Dear Claudine and Thomas,

My life has been full of good days and great days. Of course, I’ve had bad days, but that’s not important right now. My good days far outnumber my bad days and I praise God for that, but my great days are rare because something absolutely incredible happens on those days. Today is a great day because I am now sponsoring the two of you!

I never knew that pieces of my heart could live so many miles away from me in a place I’ve never been, but apparently, they do now. Or maybe you two have added new pieces to my heart, extra pieces that I never knew I needed but that I now never want to live without. Perhaps it is crazy for me to love you so much when all I’ve seen is your picture when you have never even seen me, but I firmly believe that God has planned for us to be friends for a long time.

I want to know everything about you! You are two unique creations and I care about your siblings, your school, and your favorite color. Tell me where you like to play, draw me pictures of your friends, and write to me about the pet you want. There is nothing about you that I want to miss.

In return, I will tell you anything you want to know about me. I will send you pictures of my family and I will tell you stories about my friends. My favorite color is pink. I love to read, but I am not good at math. Although I have never left America, I am now planning to visit a very specific place: Rwanda, your home.

Visiting you is my new goal. Hugging you, playing with you, meeting your friends and family, seeing your house, going to your church- I cannot imagine anything better. Please know, though, that I will either be crying tears of joy when I meet you or I will be laughing with glee from the depths of my soul.

I am almost afraid that if I visit you if I fall in love with your country and all of its people, I will not be able to leave. This is a silly fear though, for I am going wherever God calls me, whether that is back to my hometown near Atlanta, Georgia or across the world to your village.

He will plant passion for me to harvest wherever I go and no matter if I love in between the two of you or I live in America, I will try to visit and write often.

Until I get to hold you two, please be good. Listen to your parents, do your best at school, go to church as much as you can and follow Jesus, play hard with your friends, and remember that I will always love you no matter what. I will always be proud to be both your sponsor and your friend.

Today when I got both of you, I showed your pictures off to so many people. Your pictures will be shown to everyone I talk to throughout this week because the must know that you exist and that I love you.

We are like a little family stretched across the world, connected by the sky, the sun, and the moon. We are never as far apart as we think.

Blessings,

Rebecca