Today was an exciting day for me. Today I received my first letter from my sponsored child in Thailand. My sponsored child Namthip didn't even write the letter - her case worker at World Vision did. But she included a drawing, which was wonderful.

So tonight I spent about an hour writing a letter back to her, thanking her for the drawing. Now she is only 5, so I didn't write a mini-novel or anything. I just spent a lot of time picking my words, making sure it said what I wanted to say. Not too much and not too little. It's tough writing to a 5-year-old who speaks a different language, trying to make it easy for both the child and the translator.

Anyways, having such a letter and drawing from my sponsored child is now extremely important to me. The cynic in me thinks that World Vision sends this letter within the first month of sponsorship to all sponsors - that's just part of the process - to make me feel special when in fact it's nothing more than an automated process who's ultimate goal is to manipulate me to give more money. But the optimist in me, who definitely rules over the cynic most days, thinks that I could eventually develop a real bond with this child half-way around the world and is thankful that World Vision enabled that.

Yes, definitely right now they are an enabler and not a manipulator. So far. ;)