An over abundance of blessings....

This blog is amazing. http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/
It is so profound and touching. We have all heard about the people suffering in Africa and seen all the commercials asking for donations to help feed them....but this...this is shocking to me. To read a young womens account of her everyday life in Africa and all the struggles these people have is crazy. The blessings we have from living in this country are beyond belief. My children would never go hungry no matter how poor we were, we would not go without medical care, or the basic necessities of life. After reading this I want to do more, be a more giving person, sacrifice some of my "luxuries". I obviously don't have the option to jump on a plane to Africa but I know there is things I could do here.

When Karl and I lived in Montana seven years ago I worked at a home for children who had been removed from their homes for one reason or another. I wish so badly that I could go back in time and be more loving to those kids. Their lives were so sad. Many had no hopes of ever being adopted due to their ages and "issues", their parents had abandoned them or put them in horrible situations, most hadn't seen or heard from them in years. They didn't have a happy home to go to after school. They all had their own personal problems because of the things they had been exposed to and so because of that the home was run very strictly. They came home to counseling sessions, written schedules, if they acted out the were dropped a "level". They had no childhood. They existed and were trying to find their place in a world of people that had forgotten them.

Now that I have my own kids I look back and wonder how those kids parents could just walk away from their kids or worse do the things to them that had been done. How sad that they had to grow up in a state run home, no grandparents, no cousins, nobody. And when you turn eighteen you go out into the world and have no place to go back "home" too.

I wish I could see them now. Or maybe not. I can remember each of their names and faces like I just saw them yesterday. It makes me sad....

Any-who...I guess I am in an emotional/reminiscing mood. I'm going to squeeze my kiddos and find some ways to do more in my own community.