Some of my challenges each day - I have degenerative arthritis (very severe in several joints) & fibromyalgia - both of which cause me quite a lot of daily pain & fatigue. On February 5th I underwent a scope to my left knee after a car accident which tore the cartiledge and left bone fragments floating behind the patella. Dr told me scoping my knee would give me great relieft. To date I am about 40% worse and still undergoing therapy weekly, but cannot regain the flexibility or lower pain levels pre-surgery. Anyone else ever experience this result? I have also been told that I need a knee replacement. I am also strugglng with great fatigue from my fibro since the accident, sleep is an elusive thief in the night. I struggle each night with proper sleep - the pain in my knee wakes me every few moments or if I move. The pain has grown to a level that interferes with everything in my life. It frustrates me that I cannot walk any more. I used to walk about 30 minutes each day.
Well enough complaining - on to something a little more exciting ..............................................My daughter, Sebrina and I recently returned from an exciting trip to Ethiopia to pick up my darling granddaughter who she & her husband Mike adopted. Her name is Gabriella Raine Sintayhu. She is such a beautiful child and fits into their family perfectly.
Our trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Ethiopia is such a beautiful country, her people are beautiful, kind, generous, loving, helpful, but there is the other side of the coin. It is a country devastated by poverty & loss. Beautiful children run the streets barefoot, begging for food & money, children who have been orphanged by hunger, war, AIDS, illness, etc... We met a young boy 12 years of age whose entire family was gone, he was living on the streets, but he was still trying to maintain his education. The things he begged for most were school supplies & money to pay cab fare to get to school.
We spent 3 weeks there - the most emotional 3 weeks of my life. We laughed, we cried, we felt so much pain for the horrors we saw and could do nothing about. We live such a priviledged life here in Canada. I did not fully appreciate that until I spent those few weeks in Ethiopia. There is so much need everywhere!!!!
For a small amount of money a child can be sponsored http://www.canadianhumanitarian.com/. This organization was started by families who adopted in Ethiopia and saw the need for outreach. A wonderful organization where only $5.00 of your donation is used for administration costs.
http://www.watercan.com/ - another organization where a few dollars can do so much good. African peoples have to spend many hours each day in the tedious task of collecting water (often from polluted sources), which typically means time away from their fields or diarrhoeal diseases from that same collected water which prevents them from working, which in turn accentuate the food problem. Indeed, many diseases stemming from polluted water are so virulent that they make the availability of nutritious food quite irrelevant.
It takes so little to do so much!!!
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