What?! Daughter Charged With Murder!

68,109 died as a result of the 2008 earthquake in China that took place on May 13th 2008.I had an intense reaction to not only the loss, but the staggering numbers. I recently had to help my young son count out a hundred Cheerios for his 100th day at school. It took a lot of time to count each Cheerio and place it in a bag a hundred times. It would be impossible to do it 68,109 times. Therefore my mind just can't wrap itself around such a number. I wondered at the time why people in my circle weren't talking about China's tragedy as much as I was thinking about it.

The Internet provided endless photos from China's tragedy. One of the pictures showed an entire school of children crushed beneath rubble. I couldn't tear my eyes away from people holding onto 8" by 10" photos of their loved ones that were lost or found unfortunately dead. Ironically, it wasn't the need for the shock and awe the pictures provided, it was the individuals moving in the eerily still pictures I craved. I hungrily drank in every image. How was it that where there was no hope and yet people moved with a purpose? Their small frames starving, injured, grieving, lost, continued to move knowing that death surrounded them? Their homes and schools gone, but yet they moved. By the 2nd day, the next round of pictures showed make shift schools were produced and functioning for their children. The surviving children were attending school only 2 days after the earthquake!

On May 8, 2008 just 8 days before China's disaster a woman's life was unjustly taken from her and a child God entrusted to me was being accused of taking part in it. She had just turned 21, how could this be? What did I do to cause this? Just like the earthquake destroying land and lives this event tore up a family and sent aftershocks to continue its rampage on to those who never knew her. The mind wants to put things like this into a tidy little box with a nice bow on top. Unfortunately, its too bulky and spills over the edges. No matter how you push it in or shave off the edges it wants to hang over the side in a ugly mess for all to see. You get one slippery part in and the other side falls out never allowing it to be entirely concealed, nor being in full view. Those viewing the box can only see the disheveled mess. Time heals everything and I'm sure the person who said it wasn't kidding, but time is not on my side.