Today Ellie had a doctors appointment...while she was there Holly asked the nurse to measure and weigh her. In almost a year she's gained like ten pounds and grown "like a weed." What a difference a year has made in her life and in ours.
I can truly type that phrase of my life being different because of Ellie in our family. We hear the phrase all the time from people, "Ellie's life will never be the same because of what you guys did." But the reality is our lives will never be the same. I am different than I was a year ago and I continue to have a very constant struggle in my mind about what's next.
Yep Ellie is home, but there is still 147 million others out there who are orphaned. Are we done? Am I supposed to think that we've done our part? What are we to do next? What about those 147 million? What about those who are in our own community who live in the same conditions that Ellie came from? Are we supposed to adopt again? Are we supposed "to do" something else?
I have a lot of distractions in my life that I can run to when I begin to think about these questions. I won't list these distractions because I'm not on a crusade to make anyone "feel" guilty. However you could probably guess what some of those distractions are...might be some of the same ones you have.
I watched a video that a former youth had posted on her blog. She and her husband just recently adopted from Ethiopia. The video was done by a group called "Ordinary Hero" and it just really broke me up a bit. The video is real, the images are real, the kids and their stories are real...we were there this time last year. So as I'm watching this video I'm thinking about those questions up there.
Do me a favor and watch this video...and then do some thinking about what we are supposed to do. I'm still struggling about what to do...maybe you could help me.
Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.
