This weekend i gave up my 'required reading' for a more recreational read. It is still on topic and very relevant but not on the 'lists'. It is called "There is no me without you" by Mellisa Faye Green. Its not exactly 'light reading' but i would highly reccommend it. This is the manning account of the book: Its the story of one middle aged woman in Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) who was not afraid to love the children around her orphaned by AIDS. While grieving the deaths of her husband and then her daughter, a priest came to her door with a child and begged her to look after this little orphan. Before too long she has 60 kids living with her. Its just a moving story of a woman making a difference. It really brings the issue of AIDS and lack of medication, all these orphaned kids and poverty to the surface to me. Eventually this woman found out that Europeans and North Americans were willing to adopt these orphans. The whole story touched me in a deep way. They talk about the older kids - when the adoption people would come for the babies -the older kids would get all dressed up, clean themselves up trying to impress the adoption people - hoping that they would get adopted too. It breaks my heart to think of these kids whose futures look pretty grim. It made me wonder if our wanting a baby is purely selfish. Hard things to come to terms with. I was telling my friend at work today about how i was feeling and her response to me was - "one starfish at a time". Its from the poem below - we will adopt the child that God has planned for us. We can't save all the kids - but we can save them one starfish at a time.
There once was a man walking down a beach that was completely covered in starfish that had washed ashore. They were absolutely everywhere that the old man looked. As he walked along, he bent down and picked up one starfish at a time and deliberately tossed it back into the sea.
A young boy watched curiously as the old man continued tossing starfish one at a time into the sea. He approached the old man and asked him "What in the world are you doing? Why are you even bothering? You will never get them all back into the sea! There are so many it just doesn't even matter!"
The old man looked at the young boy, bent down, and picked up another starfish. With purpose he showed the boy the starfish and said, "Young man, to this one starfish it matters!" And with that he flung the starfish back into the sea.
A young boy watched curiously as the old man continued tossing starfish one at a time into the sea. He approached the old man and asked him "What in the world are you doing? Why are you even bothering? You will never get them all back into the sea! There are so many it just doesn't even matter!"
The old man looked at the young boy, bent down, and picked up another starfish. With purpose he showed the boy the starfish and said, "Young man, to this one starfish it matters!" And with that he flung the starfish back into the sea.
