Before and After

A conversation I had today got me thinking about how far I've come in my life, particularly in the last six years. And, since the children of Haiti are ever-present in my heart, mind, and soul I immediately linked my journey to theirs. In a way they are the same, in another way they are so different.
Sometimes we don't know how broken we are until we are healed.
That is my story.
I didn't know how broken I was, until I began to heal. I didn't realize how far I've come until today, when I revisited my "before."
These children have been broken and are healing, but their journey has been painfully, glaringly obvious. They could not hide their ribs, sunken cheeks, lifeless eyes, and weak limbs. They could not hide their devastation - they had to heal in front of the world.
Like me, these children did heal, they did change, they did persevere. It tears at my heart to see their "before" pictures because I want to think of them only as "afters." We can't ignore their journey, or the journey of the thousands of others that are struggling to heal at this moment.
Everyone has a "before" and an "after."
For some of us, it's a journey of character.
For others, it's a journey of survival.

              Before                        After                                                   

Please don't forget them.

I can't.

~Emily