I finished the book on the right. It was over 400 pages, but worth every word! This is a picture of the woman who has headed up what started as an unofficial orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The book is written about her and the AIDS crisis in Africa. It was compelling, heartbreaking, inspiring. She started with two teenagers and grew to over 60 children, some of which were HIV positive, all had been orphaned or abandoned. One part of the book made me gasp at how close an account it was to Isaac's behavior when he first came home:"One could almost caluclate how long a child had been motherless by its diminished cries: a little girl who has lived a long time, even at age two, without individualized attention, wails silently, mouth wide open, tears flowing, yet voiceless. Such a child has learned that full-tilt wailing-of the type that can only be soothed by a mother-takes her down a long road and drops her out of breath, and she will have to make her own way back..."
Powerful....
Isaac did this very thing for up to a week when he came home-we thought he might be deaf! But as he saw that Mama was there to dry his face and rock him out of his sadness, his eyes began to clear and he bagan to trust someone again. The first time he relaxed his furrowed brow and cracked a small smile, I whispered, "Oh there you are!"
This book ends with a powerful transaction between adoptive parents and the Ethiopians at the village that their two Ethiopian children were raised before they entered the orphanage. It culminates at the grave of the children's birth parents. The new Dad addresses the growing crowd, " We feel sad for your family's terrible loss. Your tragedy has turned into an incredible gift for our family. We feel deeply honored to be able to adopt these children...We will raise the children to know Ethiopia and to love their first family. We are all one family now."
No comments:
Post a Comment