One Less Broken Heart

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you'll know my Basomingera Ada from Rwanda. My sweet girl that I've been writing to for almost four years now.

Four years. That's a long time.

So when I logged in to my Compassion account and noticed that her precious face was missing, alarm bells went off in my head. I immediately contacted Compassion, and learned the news that makes every correspondent sponsor's heart sink. Ada's financial sponsor had dropped her.

Logically, I tried to look at my finances. But thankfully for all of us, your heart doesn't always follow the dictates of your bank account.

Because I remembered the first time I saw this precious face.

I remembered the overwhelming joy that flooded my soul when I looked into those melting chocolate eyes and felt like I'd found a piece of myself. I remembered that night, lying awake and loving this child that I didn't know, but yet felt like I had known forever. The words of a song by Christina Perri rang through my mind that night... they played over and over. I have come to call this song "Ada's Song", and whenever I hear it, I think of her.

And as I stared at the blank spot on my account, where my darling girl's face used to look back at me, I remembered her words.

"I thank you for your previous letter you wrote to me and many more other letters you keep sending me and tell me that Jesus is a Friend Who can never forsake me. I thank you for the nice pictures. Please continue writing me."

"I feel like missing you."

"Thank you so much for your having accepted to be my sponsor. It reminds me of how Jesus loved me and accepted to be my sponsor."

"I am so glad to hear from you and know that I am part of your family."

"I pray for you to be with God all the time."

"I thank God Who connected us. I wish to be a doctor and I wish to see you."

"I thank you for being a good parent and I was happy for the good things you always do to me. I believe to have a better future."

And lastly, I looked at this precious face.

And the rest is, as they say, history. Welcome to the family Basomingera Ada... my fourth sponsored child. My own. My heart, my world. God willing, I will sponsor her until she graduates out of the program.

You've come home, beautiful Basomingera. I will be the last sponsor you ever have. And I will love you for the rest of my life.

And to quote Matthew West's song One Less, "There's one less broken heart in the world tonight."