The Power of a Good Internet Search

File Under : Extraordinary or a Blessing…
Back when I was a young and idealistic college student, I decided to sign up with Compassion International and support a child’s education. My Compassion child was a bright, engaging 9 year old girl from the Tamil Nadu state of India. She wrote regular letters me about her school, her studies, her hopes and her family for nine years and I wrote back telling her of college and a bit of my life.
When Esther turned 18, Compassion cut me off and switched, with no notice, my monthly support to a 7 year old boy in the Philipines. I was very upset, as I had encouraged Esther to go to university and continue her studies. I had written Compassion asking if I could send Esther money for college. No go. They only supported children until they were 18.
I called Compassion to vent my frustration and told them that I would like to write a goodbye letter, they said that they would pass it on. I didn’t hear from Esther again.
Until today. I opened my gmail account that I use to funnel emails from this site and found the following email:

Hello Jenifer,
I am looking for a Ms. Jenifer Hanen. I know that her birthday is on the 24th of April and that she loves painting. I browsed the net with this info and found this link http://www.blackphoebe.com/. I am hoping you are the person I have been trying to look for.
Let me tell you about myself. I am Esther from India.

The one and same Esther. Thank God. The one and same Esther is now working for a large company and has a Bachelors in Computer Science. Yeah!
Idealism pays off in the long run.