Update: Shaun Groves has set up a place to leave your Compassion stories and share them with everyone in blogland. Read the stories and/or share your own by going here.

My heart has been touched, squeezed, wrung out, and forever changed over the past several days.

I put that Compassion button over in my sidebar the day Sophie and Shannon headed out to Uganda, and I have prayed diligently from the first moment they shared of their opportunity to go on this life-changing adventure.

My heart has ached and the tears have flowed freely as I have watched, read, prayed, and searched my own mind for the response God has for me. He has done a work that will not soon fade from view.

For several years now I have prayed for another child, a child God has placed on my heart. I know that child will not be born from my womb, and I am pretty sure she will not come from this country.

In His timing, God has not seen fit to allow our family to pursue adoption yet. He hasn't told me "No." He has gently been whispering, "Not yet."

Until then, I must be satisfied with the dreams I have of her and with the hope that one day He will bring her home to rest in my arms. So I thought.

However, on Friday, a new little girl was added to our family in a matter of minutes. We went to the Compassion site and chose to sponsor Juana from Guatemala. She is 5 and was born on my birthday.

Now, I may not shelter this precious one in my own home. I may never actually hold her in my arms like this, but I can be a significant part of her life by the giving of my money, my time, and my prayers to make sure she has every opportunity to grow into the young woman God has created her to be. I can, through my gifts, make a change in her family that will endure through future generations.

If you don't already sponsor a child, I would heartily encourage you to embrace the motto of Compassion and begin the process of "releasing a child from poverty in Jesus' name." All you need to do is click here. Let you heart lead you. God will do the rest.

I know the bloggers are headed home, due to return to US soil today. Yet it is not too late to do something life-changing. Only you know how that looks for you.

I don't know when God will move in the arena of adoption for our family. I do know my heart is still wide open for Him to do whatever He will.

All I can tell you right now is that He soothed my aching mama soul just a little bit when I looked into Juana's face and knew that I could help make a difference for her. God can do the same with you. Go check it out now!

Labels: adoption, beginnings, childhood, compassion, faith, giving