Ingrid is FREE!

Today Ingrid Betancourt was freed from 6 years of captivity during a super cool undercover military operation. I think Ingrid rocks. She is a French/Colombian woman who fought very hard in Colombia against the drug cartels and corruption. She knew she was in danger as she ran for president on this anti-drug platform. She was kidnapped by rebel forces on election day in May of 2002. Her husband, mother, and two children have been marching and demonstrating all over the world to try to get her freed. And now, FINALLY, she is! Even after 6 years, she still aspires to help change her country. She is a pretty amazing woman.

Three Americans and 11 other hostages were rescued during this operation, in which rebel leaders were tricked into relinquishing them and they were rescued with out a single shot fired. I can't wait to read her book that she will most surely write about her time in captivity and her rescue.

She was put onto a helicopter, thinking that she was being taken to another part of the jungle and explains "The chief of the operation said, 'We're the national army. You're free,'" she said. "The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn't believe it."

Can you imagine being kept a prisoner and treated cruelly for SIX years? She was often forced to sleep with a chain around her neck.

I'm not sure why this story touches me so much. But it does and I wanted to capture it, also, for journal purposes to remember things that are happening around the world.

I don't know if its okay for me to just steal these news photos, but I will anyway. The first is a photo that was released from the rebels in 2007. The second is Ingrid with her mother as she walks off the plane after her rescue.