Blossom Home

When I worked in nonprofit, I had the opportunity to work with so many churches and organizations filled with people who have such amazing hearts for others.  With so many worthy causes out there, it's often very hard to decide where to stake your support.  One conversation with Karla who heads up LightBridge International, and the choice was a bit easier. 

LightBridge International is an amazing organization caring for orphans and refugees in Southeast Asia.   While orphans and Thailand immediately grabbed my heart, it's the people I've encountered at LightBridge that made it different.  It's hard not to notice how much they genuinely care for the children in the program.  It was a done deal after that and I've been sponsoring two little gents for the past few years. One of the great disappointments of my trip to Thailand last was that I never coordinated a trip to the orphanage itself.  How bad is that?  This trip to Thailand I made it a priority--my only request to my family was that I visit the kids.  The staff at Lightbridge rocked at helping get it coordinated and last week, I finally met these little ones.  It was one of the absolute top highlights of the trip.

At first they were a little shy and hesitant of the woman who brought a large rented van with her entire family to the orphanage....

But when your little spirits are so sweet, it doesn't take long to warm up to strangers

The one photo op that I completely missed?  Me with my sponsor boys.  Seriously, you would think I would remember something as important as that.  But I did capture them individually and with each other... 

The visit was bittersweet in that it was entirely way too short.  I would never have imagined how much time I would actually want to spend with them.  I wished as we left that I'd scheduled and planned days with them so I could just talk to them and hear from them about their everyday lives and dreams.  That obviously warrants a trip back sometime in the future.