There is no me without you!

For Christmas my mother in law bought me a kindle. We had gone on a road trip for Thanksgiving and while she read on her kindle I was reading books on my iphone. She kept offering me to use her kindle but I didn't want to impose - plus I was really enjoying the book that I was reading (The Help). She was concerned for my eyes to be reading on such a small device but I was ok and didn't realize the benefit yet of the kindle. So I continued to read with my iphone and managed to finish the book on that trip. Needless to say when I opened my kindle on Christmas morning I was shocked. I had never even thought of getting one because of the price but it was such a nice gift and I was excited to start reading it. Now I have to say - when I was a child I was a major book worm. My parents limited the television we were allowed to watch, and actually I don't really remember watching much tv at all until I was a preteen. We were also not allowed to have video game systems (at the time Atari and the first Nintendo were popular. My mom encouraged us to go ride bikes, play outside, read, and be creative. At the time I was partly annoyed and would rejoice when I would see a video game at a friends house. But I have to say that I enjoyed a very rich childhood compared to many kids these days who are parked in front of the tube. Anyhow - I was the kid hiding under my blanket reading at night. I was the kid straining to get moonlight through the window of my room to strain my eyes and see the page after my mom turned out the lights for the night. And yes - I was on occasional caught with a flashlight under the blanket. When we lived on the boat I would go through books like they were ice cream. We had a book shelf downstairs in the main salon and when we stopped at the more populated islands we would look for a book store and stock up. So I would say that as a child I was obsessed with reading. As an adult I have grown lazy. Why read when you can watch tv/movies/read stuff online. It just always seemed too much work to find a book to read and then invest the time to read it. However, over the past year of this adoption journey, reading blogs, reading adoption materials, etc, my passion for reading has once again been sparked. My sister recommended the book The Help and I had downloaded it to my iphone and read it as hungry for a story as my dog is for scratches behind the ears. LOL. (yes im in a goofy mood today). And then ENTER STAGE RIGHT this beautiful wifi+3G kindle! woot! Since I got the kindle I have read "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman and as of yesterday completed There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children. I wanted to recommend for you to read There is no Me Without You because I felt like after reading the book I was much more aware of the culture and orphan epidemic in Ethiopia. The book starts off with the story of a woman named Haregewoin Wolde who loses some close family members in a short period of time. Her grief kills the person who she is but she trades her old life for the life of a humanitarian. She inadvertently opens a foster home and becomes one of the few safe havens for orphans hiv+ and hiv-. The book explains much about the hows and whys of the AIDs crisis in Ethiopia but also follows the story of Miss Wolde and many of the orphans who came into her care. It is not only informative but a very interesting read. And of course I would recommend you to grab a kindle to read it. The cool thing about the kindle compared to other ereaders is there is no backlit screen. while this may seem a disadvantage because you need a light to read in the dark - but the backlit screens create eye fatigue which is why your eyes often get tired faster on a computer screen/iphone/ipad etc than on a regular book or the kindle. I am digging mine and am very thankful to cindy for my christmas present. My love for reading has been rekindled...

Book Review - Choosing to See

Last weekend I downloaded Choosing to See through my kindle app on my IPhone. I have been wanting to read this for a long time and finally caved and downloaded. I could not put it down and ended up attached to my kindle app for the weekend and finished the book by Sunday.

I am not sure what I was expecting the book to be about. For some reason I thought it was more adoption related and less about the death of maria (their 4 year old that passed away in 2008 after an accident). Possibly I might have been less likely to pull the plug and read it if I was under the impression that it centered around Maria's death. But for whatever reason I am so glad I read it.

While death is not something any of us want to think about or dwell on, to see the process of a mother losing her child and standing strong it inspiring. The way mary beth puts her feelings into words is startlingly honest. I felt like I was part of the family and feel like I went a little bit through the circumstances with her. She was able to make me laugh and cry in relatively close quarters. Hearing about a precarious rafting trip in Africa had me doubled over laughing. And many of the parts of their history that I had no clue about both surprised me and encouraged me. Have I mentioned that I am now dying to adopt special needs china after ethiopia? hehe. We will see where God leads.

One of the other interesting parts of the book is how she relates parts of her life to words of SCC's songs. I am not going to lie - there were a few scc albums downloaded to fill in gaps of my scc collection.

The story is told of how SCC and MBC met all the way to birthing children, house fires, adopting three girls from china, losing a child, and the grief and hope built afterwards. The ending is filled with her journal/blog entries to date.

If you have any interest in Adoption, Christian Faith, Music, or SCC I would recommend this book. It encouraged, inspired, entertained and provoked. Pick up a copy for your iphone/kindle/ipad and if you don't prefer paperless I hear they still print books. :)