So clearly, we've been a wee bit busy around our house! Our blog has been a little neglected - but we just had to come out of hiding for this! :)

We knew that our journey to Zefina in Africa would impact our family ~ but we didn't anticipate the dramatic life change and world view of our 7th grader. SO PROUD barely begins to express our feelings of our little girl! Jr.High is rough - it's time spent navigating who you are, who are your friends and where you fall on the popularity poll. Our Haley has charged into her 7th grade year with her head held high and already a strong sense of who she is.

We love you Haley and are so proud of the young lady you are becoming!
Love Mom & Dad

Dear Francesco D’ ADAMO,

    The book IQBAL has inspired me to help kids around the world.  Just recently I was able to experience and help bring smiles back to the faces of street kids, orphans, abused and poverty stricken kids in the heart of Zambia, Africa.

 

    It was hard to read IQBAL and understand how kids and adults were living in mud huts and in such horrible environments.  I thought the book was fictional, but when my fifth grade teacher told me it was a true story, it affected me, big time.  It made me want to do something about it.  I knew from the tugging at my heart that I needed to go to a place that needed help.  As it would turn out, the place I began helping kids is the very place my sister is from.  She was in an orphanage in Lusaka, Zambia where my family and I spent 7 weeks visiting this past summer.  She’s full of giggles and is so much fun.  It reminds me how so many kids go without parents each day.  I love how IQBAL was always showing the kids that were working for Hussain to always be brave, and taught them how to fight for what they believe in!  When I was in Africa, I experienced people living in shacks and cardboard boxes on the side of the street.  I’m glad that reading this book has shown me what I want to do in my life, helping kids of course!

    When I was at the orphanage in Zambia, there was a little girl named Natasha.  Natasha was brought to the orphanage because her mom was crazy and couldn’t even take care of her own self.  Her mom hadn’t fed her in several days, baby Natasha would have died if it weren’t for the good neighbors that called the police, telling them she wasn’t being properly cared for.  When Eshan Khan takes the kids that were just freed from child labor to “The Big Pink House”, it reminds me about the group homes and orphanages with ark loads of kids waiting so eagerly to be adopted into forever families.

            Another way my life has been changed and my view of the world, was when Fatima had to face the fact that she might not ever find her family or even her village ever again, but she never gave up.  It reminds me that even if at times it feels like there are just so many orphans out there, what can I, as a kid, do about it?  That all it takes is determination and courage.  Like with my sister, one family at a time – we can change kids lives.

            The book IQBAL has given me compassion for kids that have gone and are going through hard times, and has given me the courage to help them.  The book has helped me become a better person by understanding what kids around the world are going through each and every day.  It has given me the strength to be able to handle everything all at once, and the courage and bravery to never give up!  IQBAL inspired me greatly and forever will, by helping to show me what my purpose is to do in the world.  Making it clear that I want to help kids everywhere!  Help every orphan find a forever family and a child labor and abuse free world!

            Sincerely,

              Haley Avery