One Heart at a Time by Delilah

One Heart at a Time by Delilah

Author:Delilah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2018-10-21T16:00:00+00:00


My producer and best friend Janey has a beautiful daughter named Jesse. Because Janey was established in her career when she adopted Jess and because Jess is an only child, Janey spoiled her rotten from the day her curly head came into this world. If Jesse ordered a plate of pasta and then decided she didn’t like it after one or two bites, Janey would toss it in the garbage and order a burger for her instead.

When Jess was about nine years old, Janey came to Africa with me. She walked through the Buduburam refugee camp. She went to the orphanages with me. She held sick babies and watched the mothers with hollow cheeks and vacant eyes try to comfort their daughters, weak with malnutrition as their distended bellies begged for nutrition. Janey cried like I have never seen her cry before. I believe her heart was broken as deeply as it had been when her amazing father, the pillar and rock of their family, died from complications from diabetes. She returned to America a changed woman.

Before Africa, Janey had always thought my love for gardening was a somewhat silly pastime. Once she saw the gardens in Africa that we created to grow healthy food for starving children and families, she began to change. Janey has never been a materialistic or selfish person, but once she saw what real poverty looked like, and once she realized that she could make a difference in the lives of others, her entire perspective shifted. No, she didn’t sell all her possessions and join the Peace Corps, but a diametric shift occurred. Now she spends hours in her gardens; her once grass-only yard is a lush oasis of fruits, berries, and vegetables. She gives away as much as she uses for herself and Jesse. She packs up boxes of the clothes Jesse has outgrown and brings them to my farm for me to take to Africa to give to kids in the camp. She spends hours on the phone, talking to record reps and the managers of Céline Dion or Josh Groban, trying to get concert tickets to auction off for Point Hope. She wakes up determined to help feed one more child, to empower one more single mom.

Instead of spoiling Jesse, she is helping her beautiful daughter to view the world through a different lens. As a result, Jesse has become passionate about a number of issues and has gone with me to Africa, where she fell in love with the children and worked in the feeding program. She wants to go back—she cries over wounded animals and orphaned babies, and she has motivated other students in her school to get involved in service projects and to care about people outside of themselves.

Janey’s trip not only changed her life, but her daughter’s and untold others’ as well. She had always been conservative with her finances and generous with her resources, but her focus to change the world for good has taken flight. She is living more simply so that others may simply live.



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