My family, my wife, Joan, our two teenagers Hannah and Joseph, and I, live in Atlanta with our two dogs.
Ten years ago, we moved into our dream house, a very big three-story home. It was a beautiful place, but as our children grew up, our sense of togetherness (团结) began to disappear slowly. In the big house, we sometimes seemed to be strangers to each other.
One day when Hannah was 14, she became upset about the difference between the world's haves and the have-nots. She expected us to be "a family that makes a difference in the world, even if it's a small difference". Joan asked her, "What are you willing tosacrifice? Your house? Your room?" Hannah said yes to both. After talking it over as a family, we decided to sell our house and move to one that was half its size and price and donate (捐赠) the difference to those in need.
After a lot of research, we chose the Hunger Project, a US-based organization. It works with villagers in Africa, Asia and South America and helps them fight against poverty (贫穷). Our money went to pay for building two centers. Each has a meeting place, a bank and a health clinic (诊所). Together, the centers would serve more than 20 villages in eastern Ghana. We also traveled to meet the villagers and were blown away by their hard work and warmth.
To be honest, we were a little worried at first. Would we regard the new home as being too small for us? Or would we think we had given up too much? Two years later, I can tell you: It's the best move we have ever made. While we worked together on our family project, we became much closer. As Hannah said the other day, "We learned how to really trust each other."
