aoconnell@thestamfordtimes.com

STAMFORD — Sarah Hover has lots of children in her life. She is aunt to her sisters' four children and as director of the children's program at Trinity Church in Greenwich, she teaches more than 100 children every Sunday. Her refrigerator is covered with pictures of smiling young faces.

Four of those faces are markedly different, both in appearance and in what they mean to Hover. Their names are Beatrice, Damascene, Claude and Clementine, and although they live in Rwanda, Hover considers them to be her children.

The Stamford resident finds every possible opportunity to work with children; while looking switch from one corporate job to another, she volunteered at her church and found herself in charge of the TrinityKids program. She is also running a book club for fourth graders at the Chester Addison community center and she has been sponsoring her kids for eight years.

Hover began sponsoring her first child, Beatrice, through Christian relief organization World Vision in 2000. A few years later, when her church sponsored a village in Rwanda, the congregation asked members to sponsor children and Hover decided to take on a second child, a boy, Damascene in 2004.

As part of the church's sponsorship program, the community visited Rwanda in 2005 and those who sponsored children through the program were allowed to meet with their children and their children's mothers.

"Damascene (and his mother) probably walked a day's journey just to meet me and she had no shoes," said Hover. "This is a huge sacrifice because that's two days' work, but his mother felt it was important for him to meet me."

It was on that trip that Hover met her third child, Claude, who was just two at the time and in the hospital for injuries to his feet.

"On that trip we visited a hospital and... there was this little boy, about two and a half years old on his mother's lap," she said. Both Claude's feet were in casts, but he smiled and played with Hover and then jumped up and ran around the ward.

Hover was charmed and asked if she could sponsor Claude as well.

She adopted Clementine in 2006 when her church did another sponsorship drive with World Vision

"I kept walking by the table," she said, joking that she told the volunteer working there that she already has three, but then she was struck by Clementine's eyes and by the fact that the girl shares the same birthday as a good friend of hers.

Hover makes monthly payments of $30 for each child; the payments go to the children, but also go to the communities in which the children live.

"The monthly pledge provides things like clean water, nutritious food, health care, educational opportunities and spiritual nurture," said Laura Blank, a spokeswoman for World Vision, in an e-mail.

"Most sponsored children live with family members in a community or village," said Blank. "Children of families in the project community are selected to be representatives for the child sponsorship program. Before introducing a child sponsorship program, World Vision workers fully explain the concept of child sponsorship to community leaders. These leaders are then

asked to provide a list of needy children, which is verified by our staff."

Families must also agree to the program, added Blank.

Hover sends letters to her children with the monthly payments — World Vision translates and delivers them to the families. Once a year, she gets progress reports on each child containing a recent picture and an update on his or her well-being.

Claude is now four years old, his feet have healed and he is growing well. Beatrice is now 12. Clementine looks mischievous in her latest picture and Damascene writes that his best subject in school is singing and he wishes to be wise.

"I hope I can go back soon" says Hover. "Everyone should have four."

Asked what she is doing for herself this Mother's Day, Hover gestured at her office at Trinity Church.

"Well, it's a Sunday, so I'm working," she said.