Introducing Samuel!!!

Did you know I've got this hankering toward adoption? Not right now of course, my hands are rather full with the two I've got. Not to mention my attempts at making a third of our own, in the hopes of seeing what a baby girl Alspaugh might look like.

I couldn't shake it though, that I was supposed to be doing something more now. Tie that with my desire for 2012 that I noted earlier to get the boys involved in something bigger than themselves, that we could do as a family. Last year I attempted volunteering with the boys at a retirement facility. I figured elderly people always seemed to fawn all over little ones, so an hour or so of 'play time' with them per week, would give them something to look forward to, and us something to do. It worked out great for awhile. I'd say almost 80% LOVED having us there, and their eyes lit up when we walked in. The other 20%.... not so much. They fell into the grumpy old men (women) category, and were quite verbose in their overall dislike of the disruption we caused. I was torn. The fun ones were a delight, and greatly out numbered the sour patch kids, however, in the end I didn't like thinking I was coming in and taking over their home, with something they didn't want, even if it was the minority, so we stopped going.

I've come up with a solution! My goal was to open the boys eyes to other aspects of life, whether it be elderly, infirm, hungry, homeless, etc.... What I've come up with captures that, as well as providing an awesome avenue to introduce them to the geographies of the world, and issues that pertain to those regions as well!

With that I'd like to introduce the newest member of the Alspaugh Family: Samuel Mensah!!!

• Samuel Mensah
• Birthday: May 11, 2008
• Gender: Male
• Location: Ghana (Africa)

I found Samuel while searching the Compassion International website, and I knew it was perfect that he and Caleb SHARE the same birthday!!! How cool is that!?!

I love that God combined all the desires of my heart in this one little boy! We can support him during a season where we can do little else than provide monetary support, but in doing that small thing, it opens up and entire spectrum of teaching for Caleb! My goal as they both get older is to turn them into each others pen pals, allowing them both to grow in their understanding of each other and the world around them. If all goes well, when Logan gets a little older I'll be able to find a match for him as well (seems the youngest children requiring sponsorship start a 3), and we can open up another area of the world to learn about!

There were SO many beautiful faces out there looking for sponsorship, if you have the resources and desire to make a very big world just a little smaller for your kids to understand, I would totally recommend going this route!