After 7 Years of Sponsoring: It’s Time to Meet Our Little Costa Rican Angel.

7 years ago, on OCTOBER 17th 2005 to be precise, we were browsing the WorldVision website and looking for someone to help.

We knew that we came from two of the safest, cleanest, and most affluent nations in the world and that there were people who would appreciate the little that we could afford to give.

But, how could we choose?   There were so many adorable and pleading faces, in countries all over the world.

How Can You Decide ?

We couldn’t sponsor all of them, but we wanted to.

How do you choose when your few dollars might mean a safe place to sleep, clean water, or the opportunity to go to school ?

Little Angie’s cute face blended in with all of the other lovable faces, but a particular date under her picture caught our attention.

The date was October 17th, 2003.

“”It’s her birthday today“, we thought to ourselves, and we picked her.

Her name was Angie, short for “Angelina” and she certainly looked like a little angel.   If we could have some positive impact on her life, however insignificant, we wanted to try.

For 7 years we years we have sent our monthly payments and wondered if it was making any difference.

Was she in school, or working on the family farm?  Did she have toys or enough food?  Was she happy and healthy?

Most importantly, we wanted to know this: 

What did she think of the young couple from a far away world ?

After so many years, we are going to find out when we meet her face to face.

In less than 48 hours, we will be introduced to her and her mother in a small town about 30 minutes from the border with Nicaragua.

We have anxiously looked forward to this day and wondered what will happen.

• Will she be healthy and happy?
• Will she look anything like the little baby in the photo?
• Will she recognize us ?
• Will she be curious about our lives?
• Will she speak any English ?
• What will we talk about ?
• Does she prefer soccer over dolls?
• Is she just as nervous as we are right now?
•  Is she writing about it on her blog or whispering to her friends?

So many questions and no answers.

The Homeless Writers will bravely face the unknown, and tell you about it soon.

-Ryan Xavier,  the Homeless Writer. Costa Rica, 2012.