Blessed

I feel blessed. The last couple of days have served to remind me how great it is to live in America, despite all of our problems, complaints about gas prices, etc. At a 33 Miles concert last night, they spoke about a mission trip they took to Guatemala, about the activity of the day at school being learning how to wash their hands. These were 9 & 10 year olds who had never done that before. They spoke about a lady living in a hut with 6 people total, who was so thankful for that hut. And then tonight I just read a story about a daycare in Mexico that caught fire because of a tire place next door, and 34 children died. How heartbreaking. I was shocked and appalled when I read that the 130+ children in the center were being cared for by just 6 workers, which was in the legal limits. That's an average of 23 kids per worker. In Illinois, one adult can work with 4 babies. At the most, one adult can work with 20 school agers, who are obviously a little bit more independent. Can you imagine working with 23 toddlers at once? And to think, I was worried about The Gooch going to Kindergarten and having 23 classmates in the fall. Another reason I feel blessed--we have a new addition to our family--Elvis, a 9 year old boy from Nicaragua, that I chose to sponsor at the concert last night. I've been to a ton of concerts and always hear the plea from Compassion, World Vision, or whoever about sponsoring a child, and while I have done so in the past, it's never been as a result of a concert plea. I really felt like God was telling me "You want another kid, so go get a kid!" Elvis is in third grade, but this may be his last year in school. That's as high as they go there. After that they are expected to provide for their family--often by digging through trash dumps for scrap metal and plastics that they can sell for recycling. I sit here on my laptop, as my husband sits on our desktop, and our child watches a movie in his bedroom, looking around at my house, the house that I think is way too small, the carpet that I think so desperately needs replaced, and looking at the walls that I think need repainting, and I am thankful that I have carpet, not dirt floors, and that I have walls that keep me safe from the elements, and that maybe this house isn't so small for just the three of us. I am thankful that I was just able to go to Walmart in my very own car and pick out anything I could want to eat over the next two weeks. I hope that I can keep remembering how blessed I am, even when I'm tempted to be frustrated or feel sorry for the hand we're sometimes dealt. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for placing me here. Right here. I'm blessed.