Welcoming a Daughter

Of my parents' seven grandchildren, there are exactly zero granddaughters. I'm very excited to be the first to welcome a new little girl to the family... No, I'm not pregnant. Even better: Josh and I just agreed to start sponsoring a little girl at a Cambodian orphanage. We're thrilled. She may not be part of our family legally or by birth, but she's part of our family now anyway.

She was sent to the orphanage because her father is sick and unable to work. Her mother cannot support the family, so they sent their young daughter away so she could get an education and have a promising future. I don't know yet if she has any siblings or if she ever gets to see her parents. I'll find out soon.

Our support for her is twofold: monetary and emotional support. The money is minimal, just $30 a month. (By paying for her room and board at the orphanage, the orphanage can use their limited funds to improve the orphanage and buys books and supplies.) The real commitment is in staying in contact with our new "daughter" through email. She will try to send us email in the English she is learning at school, and we will in turn try to contact her as often as she wants in the simplest words we can. I'm sure there are older students who can help her translate our words. The language barrier may be a difficulty, but I have no doubt that my husband will start learning Khmer soon. He loves languages. ;)

When I was in high school, I randomly met somebody on the internet who was from Cambodia. He told me his family had been killed by the Pol Pot regime and he had fled the country. The story he told me was shocking. That story is becoming more important to me now as I learn about the goals of this orphanage.

According to Wikipedia, "They discarded Western medicine, destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered western. Any person with trained skills, doctors, lawyers, teachers, were especially targeted. With that result, hundreds of thousands died from starvation and disease.  There were almost no drugs in the country."

Earlier this year, I attended a charity event for the orphanage and asked if it is possible to adopt children from the orphanage. They told me that the goal is to help educate the children to become leaders within the country, since so much of the educated class was wiped out by Pol Pot. (Estimates are between one and three million people.) So our goal in supporting our new "daughter" is to help her receive an education and feel confident in developing skills that will help Cambodia recover from the brutality of past decades.

If you're interested in learning more about the program you can see more online at Email Foster Parents.