We Believe That Children Are Our Future…
It matters not what type of project we do, or where it is in the world, this is our underlying consistent message.
Another strong consistency for us, is co-creating local projects – supported by local businesses and people – so that local communities benefit. After all, no one knows the needs of a particular community, better than the people that live there…
As we started out on our journey, we did so on the basis of three very powerful Forest-related tales. The first one relating to the birth of a young child in Chicago; the second to the planting of a food forest in Ghana, and thirdly, Nottingham Forest Football Club providing a sporting chance in life, to the young people from the villages of Ghana…
The Miraculous Forest Of Love And Hope
When I was invited to contribute a chapter to this book, my wife Shona and I were in the midst of the most challenging chapter of our lives. At five months pregnant, we were given less than a one percent chance our baby would survive. In our traumatic pregnancy, we were given little to hope for and our hearts were sure to be devastatingly broken. We were lost, angry, broken, and scared.
In this pivotal moment of our lives, all we could do is love each other and hope our baby would lead the way for us. We did not have the strength to lead, we needed our baby to help us. We were given the heartbreaking option of terminating the pregnancy and we were advised to do. Babies in these predicaments just do not survive, we were told.
The decision to choose to let our baby go did not intuitively feel like our story or what our baby wanted. In a cosmic spiritual way we just knew this. Our lack of courage to make such a decision along with our intuition created the possibility for a miracle to be birthed. So, we waited for our miracle, as our baby taught us hope and even deeper levels of love.
My chapter on this journey shares this intimate story of how our traumatic pregnancy taught us, the world really, that with love and hope anything is possible. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, our story, our fight for love, and for our baby gained worldwide attention. I feel that the world was needing something to cling on to and something to hope for. Hands around the world came together to hope and pray for our son Forest.
Forest is healthy and whole, and Shona is an incredibly strong and loving mother to him. Forest beat all the odds, defied the medical training of our physician team, and taught me more about love and hope than I could have every imagined. As you read our story consider your own…
Where is there room for love and hope?
