Her name translates to “Doll”, and it fits her well. We started sponsoring Remya when she was 6 years old for our daughter Julia, because they were the same age and we wanted Julia to have a sponsored child. Julia actually asked to sponsor Remya when she heard a Compassion presentation at our church. How could we say no. After today, I believe this was a divine selection and God intended these two girls to have a relationship.

Let me tell you Julia, she is freakishly like you. She is beautiful, smart, funny and outgoing, bold as can be, affectionate to melt your heart, ministry minded (she teaches second grade Sunday School), she does the laundry for her family, her mom is in ministry and did I say she is amazing to be with. She is funny, silly, joyful, sweet and most of all, she loves you Julia. She kept saying it over and over. She would say:

I love You Auntie
I love Julia
I love Grace
I love Isabel
I love Uncle Stephen

Then…. she would giggle.

When I gave her the photo book she knew each of us by name. She even knew the dog and cat.

Here is how the day went:

She showed up with her mom and project worker at the hotel. The second I saw her, she smiled, jumped up and hugged me. I cried like a baby. I felt a little embarrassed by my display of emotion, but I just couldn’t help it after this week.

We decided to call Julia.

As we walked to the science museum across the street, Pushpom (the mother) and Remya held my hands. Remya then told me that my family bought her the beautiful dress she was wearing. She said, “thank you for my pretty dress”, then smiled at me with all the charm in the world. I cried again…..

She proceeded to show me her watch and said we bought it for her. She said thank you. She was very proud.

We had a lot of fun at the museum. Oh my goodness, the kid was like a squirrel in a tree. She wanted every experience. We played with every gadget, and went through every maze, did the planetarium (Everest movie), went to a scary 3-D show. Remya was giddy.

At the museum, the project worker let Pushpom (the mom) call her husband and she giggled as she spoke to him about me. She handed the phone to me and I said hello to Remya’s dad. He was so sweet with broken English and said, thank you thank you thank you.

After the museum, we got in a 3rd world gondola that took us across the park to a bus. She loved every minute of the experience, and was so excited about the gondola ride. That kept my mind off the idea of dying from a 3rd world gondola with my sponsored child.

Oh, she gave me lots of hugs and kisses.

She charmed the group by her beauty and her boldness. She kept saying……”Keely, Keely take photo of us”. I think Keely got about 500 photos.

At lunch we talked some more. She knows some English, and her translator knew some English, so I was able to learn some great things about her. Then she whipped out every letter that was sent to her from Julia (and me), since she was six years old. She had the original letter telling her that we were her sponsors. Kill me hard….. I cried again.

“ Auntie, do you like ice cream?’

“Yes, I love ice cream.”

“Does it taste good?”

Today, Remya had ice cream for the first time.

After our day, we came back to the hotel, I gave her the rest of the gifts, we prayed, and said goodbye. She held on to me until the very end.

I said goodbye and blubbered a little while, pulled it together, ran into the other blubbering bloggers, blubbered some more, then wrote this post and blubbered some more. Ok…my eyes are burning red, swollen, and puffy for our dinner with the Leadership kids tonight. I guess that is just how it is.

I try not to play favorites when it comes to sponsored children but dog gone it, she was just too much. Personality galore. Love and kisses and full of Jesus.

By the way, Keely completely helped me put this post together. She has met 3 of my sponsored children now, so she is feeling like family. She also is an amazing photographer. Thanks for helping me out today and allowing me to feel the day and not worry about pictures.