back when i was a parent

I haven't blogged in a while. Not because I haven't had anything worth blogging about it's just that things happen, my life gets busy, I guess the blog sometimes gets pushed to the background. But the thing is, I usually like blogging when I actually sit down and do it. So that's why I keep coming back. Hopefully you do, too.

Today I opened a package from a ministry organization that has a child sponsorship program. They included a packet of cards with the pictures of the children and information about them. I don't currently sponsor a child through a program like that because I've heard stories such as not much of the money you send actually goes to the child, and that multiple people have pictures of the same child (although I guess that part doesn't matter, as long as money is going to the child I have a picture of, do I really care if it's mine or someone else's?).

But in college two of my best friends and I sponsored a child through a similar program. His name was Albeiro and he was from somewhere in South America. I want to say Colombia. Anyway, we took his picture with us everywhere. We'd seat belt him into the car with us and we'd goof around and talk to him like he was a real child.

One evening we decided to go on an outing to Perkins, a local 24 hour restaurant. Of course Albeiro came along with us AND he got his own seat in the booth (but we didn't ask for a booster). We got to eating and talking and having a good time and then we got up to leave. When we got back to our dorm, we realized Albeiro was not with us. We had left him at the restaurant!

My friend Peter called the restaurant and started to explain that we had left our child there, failing to mention to the woman that he was a 5x7 piece of paper. When the woman on the other end of the phone started to freak out, Peter realized what was happening and told her that Albeiro wasn't an actual child (at least the Albeiro in the restaurant). The woman, much relieved, said that they did, indeed, find Albeiro and would hold him until we got back to get him.

I'm not quite sure what happened to little Albeiro. As they do, our friendships changed and we no longer spent as much time together as we did. We graduated and moved on to other places and things. I know that I did not end up with custody of Albeiro, and I'm not sure which one my friends did. Who knows, maybe they still are sponsoring him and taking him for nice drives and out to eat...