Last month, one of my Sister-In-Law's sent me an article link through a text to my phone from the CNN website that I must say REALLY captivated me!! Let's just say that out of the 9 recipients that she sent this link to, I was the only one who read it. Therefore I had said that I would make sure this story would be shared here in my blog during the month of April.
In North Korea, a brutal Choice
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/us/north-korean-refugees/index.html
NOTE:
This is a summary about the article,
please click and/or copy & paste to read the FULL article.
This story's about a family of 8 in North Korea that were experiencing everything bad that could happen to them, pretty much famine in it's excess amount. The Mother of the family, Song Ee Han, is the one giving the interview and sharing her difficult story of what her family had to go through to survive and get her surviving children to live and not give up, especially on herself.
Such drastic measures had been taken to the point where Song's family of 8, in a short period of time had dwindled down from to 4 in less than a year with one member, the Father and Husband of the family, having been beaten and tortured to death by officers while on his way back from China carrying rice to feed his family.
Song even at one point had delivered a newborn baby and within months passed away from starvation. The rest of her children's bodies were shrinking and their hair was turning brittle, having to survive each day, they "stripped pine trees, plucked grass and ate every part of each corn plant
they could find, including the cob and the skin -- which they ground
into tasteless cakes..". One of her daughter's had even found a family of mice under a rock, which Song had boiled and fed them to her daughter for any kind of nourishment, according to Song, "My heart was torn into shreds".
Now why the famine at this time in North Korea?
Food became scarce in
North Korea in the 1990s following the demise of the Soviet Union, which was the
country's main financial backer, and prolonged drought. Which left it's country in ruins and civilian's scraping for anything to survive.
At this point with Song having lost half of her family due to starvation and police brutality, she fled along with her 2 daughter's and 5 year old son wanting to cross into China for safety and an opportunity at a better LIFE.
Although because they had to travel 100 miles by foot, her 5 year old son was completely restless at one point, and his sisters were too weak to carry him, let alone, Song herself, while staying at a friend's home, she had the most DIFFICULT decision a Mother could even ask herself...of choosing to stay in poverty for the rest of her LIFE and experience her very own death, or leave one of her children behind to get two of them to safety and risk coming back for the one that was left behind.
When I read this section of the article, I began to silently cry because I couldn't even imagine what her heart was going through even deciphering and going through her options. All I could think about was how she was weeping herself to sleep meanwhile at the same time she was praying to GOD himself about what she should do...all the most ironic of it all, many centuries ago, GOD himself sent his only Son Jesus to earth to die for man's sin, the ultimate sacrifice.
The next day, Song had left her 5 year old son with her friend, promising him that she would be back to get him within 5 days...yet unfortunately, the last time she saw her child was the very last time she would ever get to speak, hug, and see him.
Song now lives in the United States, with her only family being that of her two daughter's that were lucky to survive along with her. Today they speak out about their experience and believe they know and recognize that it is GOD that had chosen them to live this sacrifice for others to benefit from and garner the strength they have accumulated throughout the years.
China served it's purpose for them to launch themselves into the greater dream,
the land of the FREE, The United States.
Letting go requires a choice,
a choice that will shape your future,
and lead you to where you're supposed to be.
Are you willing to make a sacrificial choice to protect those around you and your future?
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