Christian Children's Fund

Everytime I see that commercial on t.v. for the Christian Children's Fund I cry. I cry because I have seen children like that and hated not being able to take them home with me.

When I was engaged to be married I went to my fiance's country to meet his family. He was El Salvadorian and we flew to El Salvador and toured the country as well as Guatamala, Belize and Livingston. It was awesome. But it was also heartbreaking.

Everywhere you looked there was poverty. So much poverty. And there were small children, or I should say, bags of bones, wandering and alone, fending for themselves because their parents could not take care of them. The lucky ones got to live with close family memebers and the unlucky ones ran the streets and did the best they could to survive.

And everytime we found one I wanted to take them home but the only thing I could do was feed them. And even though they had a meal for that day, what about the next? And the one after that? It was heartbreaking. The mommy in me felt like I was abandoning those children, leaving them to die. And I was wasn't I?

So everytime I see the commercial I remember the dirty faces, the little hands, the lost looks, and that I had to leave them all behind. I remember I had to leave my humanity at the border between their country and mine. And I remember that I cried every single time I said good-bye.