A Must Read: There is No Me Without You

I can't even remember the last time I did a book review (maybe high school), but I have to share my new favorite read, "There is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Her Country's Children," by Melissa Fay Greene. Of course, it's probably because I'm 3/4 of the way into the 462-page book and am partially swayed given the experience we're going through, but it has been an incredibly moving and enlightening story.

There's so many things about the book that resonate with me, but I think ultimately it comes down to that special connection and love that exists between parent and child.

The author manages to chronicle one woman's struggle and individual triumph at the center of Africa's AIDS crisis. After losing her husband and daughter, Haregewoin Teferra, an average Ethiopian womans, transforms her life and opens her home to literally hundreds of Addis Ababa's orphans, many of them stricken with the deadly disease. It's a story that conveys so many things--transformation, the power of one, recognizing imperfection, compassion and unconditional love, gratitude, and the need respond, act, and do more in our lives. Additionally, it's opened my eyes to the realities of Africa, specifically Ethiopia--it's history, it's people and their culture, political turmoil, the evolution of AIDS and it's devastating impact, crimes against humanity and the role pharma has and hasn't played in the destituion that exists there.

The problem in Ethiopia is huge and intractable, and now it's been made real to me in a very human way. These children ache for a parent, any parent. And as hard as it is to explain it, deep inside, sometimes even on the near surface, I feel that ache and yearning, and wish for nothing more than to contribute in any way I can to take some of it away.

Bottom line, I would encourage anyone following this journey with us to read this book in order to get a better sense of Ethiopia and its orphans, what we are and will experience, and what life and living is to our children.