My Little Starfish

This is Joy after her 1st surgery in China. There is a family (pictured below) that followed God to China. They started the House of Love at an orphanage in Guangxi, China. Joy was one of the first children they saw upon arriving. They raised money so she could have life saving surgery. Why is she a starfish you might ask? This family started the House of Love because of the Starfish Poem. I put it under Joy's picture.

THE STARFISH POEM

Once upon a time there was a wise man

who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.

He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.

One day he was walking along the shore.

As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.

He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up.

As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore,

picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"

The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean."

 

"The wise man then asked, "Why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"

 

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."

 

"But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"

 

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said-

"It made a difference for that one."

One thing I cling to from this trip to China is that one life does make a difference. No, I can't help the 143 million orphans BUT I can help one, then another, and then another. AND every life does count! This is Joy and I with the family that God used to literally save her life! They gave us each a starfish necklace for helping. I didn't read the note in Joy's until we got home. It said, "Joy, You are special. You are a starfish." Yes, the floodgates that I had managed to keep at bay for a week opened and I haven't quit crying since.

You can go to An Orphan's Wish to help sponsor a child. The older children in the CP Unit need sponsors the most. The House of Love has room to help more older children but they can't because they need more sponsors! One child does matter.

I'll be sharing more photos of the kids we got to meet soon. We were able to teach the kids and train the Kindergarten teacher. It was a great experience so I'll be sharing about that too.

If you are thinking of sponsoring a child you can rest assured that these kids are well loved and cared for and prayed for. We got to see one of them celebrate a birthday, one of them get their first set of casts for clubfoot, watch their carers play and love on them, and much more. None of this is possible without people like you and I doing whatever we have to do to support the kids from afar!