Someones Shannon...

I'm not sure if it's against blogging rules to post more than once in one day... but God just completely laid something on my heart tonight and I felt like I should share... 

I babysat Shannon for the first time since mid December tonight. I had missed her SO much because usually I'm with her at least twice a week. For those of you who don't know, I nanny for Shannon and her little sister Cailin. Shannon is four years old, but she isn't just any kid, I like to refer to her as my four year old (and pretend I have any claim to her at all). This kid can make me laugh more than any other person I know, sometimes I think she is way to smart for her own good. I have high hopes for her to become president someday. When I got to her house tonight, she just jumped on me to give me the biggest bear hug imaginable. I had brought her a kente cloth from Ghana, so I sat down and explained to her how a kente cloth is made and why it is so special. After that, she looked at me with her big blue eyes and said, "I love you... and tonight is going to be the best night ever." During dinner she squealed about how great the squash was because there was honey and cinnamon on it, and how glad she was that I was home from "AF-RICAAAAAAA" to give her some. After dinner, it was a quick shower and off to bed. When I was leaving her room, she asked if I could lay down with her because she had missed me so much. While I sat down on her bed, I had a slight panic attack. Shannon is four, some of the kids who work on lake volta are that age or younger. Those kids are forced into life threatening situations and hard labor daily. They are beaten, yelled at and never given a chance to just be a kid. I used to be naive and think, well surely the four year olds aren't doing that kind of work. Then I saw it with my own eyes. I saw those babies working harder than I ever have, and I'm sixteen! So, I'm asking everyone to think... maybe you have a Shannon in your life. Would you just sit back and not do anything if it was your baby out there? I know I wouldn't. If Shannon was being treated that way, you would see my ugly side and I would be after them with fire steaming from my ears. So, my question is- why is it so easy to forget about the other kids half way around the world? Those kids deserve to be someones Shannon, they deserve to be loved on and taken care of and given disgusting squash with cinnamon and honey on it if thats what they want. Instead, they are left in a hopeless situation.

Josh Wilson sings a song called I refuse. He sings, "I can't do everything, but I refuse to do nothing". I'm asking everyone who is reading this to think about it, to think about refusing to do nothing and jumping in to save these kids, and give them a chance to be someones Shannon.   

-Madi