A Day Like Any Other

Today was a day like any other day.

I woke up, safe and warm, to take care of my baby. She woke up simply because she had rested enough and she wanted to play.

I swept my hardwood floors, annoyed at the amount of dust, crumbs and little particles that had accumulated.

I went to the grocery store. I had carefully made a list the day before, but I put a few additional things in my cart without worry or fear of making ends meet.

I filled up my empty gas tank, sighing over ever increasing costs, but again without fear of making ends meet.

I fed my baby and put her down in her own bed in her own room for a quiet nap.

I took a shower, with shampoo, in a clean bathroom.

I folded a basket full of laundry and put things away in drawers and a closet already full of clothes.

I made my bed. A nice comfortable bed that I share with my husband who comes home to us every night.

My daughter woke up and asked for rice. I had rice that I could give her.

My husband came home from his job in D.C. and I made dinner.

We had two little gifts for Leilani to discover, bubbles and sidewalk chalk. She loved both.

Right now, she has at last finished roaming about the house while we chase her with spoons full of food, and is in a warm bath of clean water getting ready for bed.

It was a day just like any other day. A day of plenty. A day free from fear and worry. A day of smiles, cleanliness and love. A day that I could let pass without notice. But today I also have been reading the stories from Compassion Bloggers who are on a trip to the Philippines. What I read broke my heart.

It was a reality check to remember that my "every day" normal is opulence to most of the world. Whole families are living in squalid, tiny little rooms, hardly bigger than my closet. Mothers are struggling to feed their children, praying every day, not asking for grand futures for their little ones, but that they would just survive. Their babies wake up crying from hunger that can not be answered. They have no floors to sweep. Their is no money to buy food with. They have no gifts to give their little ones, not even a simple joy like bubbles. They have no jobs, no cars, futures and no hope.

Compassion International is changing that. One child at a time. Poverty can't be erased. There is no fix all solution. But there is hope where there was none before. The love of Jesus Christ is filling the empty void of an empty future, and Compassion is working to fill empty bellies, clothe bare little backs and help mothers take care of their children. There is beauty amidst the filth and poverty. There is hope.

Won't you be a part of that hope?