I just heard the most amazing story on Glen Beck’s TV program on HNN, about Captain Scott Southworth, who adopted an Iraqi orphan that has CP.
Mission: Adoption
Soldier finds a purpose beyond serving his country while in IraqBy GINA BARTON
Posted: Feb. 26, 2005The first time Capt. Scott Southworth visited the orphanage in Baghdad, the little boy was drawn to him immediately.
The boy, who has cerebral palsy and cannot walk, half-crawled, half-dragged himself across the floor until he was seated at Southworth’s side, then gazed up at him with a crooked smirk.
“People ask me how I chose him, but I didn’t. He chose me,” Southworth said.
It was September 2003, and Southworth was in command of the Wisconsin National Guard 32nd Military Police Company during its 14-month tour in Iraq. Their mission was to teach local police officers how to operate in a democracy. Their visits to the orphanage for disabled children were a way for the soldiers to forget the hard times: the shellings, the car bombs, the attacks on the police stations where they worked. And Southworth loved spending time with the little boy, Ala’a.
Southworth grew up in a military family, raised with love of God and country. He graduated from law school at the University of Wisconsin with honors and planned to run for Juneau County district attorney at the end of his deployment.
As for Ala’a (pronounced “Allah”), when he was 3 or 4, an Iraqi police officer found him alone on the streets of Baghdad. The officer brought him to the orphanage, run by the Catholic Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa. By the time Southworth started visiting him there, Ala’a was about 10. The nuns who cared for him had taught him to pray and to speak English.
Please go to the link to read the rest - you won’t be sorry!
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