:: The S.I.C.L.E. Cell ::

:: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 ::

Fund-raising is an interesting thing. I have on occasion received criticism for what I am doing or even how I am going about it. This is from people who lack adequate information to make a particularly accurate judgement. That is not a dig but a mere fact.

"Concerns" about the mother have been raised, and I want to address them. Not as a lambast for anyone with a concern but as a simple explanation for anyone with such concerns or with an interest in human study and how something like this situation works:

This is a God issue. He will provide for this mother and child with or without a particular individual's help. I have given the information that I feel comfortable giving, information that honors the mother the best that I can while maintaining her privacy. I have not been attempting to "paint a picture" but only to put the need out there with as many details as I can tactfully provide. This is not a game, and I am not a professional fund-raiser.

I am the first to admit that I am not particularly adequate for this task, but God has given it to me anyway. Take it up with Him if I am sucking.

Everyone is well within their right to determine for themselves that they do not have enough information to contribute. They are well within their right also to make total assumptions, however inaccurate they may be, that cause them to reject the idea of giving to this cause. I have no opinion of them personally. I am only grateful for the help that I do receive in this "hostage" situation where a little girl's life is literally at stake.

Unquestionably, I would run myself into the ground to save a child's life and a mother's heart. I'm not ashamed of that.

There are a variety of individuals and a variety of responses. Some people won't give a dime to a woman who "got herself pregnant", because it was within her control not to engage in "risky" activity. Some will have mercy on the woman and give. Some will not have mercy on the woman but will give anyway for the sake of the child. Some will donate over a thousand dollars and refuse to let me give them even the remotest information on the situation because they know I am the one asking and they trust my nature completely. Some will give [a much-appreciated gift of] less than $10 contingent upon an epic biography on the mother. A biography, btw, which they will not receive.

I am not an idiot. I would not put myself out there like this for an invalid or unworthy cause.

This situation is what it is, God knows the details, and He will use who He chooses to meet the need... for the sake of the mother and child and for His glory.

Nothing is guaranteed. We could all spend ourselves financially and emotionally and this mother could still flip out and kill her child. Or they could both get hit by a bus on her way to the grocery store to use foodstamps for the first time ever. I can promise a worthy endeavor, a tremendous college try, but I can't promise a happy ending.

Sometimes you get what you pray (and pay) for and sometimes you don't. In the end, it's all about faith. Christians should be used to the idea by now.

:: ashli 2:43 PM # ::
...