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A Well of Thanks


It was like Christmas when it came in the mail… well, what Christmas used to be like.  I couldn’t wait to get the little package open!   I pulled at the stubborn tape, and then ripping it open with a jerk, I held my breath.  I carefully pulled out a dark blue notebook and gingerly opened the flaps.  There they were!  The pictures!  Just in time for the first anniversary of her heaven day, the pictures of the first well and it’s dedication had arrived…  and I felt a smile in my heart.  

The well isn’t fancy and the crowd isn’t huge, but it is real.  Something my little girl wanted to do.  A way for her to leave a footprint, to impact another life.  The faces are precious to me.  A little baby in her mother’s arms.  We are connected, this mother and I.  Her child is in her arms and mine is not.  But a little girl’s gift, an outpouring of love from people like you, and a spout of fresh water have joined us together in a mystical way.  My loss is her gain.   I would change the loss if I could.  Undo it in a heartbeat.  But that is not given to me.  

I think of Tolkien’s  Gandalf and Frodo in a critical moment. Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”  Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

And so the loss cannot be undone.  But the gain can be given.  The time that is left for me and for you… that is all we have to decide about.  We can change something for the little girl with big, brown eyes who clings to her mommy and hopes that today will be a good day.   My Makiah’s short life was full of good days and happiness.  And so I want to thank each of you who have given, on behalf of the brown eyed girl in South Africa, for changing lives with the gift of clean water and offering better days… and on behalf of the blue eyed girl in heaven, for helping her to leave a legacy of God’s love… and on behalf of this watery eyed mommy, for making my loss their gain- that it will not just be a loss.   Thank you from a place in me where words can hardly do justice...



Makiah's 1st Well- Manzingwenya, South Africa


Women Celebrating


The Plaque on the Well



The Brown Eyed Baby Girl

A Woman Gives Thanks


*The second well is being built in Ghana, and the third is now underway in Cambodia.  The funds for the fourth well are growing.  You can still contribute through the purchase of a well charm or by direct donation.  Tax deductable donations are now made directly to
Operation Blessing International
Attn.: Brenda Fansher, CSB 322
977 Centerville Turnpike
Virginia Beach VA 23463 
Mark your gift clearly for Makiah King Well Project, and it will be credited to her account.

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