Weekend Book Review--"There Is No Me Without You" by Melissa Fay Greene

I think it is obvious that I use this blog for a number of reasons (all of them selfish). I use it to update friends and family on our adoption journey. I use it as a journal to chronicle events and feelings related to our adoption journey, and I want to use it as a keepsake for our child(ren) to look back on what we were up to when we were on our way to them. One of the things we have been up to is reading adoption related books. Amazon is onto me...all of the 'suggestions' they provide when I log in are adoption and child-rearing related. Smart folks over there at Amazon. I could save a ton of $ if I would just quit logging on. Trust me, my library card gets a regular work-out, but I like to buy the adoption books so I can shelve them, loan them out, and look back on them for reference.

The first book "review" I did was about Ashes to Africa and that post can be found HERE. Another book that I read early on in our adoption journey was There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene. I'm not sure what to say about the book other than it was life-changing for me. Where to even start? I am a fan of U2 and I don't live under a rock, so of course I knew/know of the AIDS epidemic ravaging Africa and her people. There Is No Me Without You was the first time that I realized what that really meant. I had never truly put a face and a life or lives to the crisis and that is what this book did for me. The statistics, tied with personal stories, contributing to the orphan crisis, truly put things in perspective for me. 

Haregewoin Teferra lived a "middle-class" lifestyle with her husband and 2 daughters in Ethiopia. After the sudden death of her husband and later, one of her daughters, she thought her own life was over. God clearly had different plans for her. The book chronicles how she became a foster mother to hundreds of Ethiopian children, many of them abandoned due to the AIDS crisis. She sacrificed and worked to care for and love these children. In return, they gave her a much needed, revived sense of purpose. The best way to learn about Waizero (Mrs.) Teferra's life and work??? Read There Is No Me Without You and search the website dedicated to the book HERE. Simply incredible, simply moving, simply love. In this book, I learned what it really means for one person to make a difference. 

I borrowed this image from the book website, but hopefully I don't get into trouble, because I'm promoting them and the book, right?!