Ethiopians kick butt!

Not only is Ethiopia known as the "seat of humanity", but historically it has produced some of the fastest runners in the world. I did not know this until recently. Here is a quote from the book "26.2 Marathon Stories":

"Of the fastest 100 marathons ever run, 58 were achieved by runners from the Rift Valley region of East Africa. To date, the once-impossible time of 2:07 has been beaten on 33 occasions -----23 of those times by Ethiopian or Kenyan runners. Rift Valley runners have won 12 Olympic marathon medals in 12 games since 1960;they have won EVERY MEN'S BOSTON (Marathon) but one since 1997, 7 of the last 8 men's races at New York, and 8 of the last 10 men's races at Berlin."

Amazing.

You know what it's like. If you are adopting from a country other than your own, you have a huge desire to find out every bit of detail and history about it. Suddenly stories of your child's country are everywhere. As I said before, it's like when you first fall in love with someone -with a man who drives a VW van for example- suddenly you see VW's EVERYWHERE. Who knew german technology dominated the streets of Calgary? Anyway, in the paper today there is a man from Ethiopia who's name is Ted Jaleta. Ted was a championship runner in Highschool having won the National High School 10 k in 1973. But in 1976 he participated in a political demonstration in Addis Ababa... during the country's civil war.

Jaleta was shot and while unconscious was transported to a brutal prison and was tortured and abused for years. He did not give up. Not only did he escape hell, he wrote about it in a book that I am definately going to pick up. He is a very powerful inspirational speaker, and will be in Calgary this weekend for the Mother's day luncheon. You can watch an 8 minute interview by the CBC of Ted Jaleta (He lives in Canada) at the very top of this post.

My favourite type of stories are of the triumph of the human spirit. It makes my ordinary life seem full of possibility. And makes me want to instill in my daughter and our other soon-to-be child that their life too is endless in the possibility department. What greater gift, other than unconditional love, can you give a child? To show them with examples of real-life people that nothing is insurmountable? It certainly doesn't hurt. Even grown-ups can use this reality check once in awhile. I know I sure do. Suddenly my basement woes are not that bad. Getting caught up in the court closures and having everything delayed longer really isn't a big deal. Even further than that, it makes me think, "How can I use my life better? How can I live up to my God given potential to help humanity." The only down side is it can make me feel like a bit of a loser. All I have been given in my life, my health, happy home, beautiful family, loving parents and siblings, on and on, and what have I really done to help my fellow man in the BIG PICTURE. Sure I love to volunteer, and donate like crazy. But I want to do something more. Something bigger. If we were ever in a position of having more money, I would start a foundation of some kind. It has been a dream of mine for years. A person doesn't really need a lot of money to start a charity, but it helps. Maybe I should just get off of my still-chubby-butt-despite-running-my-ass-off and just start one already!

Anywho, speaking of running, the top of my left foot is EXTREMELY sore today. I can barely walk. This annoys me. I am icing it and putting it up as much as possible. I ran up the stairs half way thru my run yesterday and I think that may have done the damage. I hope it is not sore tomorro, if I have to take a day off of running I am so scared that I will lose my motivation entirely and not go back! It doesn't take much to de-rail my excercising--- just ask my thighs.

Regan is coming home this weekend so we can finally finish our basement and I can start the work on the baby's room next week.

Till next time, folks!