The sign on Beth’s office door was clear, “Don’t disturb me unless you’re willing to write a profile for one of the children we need to get posted on our website ASAP.”

She was busy, but I tapped on her door anyway. She and others had a deadline they intended to keep. All of the 256 newly referred children would have photographs and profiles on our website within the month.

Writing the profile to accompany each photograph takes time. When they read the stories of the children, staff members often stop and think. Or cry.

Beth reached for a photograph and piece of paper. She read the words of a seven year old girl who desperately needed a family, “I’ve been through the world a lot of times. My heart is crinkled.”

When a catastrophe happens, the news media lead a giant wave of response. One after another we step forward to help bring order. We each do our part to provide food, clothing, water, shelter and employment for the victims.

That’s a good thing. But it isn’t enough. All too soon another calamity will erupt in another part of the world. And before we know it, we’ll be distracted from the heartbreak of the last one while we pour our energy into the next.

Sometimes the tragedies come a little at a time. It may be a series of violent acts putting one family on the front pages. Perhaps years of gross neglect combine with social and behavioral circumstances to come crashing together and a sibling group can no longer live with their birth family. Or it may be a natural disaster that strikes hundreds at one time.

One thing these tragedies have in common is that the real healing and rebuilding takes days, months, years, decades. After the disaster there is work to be done.