The moment she heard Micah’s story she knew she wanted to be a part of his life. Carolyn made the loving decision to sponsor baby Micah. You can read Micah’s story here.
It was her heart’s desire to send baby Micah a gift that would let him know that he was loved and cared for by strangers who had heard his story. When her daughter was pregnant, Carolyn had received her grandbaby’s heartbeat from the ultrasound. She decided to take the recording to Build-A-Bear and place it inside as a gift for her baby shower. It was a treasured gift, and month-by-month as grandbaby grew, mom would take pictures of baby next to her very special bear.
Remembering that gift, Carolyn knew exactly what to get Micah. “I’ll stuff a bear and put my heart beat, or have someone say something in Haitian Creole,” she thought. But finding someone who spoke Creole was a lot harder than she imagined. She found “Jesus Loves the Little Children” in Creole and knew that is what she would record for Micah’s bear.
The next day she arrived at the very busy mall. It was loud and the recording became muffled by all of the noise. A young store attendant, Krystal, offered to take the bear to a quiet area in the back of the store and record the song.
Krystal had never heard the song before. So Carolyn decided to sing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world,” over and over until Krystal knew what part of the song to record.
This started stirring something inside Krystal. Carolyn asked about her faith in the comfort of the back of the store away from the crowds. She wasn’t raised knowing Jesus and had never really thought much about her faith.
So the thought of Jesus loving all the little children of the world; the neglected, the poor, the ones in Haiti, the ones in America, was new.
Carolyn shared Micah’s story with Krystal. She began to cry as she shared the love of Jesus and His provision over this abandoned baby’s life. She couldn’t believe how God was using a simple bear to share the love of our Savior.
Krystal knew she needed to be a part of this story. She started finishing up the bear and told Carolyn, “I’ll take care of it.” Thinking she meant sewing up the bear, Carolyn said, “Thank you, I will let the cashier know I was working with you.” Krystal said, “No no no! I will take care of it. This gift is from me. I want to be a part of this story. I’ve never heard of someone doing so much for a child they don’t even know.”
Carolyn knew she desired to bless Micah, but didn’t know this bear would bless her and bless Krystal too.