Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World

Children are the the future, are they not? Our future leaders, business men and women and laborers. They will make our break our nations and world. It only makes sense to do what we can to care for the children of today so we can have hope for tomorrow.

That's one reason I so love Happy Life Children's Home and wanted to share more about the children I got to spend time with there a year ago.

Nadia (June 2011)

Beyond a shadow of a doubt my favorite children at HLCH were the youngest ones. I have a draw to infants like nothing else. (Please ignore any dates on the pictures and refer to the caption for correct time period.) These little ones are beyond precious. I took these photos of them, leaving out only a few, on the day I left HLCH. Christian, whom I would have loved to had a picture of here was in the hospital at the time. A very sick baby, he passed away a few days later. I can not clearly say why I left out any of the other infants from my last day photo shoot of them.

Habima (June 2011)

Habima was one of my favorites. He was very small, but precious. He is a good sized little boy now and has just been adopted!!

The idea that anyone would not want anyone of these children breaks my heart. I enjoyed my time with them none-the-less and very much wished I could have adopted at least one at the time of my trip. (I still don't belief I meet the basic requirements to adopt any one of them.)

Pendo (June 2011)

Pendo is a precious baby girl that a fellow member of my group fell in love with very quickly.

Zac (June 2011)

Zac was also quite small, many in this group were of course due to age, prematurity, or slow weight-gain. He is a beautiful child though.

Nico (June 2011)

I dislike that I did not get a better picture of Nico, but he was a favorite of another fellow travel mate.

Luc (June 2011)

Luc was, of course, adorable a year ago when this photo was taken. I looked on the HLCH website and he's updated photo stole my heart. I would adopt him in a second if I could. (Alas, that will not happen anytime soon.)

Hakima (June 2011)

This little girl was quite possibly my favorite little girl of all the children at Happy Life. It seemed she was always in a good mood.

Aiden (June 2011)

Aiden, though, was by far my favorite child at HLCH, no contest. He had my heart from the very beginning when we took the tour of Happy Life that first day. I'm happy to say that he has been adopted and I pray he is loved greatly by his new family.

Several of the school age children in their uniforms and ready for the school day! (May/June 2011)

I didn't spend nearly has much time with the older children, but out of the older children, I'd have to say I loved the school-age children the best. They were easiest to communicate with (though, I've promised myself I'm going to learn Swahili.) And because of that communication factor they could teach us about their language and culture like no one else would be able to.

As much as I plan to learn the language and return to volunteer (and maybe even adopt) someday, in the meantime HLCH and the children they care for would be grateful for my support in other ways. I plan to donate financially and I've given thought to sponsoring a child at HLCH.

That's right! You can sponsor a HLCH child, which I think is pretty cool. You can learn more about it through this link: http://www.happylifechildrenshome.com/child-sponsorship.html

If you are interested in child sponsorship in general as I am also, you might be interested in this program: www.worldvision.org

In relation to my short time with the children at Happy Life and learning about sponsorship, there is a book, written by a young woman about the same age as myself.  Kisses for Katie is about how a young woman now lives in Uganda and cares for children as their mother - to 14 little girls - along with starting a non-profit agency. What she is doing strikes such a chord with me because of her age and our similar backgrounds. I plan to read Kisses for Katie and you can watch for news on that on another blog of mine, Immersed in Books, here: http://immersedbooks.blogspot.com/

You can learn more about Katie Davis, the author of Kisses from Katie, and follow her blog at: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ and the blog of her non-profit organization: http://www.amazimaministries.blogspot.com/

I plan to share more about my trip, especially about going on safari, but I'd truly like to know what you think of what I've shared here, and before this post. Please share your comments below. I'll leave you with this quote which inspires me to do more in the global community for others...

"Jesus does not ask that we care for the less fortunate, he demands it. When calling ourselves Christ-followers caring for orphans and the desolate and the widow are not an option, it's a requirement." -Katie Davis, Amazima Ministries