Speaker 1: Delia, Hello, my friends, welcome back, Welcome to today's podcast
Speaker 1: episode of Love Someone with Delilah. I am so delighted
Speaker 1: to be able to have this extra bit of time
Speaker 1: with you. I love taking calls, but I would like
Speaker 1: to get a little deeper, to go a little deeper,
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about specific things or
Speaker 1: with specific people. And that is why we have our
Speaker 1: podcast series Love Someone. The whole purpose, my whole prayer,
Speaker 1: my whole reason for doing this podcast was that I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to people who are changing this world
Speaker 1: for good. Some of those people are very famous. If
Speaker 1: you heard some of my last few podcasts, I talked
Speaker 1: to Michael Boublay, to Tear Tebow, to Josh Grobin. But
Speaker 1: some people, some of the podcast are just ordinary people
Speaker 1: who did extraordinary things. And that, my friend, is what
Speaker 1: today's podcast is all about. This conversation is sponsored by
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Speaker 1: in your home, think of the Home Deals, Pope. Have
Speaker 1: you ever felt a whisper in your heart, a voice,
Speaker 1: a feeling urging you to do something. Maybe you became
Speaker 1: overwhelmed by all the what ifs, the avalanche of details
Speaker 1: your brain tumbled at you. Today, I have the privilege
Speaker 1: of talking with two incredibly brave, incredibly beautiful, loving women,
Speaker 1: Barbara Marlowe and Tiba Farratt Marlowe. They are the authors
Speaker 1: of the book A Brave Face, which was released on
Speaker 1: March twelfth. Their story, as you're about to hear, is
Speaker 1: a fabulous testimony to my assertion that changing the world
Speaker 1: is a job best done one heart at a time.
Speaker 1: This story, Barbara's and Tiva's story, all started with a
Speaker 1: grainy photograph in a newspaper and a whisper in Barbara's heart.
Speaker 1: Tell me the name of the book and Barbara, what
Speaker 1: was birthed in you to write the book.
Speaker 2: Well, the name of the book is called A Brave Face,
Speaker 2: and it is being published by HarperCollins.
Speaker 1: Love the title Love the picture on the front, Tiba,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 2: And the impetus for the book actually started many, many
Speaker 2: years ago. When Tiva first got here. There was an
Speaker 2: article in People magazine in their Heroes among Us section,
Speaker 2: and at the time, the editor said, you know, this
Speaker 2: would make a great book. And so she put together
Speaker 2: a book proposal, and she submitted it to an agent
Speaker 2: in New York who also said, hey, this is a
Speaker 2: great book, but she's only been here one year. What's
Speaker 2: the rest of the story. There was no middle, and
Speaker 2: there was definitely and so I kind of tabled it
Speaker 2: and I put everything away. And over the course of
Speaker 2: all these years now, repeatedly me and Tiba would always
Speaker 2: get people saying, Oh, this needs to be a book,
Speaker 2: this needs to be a movie. You need to write
Speaker 2: a book. And this went on and on and on,
Speaker 2: and I didn't think much about it until one day
Speaker 2: I was cleaning out some papers and I came across
Speaker 2: that original book proposal. So I pulled it out and
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, maybe I ought to revisit this
Speaker 2: because I keep hearing it over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: So I contacted the original agent and he said that
Speaker 2: he would still be interested in the story. And I
Speaker 2: had also contacted a local friend, Jennifer Kern, who is
Speaker 2: a writer and who really did a great story about
Speaker 2: Tiva and I many years ago, and spoke to her
Speaker 2: about helping to put this book proposal together. And so
Speaker 2: she and I we did it, submitted it, and the
Speaker 2: agent in New York loved it because now our story
Speaker 2: actually comes full circle, and so there's a lot of
Speaker 2: emotional parts in it. And the next thing, you.
Speaker 1: Know, here we are, here you are So Barbara, I
Speaker 1: go back to how it all began and just paint
Speaker 1: the picture for me. When you and your hobby were
Speaker 1: sitting were you in your living room when you saw
Speaker 1: the TV coverage?
Speaker 2: Actually it was a newspaper article. My husband was going
Speaker 2: out to walk our dog and I picked up the
Speaker 2: newspaper and there on the cover was an article about
Speaker 2: children in Iraq that needed multiple surgeries and they couldn't
Speaker 2: get them. And keep in mind, this was in two
Speaker 2: thousand and six. July sixteenth, two thousand and six, specifically,
Speaker 2: and I was reading the article, and of course there
Speaker 2: was photographs, and I was completely captivated by this one
Speaker 2: little girl who was four years old at that time,
Speaker 2: sitting on her father's lap. And the article said that
Speaker 2: this little girl named Tiba, when she was nineteen months old,
Speaker 2: they had struck an ied bomb and it had severely
Speaker 2: burned her face, her head, and her hands and killed
Speaker 2: her little precious three year old brother. And her eyes
Speaker 2: were so captivating to me, and I couldn't get them
Speaker 2: out of my head, and so I cut the article
Speaker 2: out and put it in my pocket, and I says,
Speaker 2: you know what, I have to try to do something
Speaker 2: to help her. And so the next day I emailed
Speaker 2: the correspondent and Bagdad and asked him.
Speaker 1: I I just want to interject here and ask where
Speaker 1: were you, Barbara in life at that time? You were married, married.
Speaker 2: My husband has three grown children, so they were off
Speaker 2: and getting married and doing their own thing. They were
Speaker 2: starting their lives, and it was just my husband and
Speaker 2: I and I had no previous children of my own.
Speaker 1: Okay, So July sixteenth, two thousand and six, you see
Speaker 1: a little picture. How big was this photograph?
Speaker 2: Oh? The picture of her was maybe I don't know,
Speaker 2: three by three at the.
Speaker 1: Most, okay, and something connected your eyes saw that picture
Speaker 1: of her eyes, and something connected, and you decided that
Speaker 1: God was calling you to make a difference.
Speaker 2: Oh, I knew it. I knew it momentarily. And this
Speaker 2: is going to sound very weird, and sometimes you read
Speaker 2: about this happening to other people, but I really genuinely
Speaker 2: felt like the room had blacked out and all I
Speaker 2: could focus on was Tiba and those eyes. And I
Speaker 2: really felt that we had a connection in that picture.
Speaker 2: And at that moment, it was just one of those
Speaker 2: heart moments. You know, you just know this is what
Speaker 2: you're meant to do. And I never looked back, and
Speaker 2: I never even thought about what it was going to
Speaker 2: take to make it happen. But we just kept going
Speaker 2: forward and never stopped.
Speaker 1: So you see the picture, little girl burned over, you know,
Speaker 1: most of her body. What was the first step that
Speaker 1: you took? Because she was an eye? I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not like you can just pack your bags and go
Speaker 1: on vacation to Iraq and look up this little girl
Speaker 1: and say, you know, your fairy god aunt is here
Speaker 1: and I want to help you.
Speaker 2: Right Well, I will say one thing. Though her body
Speaker 2: was fine, it was just her face, her head in
Speaker 2: her hands. And I contacted I emailed the correspondent bagdad,
Speaker 2: and I said, you know, if I can get her
Speaker 2: the help she needs, would you talk to the family
Speaker 2: Because in the article itself, it talked about her wanting
Speaker 2: to have a wig before she went to school, and
Speaker 2: her dad did say in the article he wanted to
Speaker 2: get her other help. And so the correspondent, of course,
Speaker 2: was surprised that I had even emailed him about it,
Speaker 2: because he had told Tiva's father when they did the
Speaker 2: original interview, don't expect anything, anything short of a miracle,
Speaker 2: to have anybody try to reach out, And so he
Speaker 2: was very surprised when I called, And I probably think
Speaker 2: he thought, well, maybe I was just, you know, trying
Speaker 2: to do something but wouldn't follow through. But I did,
Speaker 2: and I contacted all the people at Rainbow Babies and
Speaker 2: Children's Hospital in Cleveland, and they had agreed that they
Speaker 2: would evaluate her. They couldn't commit to anything because they
Speaker 2: needed to see her. They were just looking at this
Speaker 2: photograph that I presented to them.
Speaker 1: Girlfriend, you are bold. I love your faith, I love
Speaker 1: your boldness. Gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was very bold. I was bold, and I
Speaker 2: don't want to say demanding, but I was so self
Speaker 2: assured that this was going to happen. I just had
Speaker 2: no doubt in my mind and in my heart specifically.
Speaker 2: And there were little signs of things that came along
Speaker 2: the way, and if I may share a couple of
Speaker 2: those with you as we tell our story, but one
Speaker 2: of them was about six months in trying to get
Speaker 2: her here. It was so difficult trying to navigate through
Speaker 2: this political quagmire, and I kept thinking that nobody would
Speaker 2: say no to me, because who's going to resist helping her?
Speaker 2: Look at this little face, right, And so then I
Speaker 2: bought six months into it, still in my driveway, and
Speaker 2: I am screaming at God and I'm blaming him for everything,
Speaker 2: and why aren't you helping me? And what good are you?
Speaker 2: And I'm just ranting like a crazy person. And then
Speaker 2: as I turned to come back in the house, I
Speaker 2: looked down and at my feet in the driveway is
Speaker 2: a golf ball marker and I picked it up and Delilah,
Speaker 2: when I turned it over, it said God loves you.
Speaker 2: And at that moment I knew, I mean, you just know,
Speaker 2: the hair stood up on my neck and on my arms,
Speaker 2: and I started to cry, and I just knew everything
Speaker 2: was going to be okay. And shortly thereafter there were
Speaker 2: certain pieces of the puzzle that fell into place, and
Speaker 2: they're all explained in the book. And the next thing,
Speaker 2: you know, after a few more months and putting a
Speaker 2: few more puzzle pieces together, I get this phone call
Speaker 2: and they say, well, when do you want her? And
Speaker 2: I just dropped to my knees and I just sobbed.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, So did you keep that little that
Speaker 1: little golf ball marker?
Speaker 2: And oh yeah, it's a prized possession. But the odd
Speaker 2: thing is that in my head when they says, well
Speaker 2: when do you want her, I'm like ticking off dates
Speaker 2: in my head and I'm thinking, Okay, we can't do
Speaker 2: the fourth of July because I don't want her to
Speaker 2: come here and hear fireworks and be afraid and bombs
Speaker 2: and you all just sorts of loud noises. So we
Speaker 2: picked a date, and I didn't think anything about the
Speaker 2: date that we picked until probably about two years later,
Speaker 2: when it finally hit me that the day we picked
Speaker 2: was July sixteenth, two thousand and seven, and she arrived
Speaker 2: exactly one year to the day that I read about her.
Speaker 1: Love that love that love that So this little girl
Speaker 1: shows up. She's five now, and what hospital had agreed
Speaker 1: to see her.
Speaker 2: It's University Hospitals, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital.
Speaker 1: So, Tiba, do you remember those first days when you
Speaker 1: first came to the US for Iraq.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do remember it. I remember kind of looking
Speaker 3: around thinking, oh, my goodness, this is crazy. My grandma,
Speaker 3: my dad's mother, came with me. She accompanied me on
Speaker 3: the trip because she didn't want my mother to go
Speaker 3: since she was young and she didn't want her to
Speaker 3: travel alone with me. So my grandmother came with me,
Speaker 3: and we had spent a few like six months in
Speaker 3: Jordan prior to coming to America. Then we landed in Cleveland, Ohio,
Speaker 3: and stayed with the Marlow's, who I now call mom
Speaker 3: and Dad. We stayed with them for a few nights
Speaker 3: and then slept at Ronald McDonald house for a while,
Speaker 3: and then I went back to the Marlowe's house.
Speaker 1: Barbara, did you guys know at that time how long
Speaker 1: the process would be?
Speaker 2: Oh, not at all. I believe that if you are
Speaker 2: confronted with a situation, sometimes if you look at the
Speaker 2: big picture and the magnitude of it, you won't take
Speaker 2: that first step.
Speaker 1: I'm so inspired talking with Barbara and her daughter Tiba today.
Speaker 1: Tiba has grown from a little girl so badly wounded,
Speaker 1: so badly burned, who needed help, to a young woman
Speaker 1: who helps others. And the bond between this mother and daughter,
Speaker 1: the love between these women and Tiba's family, her biological
Speaker 1: family has grown to include so many people, communities, worlds apart.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me today, ladies and sharing your
Speaker 1: beautiful story.
Speaker 3: Yeah. When I was like five or just getting ready
Speaker 3: to make the journey, I was told I was going
Speaker 3: to America for just a few short months because that's
Speaker 3: what my parents figured the surgeries would take. And when
Speaker 3: we got here, doctor Gosain set us straight right away, saying,
Speaker 3: oh no, this is going to take several several procedures
Speaker 3: and many years for recovery as well. So, yeah, none
Speaker 3: of us are expecting it to be that long of
Speaker 3: a process.
Speaker 1: So going from that environment and that atmosphere and that
Speaker 1: culture and the food and your family and your mom
Speaker 1: and dad to coming home to the Marlow's, what was
Speaker 1: that like for your little five year old heart.
Speaker 3: Well, I definitely didn't understand the circumstances I was in.
Speaker 3: I was kind of just, you know, doing whatever my
Speaker 3: grandma told me, so I would just hold her hand
Speaker 3: and we'd walk through everything. But I remember walking in
Speaker 3: the Marlow household and just my jaw dropped because I
Speaker 3: was like, what is this marble floor? This is crazy?
Speaker 3: And I remember the refrigerators and I know I was
Speaker 3: so scared to flush the toilets, and it was just
Speaker 3: a completely new world for me. And being five years old,
Speaker 3: it wasn't very hard for me to assimilate into that
Speaker 3: lifestyle because you know, it was interesting and fun and
Speaker 3: I was I was ready to participate in that. But
Speaker 3: for someone like my grandma, who was my much older
Speaker 3: and way more set in her ways, it was evident
Speaker 3: that she was just like uncomfortable the whole time because
Speaker 3: it was nothing like she was used to. And you
Speaker 3: can't even blame her for that, because she knew what
Speaker 3: she knew, and when it was time for her to
Speaker 3: go back, it was time, you know, because she was
Speaker 3: just so out of place here.
Speaker 1: And that had to be so stressful. To want the
Speaker 1: best for you and want to be your guide and
Speaker 1: help you navigate that and yet being completely out of
Speaker 1: your element, like a fish out of water, not being
Speaker 1: able to breathe, but wanting the best for.
Speaker 2: You, and not speaking and not speaking the language either.
Speaker 1: So, Barbara, how long into the relationship with Tiba and
Speaker 1: her grandma do you think she developed a us enough
Speaker 1: trust in you and your husband that she was able
Speaker 1: to let go of Tiba's hand and put her hand
Speaker 1: in yours, Like, was there a moment, was there a
Speaker 1: defining situation or something that happened where Grandma's soul was
Speaker 1: at peace knowing that she could trust you.
Speaker 2: I do recall that she was having a conversation with
Speaker 2: her son, Tiba's father, and the situation in Iraq was
Speaker 2: pretty dire, and she was very afraid of what was
Speaker 2: going on with her family, and in particular, she was
Speaker 2: trying to reach one son and she could never reach him.
Speaker 2: And her father said, at that point, you know, leave
Speaker 2: Tiba and come home. She's safe, she's with the Marlow's,
Speaker 2: it's all good. And maybe it was at that point.
Speaker 1: So, Barbara, how long was Tiba in your household before
Speaker 1: you finally realized that she's going to be here for
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 2: It was actually after that first doctor's appointment when he
Speaker 2: said years and years and years. And that's when her
Speaker 2: grandmother had that look of shock on her face and said,
Speaker 2: I can't stay here. I have to go. But the
Speaker 2: minute Tiba was in our home, our home changed. It
Speaker 2: was like a home before it was just my husband
Speaker 2: and I and we came and did and whatever, and
Speaker 2: it was different. And Taba brought something into my life
Speaker 2: in particular that I never had before, and that was
Speaker 2: the opportunity to mother her and to take care of her.
Speaker 2: And I just, I mean, I fell in love with
Speaker 2: that photograph before I ever met her. I fell in
Speaker 2: love with her before I ever met her, and it
Speaker 2: was just meant to be. And I remember her grandmother
Speaker 2: left and she's laying in bed, and keep in mind,
Speaker 2: this is a five year old who was just learning English,
Speaker 2: and she says to me and broken English, you know, mom,
Speaker 2: how come you never had any kids? And she says, well,
Speaker 2: my brother and your mother sent me to you to
Speaker 2: be your daughter, and had I mean, I stared at
Speaker 2: her for a minute, and that had to really resonate
Speaker 2: in me because I couldn't imagine what she was saying.
Speaker 2: And then I realized that her the accident was in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, and my mother died in two
Speaker 2: thousand and three, so her brother died also of course then,
Speaker 2: and she's telling me that the two of them in
Speaker 2: heaven are sending her to me to be my daughter.
Speaker 2: And I just broke down because you start to doubt
Speaker 2: yourself that you're looking into things that aren't there, but
Speaker 2: yet they are there, and you go round and round
Speaker 2: with your faith. And one day Tiva was playing with
Speaker 2: these dolls, and everybody would bring her a doll, and
Speaker 2: she started to name them all. And one day she
Speaker 2: names them all Sarah and Anna, and I said, how
Speaker 2: do you know those names, honey? Where did you get
Speaker 2: those names? I don't know. I just like them. So
Speaker 2: I get this picture and I said, honey, these are
Speaker 2: my grandmothers. Their names are Sarah and Anna, and I
Speaker 2: was closer to them than my parents. And yet those
Speaker 2: are the only two names that she picks out of
Speaker 2: the sky to name all of her dolls.
Speaker 1: All along the way, it sounds like God was giving
Speaker 1: you very clear signs.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, very very clear. And her mother got some
Speaker 2: very clear signs too. So when we were able to,
Speaker 2: over the years have conversations about it. It was amazing how
Speaker 2: so many of the things that happened on her end
Speaker 2: in Iraq and that happened to me here were parallel.
Speaker 1: Hardest thing to give up, Barbara, when you became a
Speaker 1: mom to Tiba, what was the hardest thing for you
Speaker 1: to transition going from the life that you knew before,
Speaker 1: Like you said, your house was a house, to it
Speaker 1: becoming a home with this precious little girl.
Speaker 2: Well, I was fifty two years old when Tiva came,
Speaker 2: and so you would imagine that by then I'd be
Speaker 2: pretty set in my ways. But I have to tell
Speaker 2: you there wasn't anything that I had a hard time
Speaker 2: giving up. There wasn't anything that mattered more than her.
Speaker 2: And I mean I mean if I had to like
Speaker 2: dig super super deep, I mean, yeah, maybe the ability
Speaker 2: to come and go freely wasn't there anymore, But that
Speaker 2: wasn't even a big deal because I really would have
Speaker 2: rather spent time with her than anybody else. You know,
Speaker 2: I tell her that this day, I'd rather be with
Speaker 2: her than with anyone.
Speaker 1: I kind of set you up for that because I
Speaker 1: work with kids in foster care and I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to encourage people to consider building a family through adopting
Speaker 1: kids out of foster care, and they come back with
Speaker 1: I can't I'm forty, I'm forty five years old, I
Speaker 1: can't start now, And you just said the truth. The
Speaker 1: reality is it's a joy to make that sacrifice.
Speaker 2: You know, with Tiba, why would you want to miss
Speaker 2: on an opportunity to have someone like her in your
Speaker 2: life just because you think you're too old or you
Speaker 2: think you can't because they bring so much more to you.
Speaker 1: So, Tiba, you hear your mama bragging about you like this,
Speaker 1: how does that make you feel in your heart to
Speaker 1: know that you have that kind of unconditional love behind you.
Speaker 3: It puts a smile on my face. And when I
Speaker 3: hear my mom Barbara say these things, I know also
Speaker 3: my mom back home is saying the same things. Because
Speaker 3: both my mothers they're very connected, and they both show
Speaker 3: me so much unconditional love. And it's something I'll forever
Speaker 3: be grateful for because I know there are so many
Speaker 3: kids in this world that don't even have one mom,
Speaker 3: and my heart breaks for them. But also I'm just
Speaker 3: counting my blessings because I got two moms that brag
Speaker 3: about me all the time, and it gets annoying sometimes,
Speaker 3: but I just I know it's.
Speaker 1: So annoying because they love me. So annoying to know
Speaker 1: that they see all the good and all the value
Speaker 1: in me because you're not just You're not a typical
Speaker 1: young woman. You're very ambitious, you're very well spoken. You
Speaker 1: do speaking engagements, and you have used your challenges to
Speaker 1: motivate other young people. Share with our listeners some of
Speaker 1: the cool things Tiba, that you've done. I mean, besides
Speaker 1: helping to write a book that I think is going
Speaker 1: to be a bestseller.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I did help my mom write that book,
Speaker 3: but that's mostly her book. I've done, like you said,
Speaker 3: many speaking engagements for fundraisers or for just public events
Speaker 3: that I've helped my mom out with, and I speak
Speaker 3: to encourage. Well, my goal is to encourage the children
Speaker 3: who are in situations that I know all too well,
Speaker 3: and so I'll speak for hospitals and whatever, and I
Speaker 3: get to tell the children, hey, I know it's hard,
Speaker 3: but I beg you to hold on. And I've also
Speaker 3: I'm a youth youth Ambassador for the Iraqi Children Foundation,
Speaker 3: so my mom's part of that organization as well. But
Speaker 3: it helps these displaced children in in Iraq that don't
Speaker 3: really have anywhere to go, don't have an education, and
Speaker 3: don't have any legal help. So we've been able to speak,
Speaker 3: behalf of them and help them.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the reasons I wanted to do
Speaker 1: a podcast in addition to my regular show is because
Speaker 1: I believe that everybody Barbara has that thing in their heart.
Speaker 1: Regardless of where you live or what your faith is,
Speaker 1: there is something in our heart that wants to make
Speaker 1: the world a better place, a kinder place. But a
Speaker 1: lot of people are afraid to step out on faith
Speaker 1: and take that first step. A lot of people think
Speaker 1: I could never do this, And you looked at a
Speaker 1: picture in a newspaper and found the strength and the
Speaker 1: courage you and your family to move forward confidently. Like
Speaker 1: you said, who could turn that beautiful face down to
Speaker 1: be proactive? What would you say to a person who's
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast right now, who might have a
Speaker 1: passion for children, displace children, for animals, for our environment.
Speaker 1: What would you say to them when that voice pops
Speaker 1: up in their head and says, oh, you could, you
Speaker 1: could never do that? What do you say to them?
Speaker 2: I think that you don't have to. Maybe go across
Speaker 2: the country like I did, and this was my calling.
Speaker 2: You could do something in your own community. Like I said,
Speaker 2: don't look at the big picture, look at what you
Speaker 2: can do immediately, and then it's not so overwhelming. But
Speaker 2: you can do it. And it doesn't always mean because
Speaker 2: we are not people of means by any stretch, So
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean that you have to have lots of money,
Speaker 2: but it's a gift of time and effort and holding
Speaker 2: somebody's hand and just being a voice for them or
Speaker 2: a voice for them that they can listen to. Tee.
Speaker 1: But when you were younger and you would look in
Speaker 1: the mirror and see what had happened because of the
Speaker 1: ied and the burns, did you ever imagine that you
Speaker 1: would be the face that encourages so many other young people.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I was actually looking in the mirror and saying, twenty
Speaker 3: years from now, hopefully my scars will go away. And
Speaker 3: as I've gotten older, I realized that's just not something
Speaker 3: that's gonna happen. It will never happen. But I've also
Speaker 3: come to realize that's not necessarily a bad thing, because,
Speaker 3: like you said, I can provide that solace and that
Speaker 3: help for other children and that encouragement that they need.
Speaker 3: So if I have to be burdened, I guess with
Speaker 3: these scars, then okay, because at least it's benefiting other people.
Speaker 3: So it's okay if twenty years from now they're not disappearing.
Speaker 1: How many surgeries have you faced, Eva?
Speaker 3: Nineteen surgeries?
Speaker 2: Wow, she's so different now than when she had that
Speaker 2: first accident with some of these scars. You know, I've
Speaker 2: always told her nobody's perfect. I mean, so many of us.
Speaker 2: As we get older, you have more ugly, hairy, dark spots,
Speaker 2: splotchy wrinkles, whatever that comes out, and nobody's perfect. And
Speaker 2: that her scars speak volumes as to me, to her
Speaker 2: character and the type of person that she is, and
Speaker 2: she should hold her head up high.
Speaker 1: So the book is called A Brave Face, and Tiba,
Speaker 1: your beautiful face is on the cover, and I had
Speaker 1: to blow the picture up to wrap my head around
Speaker 1: the fact that you were once terribly disfigured. Because the
Speaker 1: face that I see is so beautiful and the same
Speaker 1: eyes that captured your mama's heart, Barbara's heart. Man, those
Speaker 1: eyes are gorgeous, girlfriend. Thank you, They go all the
Speaker 1: way to your soul.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: All right, So if somebody wants to get involved, plug
Speaker 1: into the Iraqi Children's Foundation, how do they do that?
Speaker 2: The best thing is the five k is this summer
Speaker 2: and they could be part of Team Tiba. And if
Speaker 2: you just go to Iraqi children dot org or just
Speaker 2: google the Iraqi Children's Foundation, it'll come up. And if
Speaker 2: they want to be part of Team Tiba, we welcome everyone.
Speaker 1: And if they can't get to where that five K is,
Speaker 1: how could they organize one in their school?
Speaker 2: They could, They could organize anything and all that money
Speaker 2: could go towards Team Tiba, or they can just make
Speaker 2: a donation and we would list them as a participant
Speaker 2: as part of Tiba's Team Tiba.
Speaker 1: What do you hope that you are able to do
Speaker 1: for other young people?
Speaker 3: I hope I am able to provide that encouragement and
Speaker 3: be that voice that's saying, hey, you can do this.
Speaker 3: You don't have to listen to that other voice saying
Speaker 3: you can't, because there's nothing stopping you. And my mom
Speaker 3: has deff shown that. And I also hope, especially for
Speaker 3: young girls, that when they look into the mirror, they're
Speaker 3: not saying twenty years from now, I want my flaws
Speaker 3: to disappear. I hope I can make these girls realize
Speaker 3: nothing needs to change and that they're beautiful regardless. And
Speaker 3: although that's something I'm still learning, I'm very grateful for
Speaker 3: the experiences that have led me to being able to
Speaker 3: cope with that and say, hey, it's.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, thank you for spending this time with me.
Speaker 1: You are both lovely.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Pray that many people pick up a brave face, and
Speaker 1: I pray that God just continues to open doors and
Speaker 1: use you both to impact the world for good.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's our goal, that's our mission. Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Barbara Marlowe had no special skills, no knowledge about Iraq,
Speaker 1: about IED's. She had never parented children. She wasn't a mom.
Speaker 1: She didn't have any medical knowledge. She didn't know how
Speaker 1: to raise children, especially children who were disabled or wounded.
Speaker 1: But she fell into the eyes of a wounded little
Speaker 1: Iraqi girl photographed setting in her father's lap. The fact
Speaker 1: that she didn't have any skills, any knowledge, any information,
Speaker 1: any political clout did not stop her from deciding that
Speaker 1: she was going to try to do something to help Tiba.
Speaker 1: That July day, she read about her in the newspaper
Speaker 1: she did help her, and in doing so, discovered so
Speaker 1: much about herself, such as her own tenacity when faced
Speaker 1: with insurmountable obstacles, her ability to navigate complicated situations, and
Speaker 1: her capacity for loving. I'm so very inspired by their
Speaker 1: story told in their book A Brak Face, released by
Speaker 1: HarperCollins on March twelfth. I know you will be too.
Speaker 1: Please pick up a copy today. I'm grateful that they
Speaker 1: shared their story and their time with us. Grateful too
Speaker 1: for my sponsor, the Home Depot, who made all of
Speaker 1: this possible. I hope today's episode of Love Someone inspired you,
Speaker 1: encouraged you to follow the whisper in your heart. Tell
Speaker 1: your friends about my podcast series Love Someone with Delilah
Speaker 1: and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you again real soon.
Speaker 3: Be Loo