“Home is where one starts from,” wrote T. S. Eliot in the second part of Four Quartets, and we find ourselves back again at our starting point in North Carolina. Hank and I have resigned from the Thornwell Home for Children and are now back in Mebane. This was a gut-wrenching and painful decision, not made lightly but after prayerful consideration and a growing concern that we simply could not deliver love the way they wanted it delivered.
We leave with the knowledge that while we were at Thornwell we loved and nurtured "our boys” to the best of our abilities. We wanted them to know as much as possible about their world, and to develop a respect for their planet and for all the diversity of cultures that people this Earth. Teaching them to recycle, entertaining international visitors, learning more about organic and healthy food choices, taking pride in using proper etiquette and proper English, and living each day with laughter were de rigueur with "Mr. Hank" and "Mrs. Sara."
In a previous blog entry we wrote about adapting a wonderful line from the movie "The Cider House Rules" for the boys of Georgia-Beatie ("Good night, you princes of South Carolina, you kings of the Upstate!"). We end this blog pondering powerful lines from the same movie. It is where Dr. Larch laments in his journal about "creating a monster" when you try to give an institution like an orphanage the love meant to invest in a family. "We have managed to make the orphange his home, and that is the problem," Larch continues. Let us pray for these and all children everywhere....and may they always know too much love!
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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