Because She's Amazing

First of all, thank you for your prayers. My trip to Tanzania was incredible. I had no clue what to expect so you can imagine that my expectations were exceeded over and over. Tanzania is a beautiful country and our country staff there are so great! I'm still processing and hope to share many stories with you but for the first installment I wanted to tell you how totally special my sponsored child, Agnesi is. By far the best part of my trip was getting to meet her.

I boarded the bus on Thursday morning with anticipation and a little anxiety. Will she recognize me? Will I recognize her? Will she like me? Will we connect and have fun or spend the day stairing at each other? I was praying the whole bus ride. I couldn't believe the day I had waited for for 6 years was actually here. We pulled into the parking lot and some of the kids were already there, I wasn't sure if she was or not. I worked my way through the crowd and watched as the kids recognized their sponsors. I knew I would recognize her eyes and kept trying to look some of the young ladies in the eyes. Then, I saw her, she was looking at me and although a part of me wasn't quite sure, most of me knew it was her. She was a few feet from me and I said her name "Agnesi? Agnesi?". She smiled and shook her head yes and gave me a huge hug. I hugged her back, and held in the tears (I didn't want to scare her right off the bat).

We moved off into the grass, pulled up some plastic white deck chairs and spent the morning looking at pictures I had brought her and talking (through her project worker that translated for us). She is so beautiful. She had a lovely baby blue dress on, her eyes shinning. When we sat, she sat close with her hand on my arm, when we walked she held my hand, when we stood she'd lean against me with her head on my shoulder. It was our first ever meeting but it was as if she was my little sister and we were instantly comfortable with each other. Praise the Lord (Bwana Asifiwe in swahili). The Lord had bound our hearts before we even met.

I can tell you that the day went far too quickly and I did cry at the end. She is a precious jewel and meeting her has touched my heart in ways I never imagined it would. I think about her all the time now and try to imagine what she's doing. My prayers for her seem more connected and relevant than they were before. I will be a different sponsor than I was before. Each letter will be different, each word of encouragement more specific. Every time I tell someone else about Compassion and sponsorship will be a testament of her life and of all the Lord is doing in her. I'm so grateful I get to be a part of it.

She's amazing and even though I told her she was, I don't know that she believes it, so I will keep telling her as often as I can and I'm already thinking about and planning for the next time I can go visit her.