When our family traveled to Ethiopia in 2010 for our adoption court date, we were able to visit the kids at the Kind Hearts Care-Point outside of Addis Ababa. Kind Hearts is a care-point managed by Children’s HopeChest which provides nutritious food, clean water, clothing, medical care, Christian discipleship, and education for orphaned and destitute children. Our friend Karen Wistrom, who is the coordinator for Kind Hearts, encouraged us to make time in our schedule to spend a day with the kids there. We would be able to meet our sponsor child and see first hand the care-point that we had become involved with. We had no idea what our visit would be like. However, with the exception of meeting our son for the first time, this was the highlight of our trip. Upon our arrival, the children came pouring out of a small school building where they had obviously been waiting for us. They were running, they were smiling, and they were cheering. Every child wanted a hug. Every child wanted to be noticed. As soon as you would put one child down, another would be reaching up into the air hoping you would love on them next. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. They sang for us, prayed for us, and thanked us for coming. While we had brought donations (food and small gifts for the children), it was clear that we were the ones being blessed that day.
At the end of our day at Kind Hearts, before we piled back into our van, one of the men approached Dave and I to say goodbye. He shook both of our hands and with great sincerity he humbly said, “Please, do not forget about us.” Of course we would never forget this place or the beautiful children we had met that day, but I knew what he meant. He meant, “We need you. We need others to help make this work. We need others to keep partnering with us.”
So, I am incredibly excited to be helping with this year’s Mother’s Day fundraiser. When we visited back in 2010, there were 90 kids enrolled at the care-point. Today they serve 150 children, and Karen said the classrooms are overflowing. There are plans underway to have a new classroom building constructed, allowing the older children to advance and to make room for new students who will be enrolling. The plan includes a new school building with four classrooms. They will also need desks, chairs, chalkboards, and school furnishings to replace the broken and rickety furnishings they are using now. The construction of a new school building will allow the care-point to serve 300 children!
Would you consider making a donation to this project in honor of your mother or another special woman in your life this Mother’s Day?
If you would like to make a donation and order a card, you can use the PayPal button on the left. Be sure to include the recipient’s name, your name, and the address you would like me to mail your card to. Absolutely 100% of your donation will be sent to a special account set up at Children’s HopeChest. If you don’t have a PayPal account or you have other questions, you can contact me at davidsonfamilystl@sbcglobal.net and we will work it out!
To learn more about Kind Hearts, visit Karen’s blog:
We are Dave and Robyn Davidson of St. Louis, Missouri. We have three sweet and spunky kids: Samantha, Toby, and Trey. Welcome to our Jesus adoring, miracle believing, gymnastics loving, football cheering, road tripping, frog catching, very blessed, busy family blog.
