Los Zapatos

I’ve seen many people on OurCompassion.com post pictures that they’ve received from their sponsored children who are holding gifts they’ve purchased with money sent by the sponsors.  I just posted on the site on Friday that I wish I could receive pictures of my kids with gifts.  They always thank me for them, but I don’t get to see pictures of them with what they bought.

On Saturday, I received a letter from Michelle, and on the back are these two pictures of her!   (Trying to decide what else to wish for with results like that!)  In the first she is holding a backpack that she received at the Compassion project because of my support.  The backpack has Minnie Mouse on it.

Her birthday isn’t until June 13^th, but she already received the money I sent for that and went shopping.  She bought three pairs of shoes and the pink socks she is holding in the second picture.  Notice the glitzy pink shoes.  I love it.  It warms my heart and makes me smile to see her with the shoes.  With the money I sent for Christmas, she was given a pair of shoes, so now she has almost as many shoes as I do!  (Okay, I’m SO not a typical girl where shoes are concerned.)

Michelle is definitely a GIRL’S girl.  

It’s not that I think sponsoring is all about enabling the children to get material things, but just think of how good you feel when you wear something new—or drive something new.  Now imagine (although we really can’t) living under the oppression of poverty, where many children have no shoes at all, and being able to have three new pairs of shoes (well, really four, counting Christmas).  

Hope—that’s what those shoes represent to me.  Michelle has hope that she can break the chains of poverty and one day not only buy her own shoes, but help others to do so.

I love the picture that she drew, although I’m wondering why the book is floating in the sky.  LOL.  I’m guessing that’s a Bible.  I can tell that Michelle is a perfectionist because she erased and redrew so many things.  I love the heart.  That’s an awesome thing.  

She will turn 6 next month, but she seems to include a lot of details for one so young, especially all the different colors.  I can imagine her painstakingly picking up each crayon to make the picture just right.

I can’t stop thinking about the look on her face—not just the happiness, but the sense of accomplishment, that a little girl in poverty can be just a little girl … with pink shoes and pink socks and a pink backpack.