Our Crazy Life!: 2008

OK... I know you are expecting sweet pictures of Benjamin and I promise I will post some soon. But right now there is something else that has burdened my heart.

I was at work last night and happened to find a free moment to catch up on my celeb gossip... yes, I am addicted to the trashy tabloids. But in the midst of reading about Brittany's turn around, this year's fashion do's and don'ts, and weather or not Lindsey Loghan is a lesbian... I know, I have no life... I came across a picture that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was of a distraught 23 month old child clinging to a little stuffed basketball being consoled by a family member while he cried out for his mother. If you know what I am talking about than I know you are recalling the photo in your mind now.

I don't usually read about world terrorism... it is so depressing... but I have a new found sympathy for those who have been effected... in ANY way... by some sort of devastating act of mindless carnage. This particular article brought me to tears.

As many of you know on Nov. 29th, the lives of 195 innocent people were taken from their families by cowardly terrorists in Mubai. While I was aware of the attacks, I selfishly thought, "well that is so far away and doesn't really affect me so why read such depressing news". While it may not have affected my life directly, I was moved to tears right there at the nurse's station on PCU in Grenada Lake Medical Center.
While there are many accounts of selflessness and heroism through-out the world, this one hit home.

This is an exert from an article that was posted on www.momlogic.com/2008/12/mubai_nanny_saves_toddler_li.php

The Mumbai attacks on November 26 took the lives of at least 195 people, including the life of young mother Rivkah Holtzberg. She and her husband, a rabbi, were murdered. Their 23-month-old son Moishe Zvi was surely next ... but a quick-thinking nanny named Sandra Samuel saved him.

"I heard Moishe. He called me: 'Sandra! Sandra! Sandra!'" she said. "I decided to go upstairs despite the shooting and find him. The guy who was with me didn't want me to go upstairs, but I was scared that if Moishe kept calling me, somebody will hear him, get to him and harm him.

"When I got upstairs all the terrorists were apparently on the roof. I found Moishe standing next to his parents. Everything was full of blood. I grabbed him, went outside the room and ran outside."

"When the baby emerged with the nanny, he had blood stains on him," Benjamin Isaac, secretary of the Indian Jewish Federation, told Reuters. "Thankfully it wasn't his blood. But we knew someone's blood had already been spilled."

The toddler was reunited with his Israeli grandparents on Friday.

Shimon Rosenberg, Rivka's father, thanked the Indian nanny at a memorial service. "With her great resourcefulness, Sandra saves my grandson's life. If she hadn't grabbed him, he would surely have been murdered," he said. Rosenberg broke into tears as he spoke, when his grandson Moishe Zvi also began crying and searching for his mother.

"Ima! Abba!," Moishe said, using the Hebrew words for mother and father. Then the boy burst into tears and cried on the shoulder of his maternal grandmother.

"Gaby and Rivka dedicated their life to bring light selflessly and joyously to our world. In a very short time their house became a home away from home for Jewish travelers from all over the world," said Rabbi Simcha and Shterna Backman of the Chabad Jewish Center in Glendale, California. "Friday, their little boy Moishe Tzvi, whose life was miraculously spared, celebrated his second birthday. Over the past two years, every Friday night, the Shabbat candles lit by Rivkah shone brightly in the Chabad House in Mumbai. Now these lights have been replaced by blood stains and destruction."

The heroic nanny Sandra Samuels arrived in Israel on Sunday and was granted entry by the Interior Ministry. Army Radio reported that the interior minister was considering bestowing Sandra the 'righteous gentile' title, which would allow her to remain in Israel for an extended period of time.

Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this horrific tragedy in Mumbai. If you would like to help, the Chabad organization has set up a fund for the Holtzberg family and other victims.

If you weren't moved by this act of pure love, just look into this toddler's eyes and tell me that he doesn't understand what is going on. For those of you who are mothers, I know you will do the exact same thing I did when I saw this picture... gasp and suddenly think how much that poor sweet baby looks like your very own child... male, female, black, white, blonde, or brunette...

God bless those who put themselves in harms way to save the innocent; God welcome those who's lives were taken all too soon; and God lead, guide and protect those who are left to make sense of such tragedy.

When I walked in the door this morning I hugged and kissed Benjamin and looked at him in a different way. I hope you do the same.

God Bless!!