Tuesday, March 18, 2008

ADOPTION IN MANY WAYS








Much of life can never be explained but only witnessed'


A baby hippopotamus that survived the

tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong

bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal

facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said

The hippopotamus, nicknamedOwen a nd weighing about

300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki

River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore

when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on

December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.



'It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a

male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to

be very happy with being a 'mother',' ecologist Paula Kahumbu,

who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.



'After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized.

It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother

Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.

They swim, eat and sleep together,' the ecologist added.

'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother.

If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive,

as if protecting its biological mother,' Kahumbu added.



'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and

by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their

mothers for four years,' he explained.






This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter

much when we need the comfort of another.

We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God,

'Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.'




Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God...

























--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. Get it now!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supercharge your AIM. Get the AIM toolbar for your browser.





DeleteReplyForwardSpamMove...
Previous Next Back to Messages Save Message Text Full Headers

12 comments:

Brooke said...

Aww, I love this post! It's so true, adoption takes form in many ways.

Now, I hope you have started on your 100 things about you list! You must be so happy that I tagged you! :)

LISA said...

Brooke, I'm up to 12....

Gail said...

How sweet!!
Gail

Amanda said...

:)

atHisrighthand said...

I love it!
Elise

Colleen and JF Bertrand said...

I love this post!!!

The Soucys said...

I love this story! Scholastic has a beautiful book about these two! My students love it!

Annie said...

I bought the book of this story, "A Mama for Owen" right after I moved forward with the adoption last summer...wonderful story that tears me up; they also have the board book showing photos of these 2..I think it's called "best friends".

los cazadores said...

SO COOL!

Cindy

Mom to many said...

You won't believe it, but this is one of the books we bought on our Barnes and Noble Book trip --- way awesome that you posted it. We love the book. "A Mama for Owen." It is one of many in our ever growing library.

Courtney Rose said...

Isn't this story beautiful? I ended up buying both books to share with my students. The more we can learn about tenderness, friendship, compassion, the better.

gigglechirp said...

I LOVE the Mama for Owen book!!! you must get it!