a Vision of Love

For all of the negative in this world - there is an infinite amount of positive. In my quest to return some sense of balance to the "spreading of news", I'm choosing to share the stories in my life that are the most positive. At least for today. :0)

My latest work with the PCRF children has supplied me with an abundance of smiles, gratitude and perspective - its given me a chance to see Life outside of my own struggles, wants and desires and through the eyes, hopes and dreams of those who start this great journey out with far less, but who sometimes give far more.

Meet Zain. She's 2 years old, from Gaza. She was born without eyes, and will sadly never see without a miracle. However, through the work of the PCRF and their teams of medical providers, Zain just received prosthetic eye lenses, even colored just like her mothers, so that she and her family can enjoy her life in as normal of a way as she can.

This little girl has stolen my heart completely. Because she cannot see, her sense of hearing is very developed and acute. She is a true music lover and I've often thought while watching her that I might be looking at the future's female version of Ray Charles. When she hears music, the rest of her world stops and she becomes fully engaged.

She also, not surprisingly, loves phones.

If you spent the day with her, you would mostly either see her swaying to the music (sometimes so faint in the background that no one else even notices) or holding a phone. Up until a few days ago one thing that I hadn't seen her do much was smile. Or laugh.




Until we put her on a swing.

I cannot tell you the last time I felt as happy as I did watching her on that swing - pushing her higher and higher and watching her sweet face react to the pull of gravity on her little tummy that resulted in recording worthy laughs and giggles.

Her little fingers clasped SO tight around the ropes that when it was time to go, I physically had to pull each of them off of the rope - one by one, much to her displeasure.

I'm not sure how much of Dubai I will remember when I leave and return to my life in the States, but one thing is for sure....this little girl is a vision of Love that I will never EVER forget.

(enter: Mariah Carey)


(Zain returned this morning to Gaza, complete with new prosthetic eyes and a glowing smile to match their twinkle - thank you, PCRF!)

Community. Love. Healing.

Since I've lived in Dubai, one thing that has been a constant complaint of mine is that I just don't feel like I "fit" here. In three long years, outside of my work family, I never really felt like I found my "group" here, and I very much need to feel a sense of community and oneness. Everything seems so shiny and brand new that you are constantly questioning its integrity, "soul" and sincerity. This has been at the core of my displeasure in living here.

Until now.

Even though I've been sponsoring a child of the PCRF for the last two years, there is nothing like getting personally, physically involved with a charity that you are passionate about. And I only "thought" I was passionate about these little guys before. Now, that I've touched one, hugged one, heard one laugh, seen a sweet little girl with one eye blow kisses goodbye to me and tell me in Arabic that she loves me.....I'm hooked. I feel like I have finally found the "community" of sincerity, integrity, "soul" that I was looking for. These people are not concerned with a life that revolves solely around themselves, their schedules, their own successes and finding ways to constantly get, more and look like "more". They are concerned with the lives of precious babies who have no way to take full care of themselves - not now as children, and without the organization, perhaps never even as adults.

To see the work that they are doing is beyond miraculous. Children come in with no legs and leave with two prosthetic legs. The little girl I visited yesterday came here with one eye that doesn't see at all and the other that has only partial sight. She will go home with a normal looking left eye and a right eye that has almost full sight.

Each year, the organization provides more than 150,000,000 USD of surgeries for children affected by the war in Gaza and they only need approximately 1,000,000 USD in order to fund this work. The money goes strictly to the transport and care of these children in hospitals around the world where the doctors are performing the surgeries pro bono.

This is why I say that Angels exist. I have now seen them with my own eyes.

Yesterday, after spending about 4 hours with little Lana and her mother, I walked away feeling THANKFUL that I was in Dubai so that I could know about this organization and have the opportunity to be apart of it. I felt THANKFUL for my eyes, my legs, my nose, my sight, my independence, my ability to run and play like a normal child, my ability to play the piano having had all of my limbs, fingers and toes. I walked away feeling "whole" again...and thankful for it. After becoming involved in a group that's sole interest is to heal those who cannot heal themselves, I found that not only did I see healing happening with these precious little children, but I felt it inside ME.

And that's the wonderful thing about Love and Community, isn't it? You get back what you give ten-fold.

Angels

When I was a little girl, I was weird (Ok, so maybe not that much has changed), but I was REALLY weird. For instance, I wouldn't eat grapes off of the vine because I didn't want to take them away from their "families". Single grapes were fine. Grapes on the vine cluster were SO not fine. In my free time, I used to sit outside watching the heavens for Jesus to come out of the clouds. And one of my most vivid memories was of my nightly prayer to God that He would let me see a real live angel in my lifetime. With my literal eyes...not my daydream eyes and not in my (clearly) very overactive imagination's eyes. I wanted to see one like David saw one in the Bible.

Thirty-odd years later, my whimsical hopes and beliefs in such things fell somewhere by the wayside. At some point, not only did I reject the belief itself, but even the desire for it at all. Sad, I know.

Lucky for me, God has a funny way of dealing with this type of attitude. He not only let me see an angel, He pretty much surrounded me with them. Non-stop Angels. Real Live Angels.

This week is the week of my mother's birthday. Three years ago, my mom became my full time angel (I won't tell you all of the reasons that I know this - you will think I'm even crazier than you already do). She definitely believed in angels, so its fitting that she became one. She knew I believed in them. She knew I wanted to see one in my life, and I think she also knew I needed a revived belief in them.

As I think about her this week, and all of the ways that I've been surrounded by her love and the love of my grandmothers, grandfathers and all of the other angels that now fill my life, I am in awe. And tonight, I sat in a room full of real live angels. As true and real as the word "Angel" can be.

More to come on those angels later...for now, I'm just thankful that even a 35-ish cynical misplacer of beliefs can see angels not only with figurative eyes, but with literal ones, and that in those eyes the belief can truly be held that Angels DEFINITELY do exist. I have proof.