God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change… are the words that echo through my being when I think of Raindrops. See, life sometimes has unexpected storms in store, and regardless of how hard we try to protect ourselves from it, the storm appears to be stronger and can consequently defeat us. These poetic moments are raindrops during one of my life's storms. Each and every one is a moment lived, raw and unedited…written as it happened. Even though the story reaches a different ending than one initially hoped and fought for, it proves that, in life, there is a time to confront the storm, but there is also a time when we must get the "…courage to change the things we can." And with doing that, as long as we have "…the wisdom to know the difference," it makes the journey through the storm all the more worthwhile. Then, and only then, sunshine breaks through.

With all my love,

Besa Kosova

A novel that tells the story of what life in Kosovo had to offer before America and the world heard about the troubles in the Balkans. My story is set during the Milosevic era, months before the war begins and touches effects that it had in one adolescent life. Eliana, the narrator, an Albanian seventeen-year-old female is raped by both Albanian traitors and Serb terrorists. The uniqueness of her story, however, is that a Serbian native rescues her during rape. Later, is aided by a Serbian woman to cross the border posing as a Serb woman. Lilly, Eliana's best friend is also an Albanian seventeen year old, but unlike Eliana she is a victim of the bloody war. Lilly has a boyfriend, which is not only tragic to be dating before marriage, but a death in its own to be dating a man that comes from a well-known family of traitors. She later is raped and found dead in the city bushes. Ben, Eliana's boyfriend, at the age of eighteen is drafted by the Serbian Army to fight against his people and is not as fortunate as Eliana to escape Kosovo. Just when Eliana arrives in America (the end of the book) Ben returns home in a closed casket. The Serbian government claims he committed suicide. A week after the burial the casket is open and it is found that five bullets entered through his back, which proves his suicide impossible. And the rest of my story? Just ask.