I would like to introduce you today, to my second
Compassion International child. Zaira Betzabeth from Peru. She lives up in the mountains, in a small community. I use to call her my little Dora. Here's why :
And what was even more precious about this young little lady, was she was on the Compassion website right next to her identical twin sister. Dressed in identical outfits, down to the shoes! The only difference was at super close observation, of their head bands, and one child you could see a bit of color on their socks. The stances and sad looks were the exactly the same with the exception of the direction of the head tilt. That was Zaira at 4 years old. Not too long into my sponsorship with her, I received another photo of her in her new clothes she bought with her birthday money, and I saw a little more personality in her photo.
Early on, because of her age her letters were simple, but so full of love! She has always ended her letters with big hugs, many hugs, or many kisses. I ever remember she ended one of her letters with a 'bear' hug! Her tutor for quite some time was very consistent with helping both her and her sister write quite frequent letters. The girls were living in a single parent household consisting of their mom. And either a grandparent, or grandparents lived near by. I have been sponsoring her since 2006, and in about 2008 when Zaira's profile information updated, I found out that her mother was sick with liver cancer. While she and her sister were still pretty small, getting more information was not really easy.
I remember telling the girls we were told their mom was sick and that we were praying for her. They had always asked for prayer for their mom, but I do not even know if they knew how sick she really was. I remember finally in 2011 we received a letter that stated a cell group from church came to pray for my mom and she is now better and up walking. The up walking part was a blessing and curse, we didn't know she had been so sick she wasn't getting up and walking around, but we rallied knowing she was doing better. Here is Zaira is 2009:
And another photo from 2009. They had a field day and had taken pictures. It looks like she was playing some sport, but her sister was posing next to a tree on the same day.
Then shortly after the new year I remember being at work and getting a call from Compassion. I had a bad feeling, and took a break to answer the call. I have other kids, some of who I am only the correspondent for, so I thought maybe a financial sponsor was no longer able to support one of my kids. But nothing could have prepared me for this. She called to let me know Zaira's mom passed away shortly before Christmas...I started to cry, right there on the phone, at work. So many thoughts went racing through my head. Who was she living with, how old is her grandparents, how is poor Zaira handling this, and right before Christmas. A million thoughts racing through my head, and all I could do was pray for her.
So telling you about the saga of her mom, is only a tiny fraction of who this young lady is. She started writing her very own letters without the help of her tutor anymore about a year ago. And not only that, but she can write in cursive too! And todate, her handwriting is pretty legible. She enjoys sports and is a good student! Now that she write her own letters, I feel as if we are getting to know each other again, and since she has grown so much I'm sure things like favorite colors has changed with time too.
Here is her most recent picture, and while I thought she didn't look very good, this update was only a few months after her mother's death. I know I like to look at the progressive photos of others children to see what a change and smile has come to their face. And while I can't say I see that yet, she is definitely an over comer, and I pray I see that change in her soon!
