Angels of a Lower Flight

"Angels of a Lower Flight by Susie Scott Krabacher

This is a memoir about a women who saw an ad for an orphaned child on tv and found that she wanted to do more than just give money, she wanted to hold these children and let them know they weren't alone.  This started her life's work.  Susie had been abused and taken advantage of her whole life, she knew how these children felt.   She went to Haiti and began taking care of abandoned children in the hospitals.   One trip led to the next trip which led to her opening an orphanage.  This book is inspirational and heart breaking.  It is also a tad bit on the graphic side.  The author was once a Playboy Bunny and she doesn't hesitate to tell all.  But, aside from that, I like the book and the courage the author had to go into a foreign country and make a change for the better.  "Good intentions never amount to anything unless you actually do something about them."  Talking about an issue doesn't resolve the issue, we have to get in there and actually put our words to action.  "When he committed suicide he took a part of my life without permission."  "A poverty-stricken county is fertile ground for corruption and greed, even for the best of us."  Poverty and hunger can lead so many to do things they wouldn't normally do.  It is easy to judge when we have never been in their shoes.  "I don't believe we are wrestling simply with humanity's evil.  If God exists, then why wouldn't a devil also exist?  If Satan is real, it'd be a great benefit to him for us to believe he isn't.  I have to believe there's a personality behind the horror I routinely witness.  It's simply too much awfulness to pin onto chance.  But I'm not afraid of the devil.  I brace myself with a stronger power."

Writing my Wrongs

"Writing My Wrongs" by Shaka Senghor

I will admit this book is a little tough to get through.  It has a lot of cussing and explicit examples of what happens in prison.  Yet, it is a good book to understand about growing up on the streets, prison, and re-entry after prison.  It is an amazing story of how some choose to make something of themselves and help others, while others can't break the cycle.  "I was tired of being hurt and confused by two people I loved more than anything in the world."  Childhood is when most of our prison inmates have experienced the abuse that leads them to the streets and the crimes that they commit.  "I had never thought about the fact that by getting locked up, I was also imprisoning everyone who loved or cared about me."  Our actions and choices affect so many around us and yet in the moment we only think of ourselves.  "We weren't bad people, but we had made some very bad decisions that were shaped by the bad things we had experienced.  We were fathers, brothers, uncles, drug dealers, robbers, and killers.  And we weren't any one of those things by itself-what we were was a mixture of failure, neglect, promise, and purpose."  I think that we forget that our inmates are people, people who have made bad choices yes, but also people who have been badly hurt themselves.  "I had helped to bring a new life into the world-but now I was taking my life out of it."  He had made a choice that landed him in prison, a choice that took him out of his child's life.  "My crime was no badge of honor in my son's eyes-it was a scarlet letter that signified how badly I had failed him and the other young Black males in my neighborhood, many of whom would die or spend their lives in prison for trying to emulate me."  And this brought about the change in him, realizing that he needed to do better by his son and help others that were like him choose a better life.  "It had taken me years to realize that no one goes to prison alone; my imprisonment had impacted my family as though they were sitting in the cell with me." "That's why I'm asking you to envision a world where men and women aren't held hostage to their pasts, where misdeeds and mistakes don't define you for the rest of your life.  In an era of record incarcerations and a culture of violence, we can learn to love those who no longer love themselves.  Together, we can begin to make things right."   

See Me

"See Me" by Nicholas Sparks

If youv'e been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that my favorite author is Nicholas Sparks, he never dissapointes.  See Me is his latest novel, although he is currently writing a new one.  I don't know how he writes so many and they are all so good.  This one might be one of his best, yet I might say that every time.  Colin is a young man with a long history of violence.  He has decided to start a new path and leave the old Colin behind.  The question is, can he really do it?  Maria is a girl that has also left her past behind and seems to have the world at her fingertips.  A chance meeting between the two of them might cause Maria's past to catch up to her and Colin to show her hasn't really changed at all.  "But if you're going to make a judgement about me, then you need to know who I really am, not just the part I decide to tell you.  I'd rather be honest about all of it and let you make the call as to whether you want to keep talking to me or not."  Wouldn't this be great if everyone we met did this at first, to let us know who they really were?  I think it would be a little frightening at first but so much easier to just get it all out on the table in the beginning.  "I think you can do whatever you want.  In the end, we all live the life we choose for ourselves."  We are the ones at the end of the day that have to live with the choices we made, best make the choices you can live with.  "Love makes everything complicated, and emotions always go wild in the beginning.  But when it's real, you should hold on tight, because we're both old enough to know that true love doesn't come along all that often."  Pick up this book, you won't be sorry, I promise.

Little Princes

"Little Princes" by Conor Grennan

An unexpectedly good book.  I love stumbling upon a gem.  Conor is a 20 something man who wants to travel the world.  He leaves his job and spends the first three months of his trip at an orphanage in Nepal.  This three months will change the course of his life.  He finds out that the children aren't really orphans at all but children with families, children who were trafficked, childre whose parents had no idea they were alive.  This became Conor's goal, reunite these families and stop the trafficking of children in Nepal.  This goal became a nonprofit and with it many sacrifices for Conor and many children saved.  "Despite myself, I had become a parent to these kids-not because I was qualified, but because I had showed up."  Often times we just need to be willing, to show up, and God will use that willingness.  "It is my estimate that he has trafficked close to four hundred children."  The families are so poor in Nepal, the drought so severe, the war so long, that parents were giving up their children in hopes that they would have a better life.  They were tricked by men who took all these families had, lied and then sold the children.  "We marveled at the images on TV, at the faces of these peaceful, wonderful, loving people, suddenly crazed with passion, with determination, with revolution, with the spirit that drives men and women to stand on front lines and absorb bullets and batterings to win freedom for those who stand behind them."  "But God used that time of great sadness to reclaim me, to redeem me.  Things that are broken can be made whole."  God is in the business of reclaiming, redeeming and making our broken lives whole again.  "It was always difficult to accept these gifts, knowing how little the parents had and what it must cost them.  But I also knew that this was for them.  They needed me to know how much their children meant to them."  When Conor went to the remote villages to find the children's families he would be given gifts in gratitude.  He knew these gifts were more than the family could afford but he also knew it showed how much they cared for their children.  "The kids spoke little English, but as I had learned long ago, language isn't always necessary when interacting with kids."  Loving and playing with children is speaking their language, no words needed.  This is a great story of being willing and being used.  We can all do great things when we are willing to show up and let God use us.

To The End of June

"To The End of June" by Cris Beam

Oh boy, this was a heavy, hard, yet interesting read.  If you are interested in the foster system, are a foster parent, know a foster parent, or work within the system, I recommend this book.  The author explains how our system began, the changes that have occurred along the way, and how our system is failing those it is meant to help.  Cris followed several foster kids and their families over a period of time to help show what it is like being a foster child and a foster parent.  As one who volunteers with foster kids, I know first hand the faults in our system but this book gave me a different look at the biological parents and their struggles.  Honestly my eyes were open to views I hadn't thought of before and I highly recommend this book.  "I know that foster children are twice as likely to develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder than are veterans of war."  And that sentence was on the first page!  What are we doing?  "This is one of the reasons why a lot of people go straight for adoption, that they don't bother with foster care.  It's because of the investment-you see your investment go down the drain in months."  Foster parents put a lot of work into these kids only to have them be moved to another home.  It's hard, selfless work and it takes such courage.  "That's why nearly every kid in foster care is diagnosed with ADHD or even Oppositional Defiance Disorder-they don't have impulse control, because they never had proper attachment.  Unfortunately, the system tends to tackle the symptoms rather than the cause, by medicating the children for their hyperactivity or aggression, without addressing the underlying loss, which can take years to repair."  So much of this system is reactive and not proactive and I believe this alone is why we fail our children.  "But if you live in a state where your're going to be charged with child abuse for your addiction, or you know your kids will be taken away if you show up at a treatment site, you're stuck regardless."  Can we get them help before we take their children?  Would there be better success for the child and the parent?  "We've been building a city for children on a sinking foundation."  "Parents should do it because the kids need.  Otherwise they're going to be disappointed.  More money, more training, all of these things would be a boost, but foster parenting, by definition, means personal sacrifice.  You do it because you want to help a kid, and because you enjoy seeing them grow.  The gratitude for what you've done might come later.  Like after five years of hell."  Or honestly, maybe not at all.  "For her doctoral dissertation, Eliana interviewed one hundred kids in foster care, asking them why they thought they were there.  Ninety percent said it was because of something they did."  And that is what these children carry with them.  "Kecia explained that the first of her theories was the most basic and obvious: group homes led to jail because of the connections that you made in care.  The kids you met could lure you into trouble, and the adults were strangers you couldn't trust.  One thing led to another."  Group homes were not meant to raise kids.  "There's one commonly cited statistic-that 80 percent of all inmates have spent time in foster care-"  That figure alone should make us take a good look at our system.  "These kids said they would have rather been abused at home with their parents than abused by the state.  We realize now that the outcomes for children in foster care are going to be worse than if they had stayed in the home."  That statement blows my mind.  I can't even wrap my head around it.  "The agencies and the foster parents dont' know how to manage what every single foster child seems to need-that need to go back.  We need to get better at this part of the foster care trajectory because that journey back is land-minded for self-destruction."  No matter the abuse, no matter the circumstances, a child will always want to go back.  "This is why child welfare experts try to fix the myriad problems in child welfare and fail: the problems are rooted in a society that cares little for its children, for its poor, its mentally ill, undereducated, incarcerated, addicted, and isolated."  As a society we have proven this through our failing systems. "And the poverty aspect of foster care is particularly troubling, as the one shining truth in my research was this: the poorer you are, the more likely you are to get entangled with child welfare."  The author doesn't offer solutions, she wrote the book as mere information.  It leaves the reader wondering how do we fix this, how do we help these children and families?

The Silent Sister

"The Silent Sister" by Diane Chamberlain

I've read a few of Diane's books and they always leave me intrigued, like how does one come up with these plot lines?  This novel was a good change from the heavy non fiction books I've been reading lately.  It is a book that will keep you guessing and wondering all the way through.  Sometimes you don't even know who to root for.  When I was nearing the end of the book I couldn't put it down, I had to know what happened and how it all came together.  Throughout the book I continued to be surprised and I appreciate that about a book, that it is unpredictable.  The book is about a women whose father has passed away and she goes to clean out his house and deal with his estate.  She has a brother who is unstable and of no help.  She does not know whom to trust.  As she continues to go through the house she finds out that what she believed to be true about her family is not true at all.  Her sister that she was told committed suicide might still be alive, the man she thought was her father may not be, and now she doesn't know what or who to believe.  I'd recommend this book if you like a good plot that keeps you guessing and turning pages.  

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

"The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

The author wrote this book about a young Afghan women who during the Taliban reign, helped her family survive by starting a dress making business in the secrecy of her home.  She helped many other families by employing other women.  Kamila risked her life to help her family and those around her.  She showed such strength and courage.  "They were just kids trying to survive another year of war together with no parents to watch over them."  Many of these girls parents had fled for safety but believed the safest place was for their children to stay.  So without their parents, without men to earn money, they had to find a way to survive.  The pressure was great and the risks were severe.  "In that instant she felt perfectly alone, unable to share her burden, and with no choice but to simply carry on." So many women were left to care for their families in a hostile environment that didn't allow them much freedom.  "I want you to know I'm proud of you. I never for one moment doubted that you would be ale to take care of our family and that you could do anything you set your mind to.  You must stay at it, and you must try as hard as you can to help others.  This is our country and we must stay and see it through whatever comes.  That is our obligation and our privilege."  Kamila's father said this to her.  He was so proud of her for what she had done, he counted and believed in her.  I applaud her father for he is belief in her and for Kamila's courage to help others even when it put her life in danger.  "Her life was about more than her own safety."  "With all this despair crippling her city, who was she not to do her part?"  I wish that more people here, today, in our county, felt this way.  We all have a part to play in bettering our lives, our families, our communities, and our world.  Why do we not do our part?  "...but remember that they only have to catch you once to destroy everything.  You name, your family, your life.  Everything."  "Brave young women complete heroic acts every day, with no one bearing witness." The author wrote this story to tell the world that women everywhere are doing heroic things to keep their families together, to love and help others.  We all have our part to play.  This was an intriguing and encouraging book.  I appreciated the look into Afghan women and the types of oppression they have lived through.