Our Compassion clan, that is!

It is with thankfulness and joy that our family has decided to bring two more children, sponsored through Compassion International, into our hearts. Both are girls, and both beauties live in Africa. We cannot wait to start getting to know these two girls; our own children are beyond excited. “That looks like Frankline’s sister!” Big Mac declared. We would like you to meet…

We love them already, are so thankful to be any part of the amazing impact Compassion is having on children around the world and are going to need some more piggy banks!

UPDATE:

Emilda is going to run at the Special Olympics in Greece! You guys are awesome, awesome, awesome!!!! I’ll get to work on organizing the donations and announcing the Nook/Kindle winner!

ORIGINAL POST:

I’d like you to meet Emilda.

Emilda is 18 years old and lives in the Philippines.

Like many of the children I saw and shared with you about on my trips to Africa, Emilda and her family brave difficult circumstances each day of their lives.

Her father, Reynaldo, works all week making tombstones and brings home $6.25. Next to the cemetery is where Emilda’s family lives, in a crowded squatter community.

It’s a difficult part of town with rape and alcoholism prevalent. But little could have been more difficult than what Emilda’s family faced years ago.

When Emilda was two years old, she developed a high fever. The fever sent her into convulsions and Emilda fell unconscious. For six long days, she stayed unconscious. Her family rejoiced when she finally awoke. But it became clear that Emilda was no longer developing mentally in the ways a child her age should.

Emilda’s mother Vilma began washing clothes to make enough money to send her daughter to Kindergarten. Emilda repeated her Kindergarten year for five years before the devastating reality of her condition was clear.

Emilda was never going to recover.

To this day, 18 year old Emilda has been assessed to have “the mental capacity of a two year and eight month old child.” She cannot recognize letters, colors or numbers.

But Emilda can run.

Emilda, like our little Miichelle and Frankline, is a Compassion child. When she became sponsored years ago, Emilda had the chance to enroll in Integrated School for Exceptional Children in the town of Iloilo. She was introduced to running there and hasn’t stopped since.

In 2009, Emilda ran in the Philippine Special Olypmics. Her parents couldn’t afford to travel with her to watch her run, and Emilda had a fever the day of her race. Nonetheless, her time qualified her to represent her country in 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece.

However, qualifying for and actually being able to run in the Olympics are two very different things. Emilda’s family cannot pay for her to attend the Games. Her church and the child development center she attends have helped with the costs of her competitions in the Philippines. Because this is above and beyond an actual “need,” Compassion’s sponsorship program cannot fund this part of Emilda’s dream.

But we can.

Compassion has already been able to gather generous donations which will cover over half of the $19,857 it would take to get Emilda to Greece to compete in the Special Olympics. But time is running out to raise the remaining $6,617 to cover Emilda’s training and equipment, airfare for her (and her mother and mentor/translator) to Greece plus lodging and food. When my friends at Compassion asked if I would be willing to try to get the rest of Emilda’s needed money raised, it was a no-brainer, especially coming on the heels of my day with two of our own Compassion children.

Oh, and Emilda and her mother would need passports. For the first time in their lives. Neither of them have ever left the Philippines before.

This isn’t a need, it’s a dream. A dream that, if realized, would be sure to inspire a girl. Her family. Her community. And hopefully her entire nation. Will Emilda be the first Compassion sponsored child to win a Special Olympic gold medal?

With our help, I believe she can!

And here is where I ask you if you’d like to help Emilda. Would you like to donate right here to Emilda’s fund so she can race in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece this year? I consider it an honor to be able to ask you guys if you’ll join with Emilda. I love your hearts and know many of you will love Emilda as soon as you hear of her. You bless me!

As soon as Emilda’s remaining $6,617 has been raised, the donation feature will be disabled. I am so thankful that we still have the chance to be a part of Emilda’s dream with her! She and her mother go to the training center every day so she can practice. Let’s bless this family with the chance to seize this opportunity to rise out of poverty. Emilda can do it. And we can help.

As a token of what I can only imagine will be Emilda’s gratitude, I am going to give a Nook or a Kindle, given by a generous reader, to one of you who donates for Emilda. As soon as Emilda’s funds are fully raised, I’ll pick at random one of you who donated to her. And you’ll pick a Nook or a Kindle and I’ll send it to you. And Emilda will race in Greece!

Every $5 you donate to Emilda will get you one entry into the Nook or Kindle drawing. Donate $25 and have your name entered 5 times. Donate $200 and have 40 chances to win! My Compassion id number is on the link to the donate page, so your entry will be automatically counted as a MckMama reader with the chance to win a Nook or a Kindle. No need to make a note of that on your donation page. What you must do, however, is save the confirmation email you get from Compassion and leave a comment on this post, telling me your name and how much you donated, so I can match up that with Emilda’s donations through Compassion. If you would prefer to let me know that in private, feel free to email me with your donation amount at contact (dot) mckmama (at) gmail (dot) com. You don’t need to send me your Compassion email confirmation unless you are the winner!

When will the winner be announced? As soon as Emilda has all her money raised! If that’s this afternoon, then I’ll announce this afternoon. If it’s on Wednesday, then I’ll pick and announce then.

While I can’t wait to see who wins the Nook or the Kindle (Yes, even a color one. Seriously, whichever you want is yours!), I think we all know that Emilda will be the real winner here.

Now go right here to donate for Emilda and let’s make this happen!

(Anyone of any age in any country of the world can donate to Emilda and be entered to win a Kindle or Nook. Only those donations made by US citizens are tax deductible. Photos are courtesy Compassion and Techland. If you would like a non donating entry, please email me with your full name and home address to receive one.)

Our first letter from Farjana came in the mail yesterday.

I cried. I didn’t really expect that strong emotional reaction to getting a letter from one of our sponsored children, but that’s what happened. We got a letter from Frankline, too. The kids were thrilled with the letters, Big Mac especially. He helped me write to all of our children last night. They are all still as gung-ho as ever about saving money for these children across the world as they were when my husband and I first returned from Kenya. Their spirits are strong and lovely.

And you, Farjana and Frankline, you are strong and lovely, too. We love you!

This little piggy. And that one.

And…

Today, we painted these guys. We used Q-Tips and paintbrushes and acrylic paint. It’s amazing how calm our children are when they are painting. They were totally into it, this pig painting for a purpose. Have you figured out the purpose yet? Silly Nuggey will explain it: Painting Pigs from Jennifer McKinney on Vimeo Yes, [...]

The other day, for some really odd reason, my husband and I both found ourselves sitting on the couch, wondering what to do with the next few minutes. “What should we do?” I asked him. “Um, I dunno.” He answered. But then, “Well, we could write to Miichelle.” “Wow, great idea, Babe.” So I went [...]