In A Heartbeat-- Final Summary

Now that I have finished the book and am able to look at it as a whole, I think that it was overall an amazing book and I am so glad that I read it. Besides the fact that this book had an amazing story to it and focused on the amazing doings of the Tuohy family, this book really inspired me to be a better person. While I know that I cannot do something to the extent that they did, I took away much more from the book. I have learned that even though I know that I cannot do something like the Tuohy’s did, I can do something that makes a difference to one person. I already talked about this in a different blog post, but I thought that the most meaningful quote came from Leigh Anne in one of the sections that she wrote. She wrote about giving to one person at a time and how each person means something. Even though it may be impossible for me to help an entire community of people or to adopt a person into my family, just simply giving someone the time of day and showing that you care about them can be enough. Deciding to contain yourself from making judgments of others and giving each and every person a chance to see who they really are is such a simple, yet life-altering act. Sean told a story that helped reiterate this point. A boy was walking along the beach where there had been a large tide that had washed thousands of starfish onto the shore. The starfish were all beginning to dry out and die, so the boy kept picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the water. The boy’s father said to him, “you can’t save them all, let’s just keep walking.” The boy replied by saying, “you may be right, but I just saved one more life” as he threw one more starfish back into the water. Each person’s life is just as important as the next, and it is so important to look at people with this mindset, rather than giving people labels and stereotypes. I want to end my blog about this book with a statistic that really struck me. Being an extremely faith-driven family, much of the book refers to the Tuohy’s faith and their church. Leigh Anne pointed out a statistic that shocked me and made me realize the difference that we can make in the world. I leave you with this last thought. “If every church in the United States would see to it that just one child is adopted, the problem of homeless children in this country would disappear. If each of us got invoved, we could wipe it out overnight.” We have so much opportunity to make a difference in our country that it is now the responsibility of the citizens of the United States to step up and start giving back to others.