The Ongoing Journey of a New Sponsor

Sami Cone shares her ongoing journey as a new sponsor…

Well we finally received our child sponsorship information and got to “meet” our kids for the first time thanks to the welcome kit!

Two young girls in red shirts smiling holding photos of their sponsored children

It was extremely important to our kids that we find kids to sponsor who shared their same birthdays. But once we did, there was little more to go on besides a little bit about their family and where they lived.

So when we received a 23-page booklet in the mail that not only shared more about the child, family environment and country of origin, as well as how we could better communicate with and pray for the child, we were thrilled!

Image of a pages of the child sponsorship information book a sponsor receives

It finally felt like we could really incorporate them into our family in a meaningful way.

It hasn’t been long since we’ve received our information kit, but the kids have already hung their pictures on the fridge and started praying for them by name daily.

We especially appreciate the bookmark that was included with the child’s picture on one side and a specific prayer request for every day of the month on the other side.

I’ve come to realize that not only are these important characteristics to pray over our Compassion child, but equally important to pray over our own children as well.

Because correspondence can take so long between us and the children, we’re already planning what we want to do to help them celebrate Christmas and how we can begin to give them a glimpse into our family life.

While these children may not be physically here with us, they have already taken root in our hearts and in our home.

It’s even to where Kariss has asked to give her birthday money to Gabrielle and asked how much more money we needed to save to go visit her in Brazil.

When watching the Olympics and learning that the next Summer Games are in Rio, Kariss exclaimed, “That’s in Brazil – we can go visit Gabrielle!”

Love her thinking 😉


Read the entire post on samicone.com.

5 Comments |Add a comment

  1. Mellissa Rose Plowman September 1, 2012

    I would love more ideas on what to send to older children. My husband & I sponsor 6 children and 4 of them are over the age of 14. For the two younger ones we send stickers and coloring pages but I am never sure what to send the older ones. Thanks!

    1. Jill Foley ~ Compassion Family September 1, 2012

      I think postcards and photos are some of the best things to send. I wrote a post on my personal blog with several other ideas…
      https://compassionfamily.blogspot.com/2011/09/writing-to-older-kids.html

  2. Yvonne August 31, 2012

    This is so great that you are making this part of your family!

    With the bookmark prayer requests, we made individual cards for each of the 31 ways to pray. This way, each morning at breakfast, we pray what is on the card to coorespond with that day of the month. The box of cards sits on our table always and is a great reminder to be praying for our sponsored kids throughout the day.

  3. Hannah August 31, 2012

    How awesome! I sponsor a little girl with my parents too. She is practically family to me! I hope to visit her soon. One thing that was fun was I sent her valentines. (the valentines I sent are on my blog) I also sent a map with a sticker where I lived and one where she lives, as well as many coloring sheets. I found a great website to print off coloring sheets if your iterested. God bless your family and your sponsorship adventures!

  4. Kees Boer August 31, 2012

    Wow, you all are very good sponsors. Your children are so blessed to have you as their sponsor. That would be great to go visit the children. If you ask most Compassion children what their greatest dream is, they will say, they hope to meet the sponsor one day…. Maybe you can go to the Olympic games together with your Compassion children. 🙂

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