I wasn't going to sponsor any more children...I really wasn't. (I mean, until one of mine graduated from the program or left, hopefully years from now.) But I couldn't stop thinking about Tatiana. I'd had my eye on her for at least a month and I'd check the CI website every time I logged on to see if she was still there. Finally, on Friday night I decided that with my new job and pay raise, I could definitely afford to sponsor her, so what the heck was I waiting for? I sponsored her on the 3rd, and because of the long weekend, her information just showed up on my CI page this morning.

Here's all about Tatiana: she's 12 years old, born on December 25, 1997. (A Christmas birthday! My half-sister has a Christmas Eve birthday, so that's another special thing that I didn't even think about before.) Tatiana is from Cartagena, Colombia. She's 4'2" tall and weighs 53 lbs. She attends school, where her favorite subjects are reading and math. She likes to play with dolls and draw, and at home her chores are washing dishes.

Tatiana's family record is a bit mysterious. Her mother, Delfina, is a homemaker- no mystery there. However, her father is also listed as present, and it says that Tatiana lives with "Parents", but the father's name is listed as "Desconocido", which means "unknown". So I believe that Tatiana is being raised by a single mother. I'm not sure why exactly the form is filled in the way it is, but I guess with thousands of children and thousands of forms, sometimes things get done a little unusually.  A bit of a mystery, and I am sure that if I asked CI they would get someone from the field office to clarify it, but it's not a pressing issue for me. Anyway, Tatiana also has four brothers: Miguel and Omar are both 14, Carlos is 12, and Luis Eduardo is 10. The family's monthly income is just $75.

The home consists of one multi-use room, with wood walls, a corrugated metal roof, and a dirt floor. They sleep on wooden beds, cook on a portable gas stove, and use non-regulated electricity. Their water source is a neighbor's faucet, and their sanitary facility is an open field.

I'm very glad that I decided to sponsor Tatiana! And I really need to stop browsing the CI website or I'll end up with 100 sponsored children! Not that that would be bad, if I could afford it, ha ha.