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| Kids saying goodbye to new friends |
Kids working ...
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| Geronne |
This week we had the pleasure of meeting the amazing people that will one day welcome Moses into their family officially. He is definitely already in their hearts, but on paper there is some work to be done.
Today after we brought them (Moses' adoptive parents) to the airport (see photo at top) we went to the soccer field in our neighborhood to run free for a bit. Sometimes this goes really well and is great fun. Other times kids or teenagers come mock and tease and try to walk off with our soccer ball. Today was a good day at the soccer field. We ran and ran until we were soaked in sweat and ready to walk home.
Once home we had lunch and decided that painting a wall together would be fun. (?)
Everyone had a paint brush. Everyone had a small dish of their own paint. Everyone had a section of wall that was to be their responsibility. We use that word loosely in these parts.
The first to drop out was Noah, at about the twenty minute mark. About five minutes after Noah bailed, Isaac left us too. This left the girls to smack-talk and gloat about our superior work ethic for a little while.
Geronne explained that painting is not something women would get to do where she is from and she liked that the system we have allows women to do painting work. She joined us right away. I pondered that for a bit. I'm all for gender equity, but what if I could get out of painting (or worse jobs) based on a cultural rule of that sort? The more I thought about it the more I realized we already have some pretty great rules in place. Women (named Tara) don't do the work of catching rodents at my house. I'd vote for inequality over and over again long before I'd be a part of moving a refrigerator and watching the mouse or rat scurry out from underneath it. That's man work for sure.
Lydia and Phoebe stuck with it for a lot longer than I would have ever guessed they would. They headed to the bath tub to get cleaned off after about 45 minutes of "work". Hope and Geronne and I worked our magic until the portion we planned to paint was covered well.
Having the kids (and Geronne) paint was partially about allowing them to be part of a group project and partially to learn exactly how patient I can be. I'm just gonna go ahead and congratulate myself here and now. I inspired me today.
Noah spent more time choosing his painting shirt and making his demands to create a painting utopia for himself than he did painting. I laughed at such folly. Isaac stepped back into the paint tray when he came down off a ladder. I chuckled. Lydia poured her paint on the driveway as she walked away with her container in her hand. I chortled. Geronne basically swung her paint brush like a baseball bat. If you were to come to my driveway and run random circles around the entire width of my yard I could probably spill less paint trying to paint you than Geronne spills while painting an inanimate object. I didn't get annoyed or tell anyone I did not want help. I simply watched and marveled at what I was seeing. I also thought, "My Dad could literally not be here right now. This.would.kill.him."
You know what? I never got witchy with anyone. I let them paint and didn't correct any of their crappy techniques.
At the end of the day we all felt pretty good about our uber white cement wall. We showed Troy which parts belonged to which worker and waited on his affirmation. He sort of delivered. He was a bit distracted by all the paint on the ground.
In other news:
- Tomorrow we will say goodbye to Dr. Jen for a bit as she heads back to her other field of practice.
- It has been almost a month since a baby has been delivered at Heartline. We're looking at a possibility of some craziness in July. If someone comes tonight, we're all feeling ready to roll. :)
- The day by day and hour by hour countdown that Isaac is overseeing and announcing randomly tells me that Tina (my sister) and Matt (my brother in law) and Aidan (my nephew) will be here in approximately 70 hours. Never a more highly anticipated event in Isaac's life. We are all very excited, Isaac is just MORE excited.
