One Child......

You raise your voices to the Heavens
You look for a way to change the world.
You search high and low to find some answer
You call out to God to be heard.

The tears that you cry are precious
You get weary from all the things you've tried.
If you could change the world this minute
Could you start with one child?

I am one child - can you feed me?
I am hungry and cold down in my bones.
I am one child - can you see me?
I am lonely and longing for a home.
Change the world - be the turning of the tide
But could you start with one child?

So many times I've been shattered
By an angry world I cannot control.
I try to hide the ways that I've been battered
Such a heavy weight for a tiny soul.

I would give you all that I hold dear to me
Just to see the sweetness of your smile.
You can change the world - this much is clear to me,
But could you start with one child?

I am one child - can you teach me?
I am willing to learn and understand.
I am one child - can you reach me?
I am saved by the love within your hands.
Change the world - be the turning of the tide.
But could you start with one child?
Could you start please with one child?
-----Yours truly, One Child

This is a third draft and now has music outside of my head and in the guitar!

Dedicated to the orphaned children of Russia, China, Africa, America, Guatemala, Honduras....... of the world. Dedicated also to all the folks who try so hard to help them.
Peace to you.

The beauty of children......

They are a window into a place of beauty, of tenderness, of sweetness and light. They are the songs of the world before the world has gone crazy. They are resilence and strength mixed with innocence and blind faith.

They are close to Heaven. They still hear the whispers of angels.

These children gave me a gift. In a foreign land, they opened the windows of themselves, so that I might see - beauty at its truest. In the countryside of Russia, in a small orphanage, abandoned by their parents, they showed pure generosity and random kindness. These were part of their nature, part of their cores, their souls. They were generous and kind without effort or pretense.

They are amazing.

Peace.

Coming soon.....

Pictures and reflections from my trip to Russia. I haven't been able to work my computer from home - it's refused to be cooperative! I'm picking up my pictures today from the drug store and had a picture CD made so that I can retrieve pictures on another computer! I have some beautiful pictures of the children and look forward to sharing them. My thoughts have been detained in Russia. I can't seem to stop thinking about the kids........

It's been a busy week. I'm on call all weekend, with lots of babies due to make their grand entrances, so I have a feeling I may be at the hospital a good part of the weekend. I can write from there.

Peace all.

Home......

Back home. Back to work today. It seems almost surreal to me. Like I have been displaced somehow. I can still hear the children's voices and see their faces in my mind's eye. I hear their names - Vanya, Volve, Sasha, Rudic, Ira, Sonya, Velara, Dema....... I can still feel their warm hugs and picture their smiles. They all had beautiful smiles.

It's hard to believe that just the day before yesterday I was still in Russia. Today I am back at Shore Memorial Hospital. I have already brought two new Americans into this world - a boy and a girl. Two children who will never have to worry about spending any part of their lives in an orphanage. Who will probably always know hot, running water and plenty of meat in their diets. Who will be warm. Who will have more than they need.

We do have poverty here in this country, that is the truth of the matter. Somehow it seems to stay hidden behind some great curtain. You have to get behind it to really see it. In Russia, it is everywhere. Russia is gray. Russia is so old and seems so tired. A huge, sighing country.

I worry more about what will happen to this country when the world starts to collapse. We are a country of spoiled brats. We grow up, even the poorest of us, taking everything for granted. When the days come (and they will come sooner than we all expect) of rationing water and electricity and gasoline, when we all have to stop going, going, going - when we have to learn to conserve, when we are all drowning under the mountains of garbage we create - we will not know how to deal with it, no way. In so many other countries - countries like Russia - going without is a way of life, it is no big deal, it is just the way it is. But for us here in America..... we will completely fall apart and we will be the adult equivalents of children having temper-tantrums because they can't have what they want - angry, violent, selfish, bitter. It's a scary thought. It was in my mind the whole time I was in Russia.

These children demonstrated something to me so clearly. I do not NEED anything more. I don't. I have all that I need plus way more. The task that is now in front of me is to learn to stop wasting, to stop wanting, to stop thinking I need, and to cherish all that I have. These children do it. Their generosity was so genuine. They would make something and immediately give it away, without really even thinking about it. With a sweet smile. With a warm heart. It was so powerful.

Peace.

Are you a hippie?

According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary........

Main Entry: hip·pie
Variant(s): hip·py \ˈhi-pē\
Function: noun
Plural: hippies
Date: 1965

Definition: a usually young person who rejects the mores of established society (as by dressing unconventionally or favoring communal living) and advocates a nonviolent ethic;
broadly : a long-haired unconventionally dressed young person.

Yup, I guess I'd fit the definition. At least I think I would. Or at least I used to.......

I travelled across the world to serve on a mission team in an orphanage in Russia. The first day we were there, on the way back from lunch, one of our Russian interpreters asked me, "Did you used to be a hippie?"

The last day we were there, just as we were leaving, the regional director said to me, "I want to ask you a question that I've wanted to ask you all week. I hope this is not rude. But, do you know the American movie Forrest Gump?"

"Yes," I said, and smiled - I figured I already knew what was coming.

"You know the girl in this movie?"

"Yes, Ginny," I said.

"Yes, Ginny. Did you used to be like her?"

I guess the "used to be" part must have something to do with the part of the definition that includes the word "young". I guess you could call me an old hippie but I think I'd rather say I "used to be a hippie" rather than that I'm an "old hippie"!

I got a big kick out of it. All the way across the world, and still the hippie in me is recognizable! And I don't smoke pot, wear beads, or smell like patchouli! I don't know what part of me shines the hippiness through, but I think it's pretty groovy that it does.

Peace man!

From Russia with Love.....

It has been a long, amazing week. I met the most wonderful group of children, very pure and loving, offering smiles once shyness was overcome. I watched several young men pick up a guitar for the first time and take right to it. I watched God at work.

We had no heat, no hot water. We had to scoop water from a bucket into the toilets to make them work. We walked and walked. We ate good food and wonderful chocolate. We did a lot of laughing. We cried a lot, too. We worked long hours back at the "house" at night, getting things ready for each day at the orphanage with the kids.

We are all exhausted. We are all full. We are all grateful. And, truth be told, we all received so much more from the children than we gave. Their generosity was so sincere. I am glad I have been here.

I sure am ready to get home!
Love and peace.

It's almost time.....

I am journey proud!! I'm ready to go. Ready for the adventure. Ready for the work.
We leave Franktown tomorrow, bright and early in the morning. We'll be in Moscow mid-day Sunday (Russia time) - 4:00 am our time. By supper time Sunday (Russia time), we'll be at Petrovsky and see the place where we'll spend the week. I've seen pictures but haven't been able to paint them into my mind. My mind says, "You'll just have to wait and see for yourself, and then you'll never forget!"

I'm ready.

There's no computers or cell phone service where I'm going, though I've heard there's an Internet cafe-type place that I can visit on Friday afternoon back in Moscow. I hope I'll get to do that. I think it'd be cool to write a blog from Russia.

I'm sure my journal will be full. I'm looking forward to writing it all down.

Peace and love each and all. Keep up the prayers and blessings and know that I appreciate all of them.

My hands.........

These are my hands. They're good hands. They are my mother's hands and her mother's hands, and my grandmother's mother's hands - passed down to me from generations of women who used their hands to take care of the sick, the sad, the lonely, the child, the mother.

These hands are my hands. They have delivered over 1200 babies. They have played all the songs that I have in my heart. They have played music that has sustained me through all the difficult times.

They have fed my family and soothed my children and expressed my love to other people.

These are my hands. They're good hands.

Peace and harmony to each of you.