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Building a Memorial to a Son, One Child at a Time

Mike Cope points to a NY Times article of the same title that tells of the story of what some of his relatives are doing to help improve the lives of children around the world. This is something that's been on my mind a bunch lately. It's hard to imagine any better use of one's time and energy than giving mercy to a child.

Adoption

On my flight back from Texas today, one of the guys sitting beside me told me that, despite nearing retirement age, he and his wife are in the process of adopting their 5-year-old granddaughter because neither their son nor the girl's mom wanted the responsibility of taking care of a child. This reminded me of my flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last Sunday. I'll write much more about my trip to Belgium/the Netherlands later when I get around to it, but I want to go ahead and tell this story lest I forget to tell it later. On the flight from Amsterdam, there was a man across the isle to my left who was on his way back from Russia. He and his wife are in the process of adopting two Russian kids (ages 5 and 9, or something like that) and had been there visiting them and taking steps to complete the adoption. In the row in front of me was a dad and his teenage daughter. They were returning form Africa (Zambia?) with a little girl (maybe age 9) whom their family was adopting. The wife and the rest of the kids were going to meet them at the airport in Detroit. I thought it was kind of unusual to be sitting so close to two international adoption stories on that flight. In Detroit, as I was going through customs, I heard loud clapping and cheering coming from the area where people emerge from customs and greet the public. I quickly looked over, wondering what was happening. I couldn't see much, but I caught a glimpse of the dad who was returning from Africa. I realized that what I had heard and glimpsed was a bunch of people warmly and enthusiastically welcoming to America the little girl from Africa. It was beautiful!

Iraq's Woes Are Adding Major Risks To Childbirth

From an article of the same title Nancy Trejos in The Washington Post:

Spontaneous road closures, curfews and gun battles make even getting to the hospital a challenge for expectant mothers. Once they arrive, the women have no guarantee that they will receive adequate health care from a qualified physician. "It's spiraling downward. It's getting worse each day," said Annees Sadik, an anesthesiologist at al-Jarrah. Iraq once had a premier health-care system. But the trade embargo of the 1990s and now the exodus of medical professionals have made it no better than a third-world system, doctors say. Hospitals lack the equipment, drugs and medical expertise to make labor easier or to handle complications. Women are forgoing prenatal visits to doctors as a result. Fearful of going into labor during the nighttime curfew, they are having elective Caesarean sections. Others are relying on midwives in their neighborhoods. Doctors, especially women, have been targeted by unknown groups for kidnapping and murder. The kidnappers often appear to be motivated by money, seizing professionals because they are among the wealthiest people in Iraq. But many Iraqis also say that insurgents are waging a campaign to eliminate the people with the skills most needed to rebuild Iraq.

Losing Iraq, One Truckload at a Time

There was an intersting op-ed piece of the same title in the NY TImes on Sunday written by Army captain Luis Carlos Montalvan describing corruption in Iraq:

The most prominent forms of corruption I saw were Iraqi commanders pocketing the paychecks of nonexistent troops in the Iraqi Army and officers in the police forces, and customs officials abetting the smuggling of oil and precious rebuilding supplies across Iraq's porous borders. These are vast problems, but some relatively simple solutions could tamp them down considerably.

Yearning to Be Whole Again

From a WaPo article of the same title by Donna St. George from late November:

When war started in Iraq, a generation of U.S. women became involved as never before-- in a wider-than-ever array of jobs, for long deployments, in a conflict with daily bloodshed. More than 155,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among their ranks are more than 16,000 single mothers, according to the Pentagon, a number that military experts say is unprecedented. How these women have coped and how their children are managing have gone little-noticed as the war stretches across a fourth year.

In the military, parental status is not a barrier to serving in a war. All deploy when the call comes -- single mothers, single fathers, married couples -- relying on a "family-care plan" that designates a caregiver for children when parents are gone.

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