HANDS ACROSS THE WATER

December 26, 2004. A day that will forever be a date remembered not as a day of celebration but the day of one of the greatest natural disasters of all time. Horrible images were telecast of such devastation that it was hard to really take it all in. Many of us thought we were watching a disaster movie instead of a real disaster at first. But it was all too true. A tsunami had devastated a vast part of southeast Asia – Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka in particular. These were real people. Real emotions. Real bodies. And so many missing people. So many homeless.

During the time following the tsunami, so many relief agencies were asking for donations. We felt we wanted to do something but what? At this time to we were also still missing our granddaughter after not spending the Holidays with her. In fact, I was pretty much in the depths of despair. After much thought we decided that sponsoring a child through World Vision would not only fill a need for a child but also fill a void in our lives.
I went to their web site to pick out a child. We decided to pick out a child in Sri Lanka. And we decided that we wanted to sponsor a girl. The first three selections were boys. The fourth selection was a little girl. Her birthdate was April 8, 2003 – the same date was our granddaughter, Kyra. It was a sign.