The initial meeting

In the fall of 2009 our church started a partnership with a global non-profit children's organization to help needy children through child sponsorship programs.

One Sunday, a couple of representatives from the organization provided the congregation with information on children that were in need of sponsors. Each child was represented by a folder with their photo as well as information about themselves and their family. These particular children were from a small village located within the Dominican Republic and they ranged in ages from 3 to 18 years old.

All of the children that stared back at me through their photos were beautiful, and every one of them had amazing smiles and wide eyes of anticipation of sponsorship…and hope.

One in particular, was a beautiful face of a 5 year old girl named Daichela. She had dark russet colored skin and pigtail braids. I felt an unspoken connection to her immediately.

The information provided told me about particular things she liked to play with dolls and her favorite subject in school was Art. Daichela lived with her mother and she had a younger brother, Jose. It mentioned that her family was lucky enough to have running water in their home and electricity was available. Their home was made of concrete block and they had a corrugated metal roof with concrete flooring.

I was still a little unsure about what my obligations as a donor would be, but I was very excited to learn more about how I would be impacting this little girl’s life from over 2000 miles away. I had no idea at that initial meeting how the tables would turn and how the sponsorship of this beautiful little girl would impact me.