their trip to Ecuador and read more about the Compassion program. Maybe we all (me and the 4 or 5 of you I mentioned above who might be reading!) can take a step of faith together and and give a gift to someone who really needs it by each sponsoring a child this holiday season.