Advent Day 18 - Compassion International

I was so excited about today's activity.  I've been thinking about sponsoring a child through Compassion for a while now, and today was the day we would choose one!  I reminded the kids that we have been blessed with so many things that we need and with things that are luxuries that we want.  I tried to explain to them that there are kids all over the world that don't have all of the things that we have and sadly, sometimes don't even have enough money for food.

 

I pulled up a map of the world for the kids, showed them Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, and tried to get them to pick an area where they wanted our child to be from.  Hunter kept saying, "I want the one that's the poorest."  I explained that they are all poor, so we just went to the compassion website and filtered it for girl, ages 3-5.  Since we're adding a boy to the family in February, we wanted to pick a girl for this, and I thought it would be good to have one that was close to the kids' ages.  I also filtered it for "longest wait" and every child that came up was from Peru.  So it looks like that's the area God had chosen for us!  We chose the girl that had been waiting the longest.  She is 4, and her name is Celeste.  We got to see her picture and learn about her country and her specific chores and interests and family life.  I was so impressed with how much information Charlotte and Hunter remembered about her life later tonight when we were telling James all about it.

 

We watched a video on the Compassion website of a child from India thanking his sponsor.  He wasn't speaking English, so I read the subtitles to the kids while he was speaking.  At the end of the video he started crying and Hunter asked why.  I explained that he is very poor and doesn't have much, and that he is thankful that he has people through Compassion to teach him about Jesus' love through the Bible and that he is thankful to have a sponsor that gives money so he can learn and have food and clean water and school supplies.  Hunter said, "That's really sad."  I'm so thankful for the heart God has given him.

 

We'll get a packet with more information on Celeste in a couple of weeks.  I can't wait to see more pictures and write letters with the kids to send to her.  I pray that the Lord will soften my kids hearts' to others through our relationship with Celeste.  I am so thankful to have the blessing of being born here in America and to know a God that has provided for our family in unbelievable ways.  Our needs are always met...and then some.

 

Nothing could top that activity for me, but I had found this cute idea on pinterest to print tickets similar to those on The Polar Express and surpise the kids with going to see Christmas lights after getting ready for bed, so tonight was the night we had planned for that.

 

I hid the tickets in the kids' books.  Char came out first and found hers...

She said, "What's this?"  So I told her, "It's a ticket!"

She kept making guesses as to what the ticket was for...the zoo, the circus, the arboretum...

Hunter finally came out, and she showed him his ticket...

I read it to them and explained that we were going to go look at Christmas lights right then!  The screaming dance part ensued at that moment...

So they put on their slippers, grabbed the hot chocoalte I'd made for them, and we were off...

I wanted to drive to Deerfield, a neighborhood in Plano, because I'd heard they have the best lights.  There was a wreck on 75, so it took us 45! minutes to get there.  The kids started out this excited...

But after that long drive, Hunter was asleep when we finally got there.  We had to wake him up!

There were so many good lights...it was totally worth the drive! 

We thought those Santas were so funny in Mavs, Stars, Rangers and Cowboys jerseys!

This is really blurry because I had to stick the camera outside in front of the car to get the picture, but Santa is in the yard in his sleigh and the reindeer are flying across the sky...

We liked this nativity...

And train...

Another cool nativity...

But this house topped it all.  It was A-MA-ZING...

And yes, it flashed to music.

Go to Deerfield and look at their lights (there were people on carriage rides and in limos, so there's that option, too, if you want to be fancy).  The pictures really don't do it justice.

But before you go to Deerfield, go to this website and sign up to sponsor a child through Compassion International in the name of Jesus Christ.  What a perfect season to do that!

We didn't get to our verse tonight because it was so late when we got home, so we'll just tack it on to tomorrow!