Readjustment

I've been home for a couple of days now and finding the experience so different from before.  Well, the jet lag and long showers are still the same, but the important feelings are all so new.

My first time in Korah was an experience with extreme poverty, unknown suffering among it's people, and an opportunity to make a difference for a few.  It was challenging and gratifying and a perfect fit for what I wanted my life to become.





I  met a boy to sponsor and  returned home with hopeful feelings for his future life, knowing that education would be his way out.  And I still believe it is.

This trip I was able to witness the good things ... no the miraculous things that Out of the Ashes is doing for the people in Korah.  It was wonderful to see kids who had gained weight, who had a brighter smiles and kids excitedly talking about their new school.

Yet, I returned home this time not leaving new friends that I had met...but a family I truly have fallen in love with.  How do you leave family behind?

Now I leave behind three children that have stolen my heart, that I continue to communicate with through facebook and that I know are doing so much better than before...but...still, it's Korah.  They face emotional challenges that no human being should ever have to, let alone children.   It's much like the feeling many of us in the adoptive community have shared when having bonded with our children and then had to leave them in country for an unknown period of time before returning.  Some of us were lucky to have our children in "good" orphanages...but the reality hits that there is no "good" orphanage by definition of the word.  My transatlantic children are much the same.  Poverty devastates a family unite, even when we as parents love our children beyond measure. 


So these are my new struggles to come to terms with over the next several months.
....Yet, I wouldn't change this opportunity for the world.  And if you have some words of strength and support...I will gladly accept!

Do a world of good for one

Great clinic day.  Today we did follow up well checks on the original 51 OA children.  My sewing skills again came in handy as I measured 51 waists and heads.  All of the children have grown so much... But what I really took in but didn't add to the soap note was the brighter eyes, the bigger smiles... The boys and girls that stood with a confidence that was definitely not there in July.  This is what sponsorship has done for them.  It has changed their world .  

So here is my handsome Temesgen proudly wearing his USA jersey(although he is really a Manchester United fan like Cooper.  Btw... Watched him mess around with a soccer ball last night...Granby Rovers would die to have this kid.  A kid who has never worn a pair of cleats or shin guards in his life, much less go to a fancy elite soccer camp.

And his beautiful sister Kalkidan.  Ellie... She LOVES her giraffe and she has carried it around all day.

And some random shots of my favorite subjects...

Full...great day!

Awesome day at an orphanage program today.  We treated about 40 kids, then opened the gates for people in the village.  Fantastic... Beautiful and respectful children.  Highlight.... Kelly and I treated a baby from the village with mumps!!!  I got to hold him while she inserted the IV line... And comfort him and try to keep his arm straight to keep the line open.  He came in severely dehydrated with fever and listless... Left able to hold his head up, cry tears and suck on a lollipop!!   Love the children at Hope orphanage....tomorrow is Korah clinic and I'll get to see my Temesgen and kalkidan some more.  I am so in love with this country.... It does a heart good.

Four more days!!!

http://youtu.be/Fwsh1CTU3IQ

Just before bed I had to watch this one more time to see the familiar faces and smiles!  I can't wait!

Korah the second time around.

In just over one week I will board a plane, bound for my one of my favorite places on this earth...the village of Korah.  Hopefully, this trip will be accompanied with internet service in which I can update my friends and family on the adventure and some of the children I talk so much about.  This trip will combine a visit and feast with the sponsor children from Out of the Ashes (the number has REALLY grown!) and a medical clinic in which our medical team will see and treat thousands of villagers, and bring much needed supplies to the small clinic which exists in Korah.  Stay tuned...this truly is a magical place.