"I hold you"

Chica is talking more than ever and as it turns out, she has a lot to say. My current favorite phrase popped up just recently and since returning from our trip to Atlanta, it's oft-repeated in the Hinton home. I can't get far without hearing the swishing of her little toddler pants pattering throughout the house.

"Mama! Mama!"

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.

It's a one woman search party. Her eyes dart about until she locks in on the target.

"Mama!" she cries. Part excitement. Part satisfaction of a mission accomplished.

Swish, swish, swish, swish.

Once under my feet she throws up her arms, her hands barely reach past the top of her bow.

Throwing back her head, her eyes connect with mine and with the sweetest voice I've ever heard she says, "I hold you."

It stirs every emotion in me. Whether it's the first time she's asked me or the fourteenth, I'm affected just the same. At that moment there's nothing I'd rather do than kneel down, wrap her in my arms, nestle my face up against hers and tell her how much I love her. I wish I could do that every single time she asks. Often I find myself frustrated. Not with her, but with all the other tasks that need tending to. Meals to cook, beds to make, phones to answer. They infiltrate my day and sometimes she has to wait. Regardless of how long it's postponed she's never satisfied until she has "held me."

When I read the first headline of the earthquake in Haiti, my response was that of a detached party desensitized by a world of bleak news. That was before anyone realized its magnitude. Before the pictures and videos started popping up. Before survivors started sharing the horror of it all.

Men...women...children. Trapped, mangled, lifeless.

As I drove through our town, I wondered what it would be like if every building was leveled. Where would I go? What would I do? And then I thought of Reese.

What if there's a little girl wandering through the battered streets of Haiti searching for her mother to hold? Or what of the mothers who can't find their children and would give anything to have them under their feet, arms outstretched, longing to be held? What about them?

It was then that the calloused pieces protecting my heart fell down. These are real people. With real families. In need of serious help.

I've been meaning to introduce you to an incredible organization called Compassion International and now is a better time than ever. Compassion exists to free third world children and their families from the grip of poverty. It partners with churches in countries all over the world, providing medical help, education and food. More than 65,000 Haitian children are connected to Compassion International. Compassion has received the highest possible approval ranking from The American Institute of Philanthropy. (They're the real deal.) And they're on the ground in Haiti, mobilized and ready to go. But they need our help.

All money received for Haiti survivors will go directly to Haiti survivors. Immediately. The only thing that could be worse than a disaster of this magnitude is for the rest of the world to sit by and do nothing. We can all do something. If you click here or on the Haiti button on the left side of our blog, you will be directed to a Compassion contribution page. This is a list of what Compassion can do with various amounts:

$35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
$70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
$105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
$210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
$525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
$1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
$1,500 helps rebuild a home.
$2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

Please know any amount will be accepted. I'm urging you to consider helping. Believe me, it'd be much easier to numb ourselves from reality. Catching up on Facebook. Watching American Idol. All from our comfortable, intact homes. There are so many convenient ways to shelter ourselves from urgent need we can't really comprehend.

I'm praying that just as an entire city crumbled, God Himself would bring down all the materialistic, self-seeking, stuff- accumulating parts of us. What would happen if we decided not to let our greed paralyze us from being part of the solution?

If anyone could identify with those in Haiti tonight, it would be Job, a man who lost everything, including every one of his children. In the darkest hour of his grief he said this,

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth."
Job 19:24

Surely He will bloggers. So let's get going.