Warning: Mush and Blubbering

**WARNING – the following post is more serious than usual, but I’d appreciate it if you read it anyway.  I promise, I’ll soon be back to the general tom-foolery postings you’ve become accustomed to.**

The Husband and I are very blessed.  Seriously, in our 13 years of marriage, we’ve had our financial ups and downs (okay, a lot of downs) but since we moved to the south from Ohio three years ago, it seems like we have had just too many blessings to count.  And when you’re blessed financially, you really have just two options.  You can think, “Whoopee!  I can go buy all the stuff I’ve always wanted to get myself!”  I understand this feeling.  It does feel good to enjoy the fruits of your labors, especially when you work hard and have done without for a good while.  My yarn stash is much better off because of our blessings.  Hoarding all your money falls under this category too – it revolves around you and yours.  With retirement getting too close for my comfort, I think about this a lot.  I have very little hope that Social Security will be solvent enough to help me out when the time comes.  My mom worked all her life and what she gets from SS is ridiculously paltry.  So, keeping what you earn for yourself has its merits and The Husband resides firmly within this option.

Thing is, I don’t can’t…

I am firmly committed to the other option:  “We have so much.  How can I help someone who truly needs it?”  I have a hard time describing this and I know The Husband doesn’t completely understand it, but my desire to help others out of our abundance is just something that is there, all the time.  It’s not only there, but sometimes I almost feel a physical pain at the thought of withholding help when it is within our means to do so.  It’s really a good thing that The Husband is not as burdened with this as I am, otherwise I’d probably “give away the farm”, if you know what I mean.  Nevertheless, my feelings on the matter are what they are.

So lately I’ve been asking myself the aforementioned question:  how can I help?  The possibilities are seemingly endless.  There’s a charity around every corner and many of them do incredible work with those who need assistance, both here in the U.S. and abroad.  But one option has been bumping around in my brain for months now:  child sponsorship.  I did all my homework on the different agencies and decided that it was good and right to just do this – to sponsor a child.  I chose to work through World Vision and just recently received my packet of info on the child we are sponsoring – a little boy from India whose family lives on less than $2 a day.  I spend more than that on one loaf of bread…

I just sent our sponsored child my first note, and I can’t believe how I’m feeling.  Now, I’m sort of an emotional dork anyway, crying at all sorts of random things, especially since menopause has reared its ugly head, but all I want to do right now is cry.  Seriously.  This little boy, whom I’ve never met, has completely stolen my heart.  Dorky, right?  And yet, reality…

But enough of that mush…

I know I am not usually anywhere near this serious and I probably won’t be again any time soon, but just in case any of you reading are also blessed and just in case you also reside in the second option, I wanted to let you know about one way you can indeed make a difference.  If you want to sponsor a child, just go to the World Vision web site.  It is incredibly easy to do.  If you’d like to know why I chose WV, just let me know, I’d be happy to email you and tell you. 

Since this is actually a knitting blog, I have something knitting and/or crocheting-related too.  Get this:  World Vision has a “Knit for Kids” program!  How cool is that?!?  They provide a simple pattern and you can use your stash for good and not for evil!  Not that I’m ever out of a good excuse to knit something but you really can’t top knitting something for needy children, can you?  

Oh, and on a side note…in case The Husband happens to read this, I need to state how incredibly joyful he’s made me by letting me take just a little of our blessing to sponsor a child, even though I’m sure he’s shaking his head about my having yet another thing to blubber about.  But hey, he married me.  He walked right into it, poor guy…

***  ***  ***

Any stories out there about how helping someone else made you feel great?  Or made you blubber?  Or made you feel like blubbering?