Alison Nicol - New Sponsor Kid

This is my new (and last!) sponsor child - Alison Nicol. She is two years old and lives in Ecuador. Isn't she adorable? Her brother Johnathan is one of my sister's sponsor kids. He is four years old.



Alison's mother is a single, unwed mother (which I am sure is a stigma in her community). She works as a maid. She is quite young but obviously cares very much for her children. I really feel for her because I know it must be tough to be in her situation. Johnathan has really won my sister's heart and I am sure that I will really love sponsoring Alison as well. She is my youngest sponsor child by far.

My sister and I got together and decided to combine our sponsor power. I'm sponsoring Alison and my sister is going to sponsor one of my kids siblings. (She hasn't chosen which one yet though. Hurry up sis!) I love this idea because I think between the two of us we will be able to really do some good.

There is sort of a funny story about this though...my sister and I had been having conversations about how we wanted to "swap siblings" and had agreed to collect information about the siblings so we could share that with each other and then choose which child we wanted to sponsor. I was going about that process when one day I decided to check my sponsorship account with Children International. (I check in every now and then to keep track of how my kids are doing...) Anyhow, lo and behold there was a new name on my list, Alison Nicol. Needless to say I was very surprised! My actual first thought was that I had "sleep sponsored" a new kid. Maybe I was up late, half asleep, cruising around on the computer and maybe I had seen a cute little face in need of a sponsor and before I knew it...I had sponsored a kid in my sleep! For a moment I truly panicked. Then I noticed Alison's last name and recognised it as being the same as my sister's sponsor child Johnathan's last name. (It is a very distinctive name.) I called my sister and we figured out that when she had asked CI for the info on Alison she had told then I would be sponsoring her and they added her to my account. I had already decided I was going to choose Alison anyhow - but it was quite a shock there for a minute! Whew!

Alison will be my last sponsor child - probably until I have at least a few of my current kids graduate out of the program. The crappy economy combined with my evolving idea of what sponsorship can be have led me to make this decision. I have decided that I want to be able to have the money to set up income generating projects for all of my families, to fund college for any of my kids that wish to attend and also to have the ability to fund any other special needs projects that the families/kids might have. When I started sponsoring I wasn't aware that these things were possible. But now that I know just how much I actually can help...well, that's what I want to do. I think if I can do all of these things I may actually be able to help these families find a way out of poverty rather than just survive poverty. Wouldn't that be awesome?!