Saturday, July 31, 2010

Finding The Balance

What a busy week I have had! A visit from family and a wild work load have distracted me from this project. Yet, I found my mind drifting to it many times throughout the week and I found myself anxious to discover what’s going right in the world today. It gets addicting, you see, to hear good news. It is still way too easy to hear the bad news, local, national and international. It is so easy to just want to sigh, shake my head and “check out” because it is so much easier to just block it out and pretend it doesn’t exist. But I won’t give in. I have instead made myself the deal that for all of these sad, tragic and enraging stories I find each day, I will also continue to search for the good, inspiring and triumphant stories. It’s about finding a balance. It’s the same reason I make myself drink a glass of water between all those cups of coffee I chug at work. It’s a small but purposeful attempt to maintain health. I think the same can be said for the soul. I need to balance the input of negative by infusing positive. And it is my delight to share the positive with you. Here’s what’s been going right in the world:

Kupang, Indonesia – 47 kids? Budi Soehardi and his wife Peggy,who are from Singapore have found themselves adding love and hope to the life of 47 orphans in Indonesia. Over a decade ago, as they watched TV at home in Singapore they were struck by the story they saw documenting the upheaval and despair of the refugees of the conflict in East Timore. They made the snap decision to cancel their vacation, raise money, collect food and medical supplies and go West Timore to help however they could. Their new found mission grew from just distributing aid to the building of an orphanage that now houses 47 orphans whom each Budi and Peggy know and have a relationship with. This orphanage offers shelter and education and hope. Their mission continues to grow. The links below are for a CNN article for 2009 and a link to the website about the orphanage. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/cnnheroes.budi.soehardi/index.html

http://www.roslinorphanage.org/

St. Loius/Chicago – Facebook family! A father and his son were reunited through a simple friend request on face book. Joe Dus was put in foster care when he was 7 years old after he was taken away from his mother. He was adopted when he was 9. His father, who was only a teenager when Joe was born had been denied custody and visitation of his son and then fell out of contact. When his father tried to find him, Joe had been adopted and his file sealed not allowing his father to search any further. After the death of Joe’s adoptive parent he set out to find his birth father. Just before father’s day, ironically enough, he found the man he thought was his dad and made a friend request. They started chatting online and recently met in person, filling a void they both had carried with them all their lives. Ok, so maybe facebook isn’t that rotten… ;)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-schmich-0721--20100721,0,5153049.column?page=1

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