Meet our new child!

I bet several of you saw this post and did a "double take" thinking "What in the world?? New child??" That was the response I was hoping we would get! It's been a while since we've blogged... In our last post, we wrote about simplifying our lives. The first way we decided to do that was to downsize our vehicle. We used to own a Ford F150 and decided that it really was not necessary to be driving such an expensive and inefficient vehicle. Since our last post, we have sold the F150 and purchased a Mazda 3. This is saving us a considerable amount of money each month. One of things we were concerned about when we decided to downsize was where that extra money would go. We didn't want to downsize our vehicles just so that we could put money into other accounts for things like "date nights" or even into a savings account. While we both value saving money and think it is wise... I started thinking about this the other day and realized that it can be incredibly selfish of us to be storing tons of money away for our future here in America, when there are so many areas of poverty around the world AND in America. 


So one of the ways we decided to use that money that we are saving on our vehicle is to sponsor a child! His name is Aleisi Beriguete! He lives in the Dominic Republic and he's 4 years old. We chose a child from the DR because Trevor and I really felt called there after our honeymoon...We felt the desire to serve the people of the DR, we just didn't know how at the time. Aleisi lives with his mother and is responsible for running errands. His mother maintains the home and there are 3 children in his family. Aleisi enjoys playing with cars and running!

Meet Aleisi :) 

I challenge everyone to look at their finances and ask yourselves these questions: 


How do I spend my money? 
Does my bank account solely benefit me and my family? 
What am I saving for? 
Do I really need to save that much for MY future?
What could I cut out for $38 per month? 




$38 per month is what it costs to "adopt" a child like Aleisi and ensure that a child has food, shelter, and is able to attend school and bible classes. For us, $38 was a small part of downsizing our car. $38 also could have been me not stopping at Starbucks 7 times this month (which yes, I have been known to do!). It could also be going on one less date night per month if you and your spouse go out a lot. 


If you're interested in sponsoring a child, there are several agencies who will help you. Compassion International is one! Go to www.compassion.com and search for YOUR child :)