The Joy of Children

Yesterday God sent a life preserver in a most lovely way-through children! I'm happiest when I'm surrounded by children and cats. There are very few cats here, but there are children. The children here are not like the kids at home. These kids tend to be cautious. It's hard to get even a smile from a child here. Yesterday, however, was different.
The day started with our own wonderful child. Kalina's personality has been magnified since she turned 5 months old last Friday. It's really amazing to me! Suddenly she has become so much more interactive and personable. When we first got her, she didn't enjoy cuddling very much. She would snuggle while drinking her bottle, but that was about it. I brought a couple of baby wraps from home so that I could carry her close to my body. She wanted nothing to do with those and would wail whenever I would try to put her in them. If I held her upright against me, she would push back from my body with both of her tiny hands. She has always seemed happy and healthy, so I just decided that she had a bit of an independent personality as she continued this pattern for the next two months. Now, however, she has suddenly started to enjoy being affectionate with us. She sleeps between Nadeem and me at night, and when she woke up yesterday, she rolled over to me with a huge grin and tried to hug onto me. She's learning how hugs work. Now when I feed her, she puts one arm around me like she's hugging me and she holds my hand with her other hand. She no longer wants to nap by herself. She wants to be held in our arms, pressed close against us. She'll wiggle until she gets as close as she can be with her little face pressed against our chests.
Nadeem escorted the ladies on their day-long shopping expedition yesterday, so Kalina and I spent the whole day together. It was delightful! She's so curious now. She sat in my lap while I ate my lunch and watched everything. She loves water in glasses and really wants to drink some! She's strong, and she'll pull the glass towards her mouth. We supervise and let her try, but usually her outfit gets most of the water. For the past couple of days, she has been making chewing motions with her mouth after watching us eat.
She wants to know about everything. When she sees or hears something new, she turns to me with this cute, curious expression. I tell her what it is, and I also give her an idea of how to respond. She takes her cues from me. If I smile, then she smiles and relaxes, too. In our bathroom here, when you run the water in the sink, after a minute you hear the water run through pipes by the toilet. The first time she heard this, she was really startled. She jumped and looked at me with a scared look. I told her what was happening and gave her a smile. Ohhh! Then she gave me a huge smile and a little squirm. I repeated the process, and this time she looked at me waiting to hear the sound of water through the pipes after a minute. We heard the sound, she looked at me, I smiled again, and she gave me a huge grin!
She's the queen of rolling now. Yesterday she rolled over to sleep on her stomach when I put her down for a nap and when it was bedtime. She rolls happily all during the day. Kalina has a motto: "Why lay down when you can sit? Why sit when you can stand?" I'm afraid her next motto will be: "Why stand when you can walk?" It's a great motto, but I'm afraid she'll have it by tomorrow! She desperately wants to walk and crawl and MOVE!
In the afternoon I took Kalina up to the roof of our apartment building. It's the only place we can safely go outside except on occasion when we get to go to the lake to walk. The roof is not a pleasant place, but at least we can get fresh air and see the blue sky. The roof has a concrete floor with pipes running across it, making it hard to use her stroller. Usually we just hold Kalina. There are laundry lines hanging everywhere. Often the servants are there, and they follow us around trying to hold Kalina.
Yesterday when we arrived, a group of children were playing. They are now on winter break for the next month, ordered by the government because of the upcoming elections, riots, road closings, and dangerous conditions (another concern to give to God). Shortly after we got to the roof, Nadeem came home and joined us. The kids were playing badminton with some battered equipment and no net. They were very excited to see us and smiled. Some of the servants have children who also work-doing laundry, taking care of younger children, and such. One servant boy, Abdul Kareem, really likes Kalina. He calls her "baby" and tries to hold her hand. I sat down with Kalina to watch them play. She was fascinated! I think she was more intrigued with watching my response. Nadeem joined them in their game, and I cheered, clapped, and laughed. Kalina kept studying my face very intently. She has never seen anything like this. The servant boy then showed us how he can do cartwheels. All the kids gathered around us and told us their names. It was a taste of home!
I also had a piece of a vision restored. I could picture Kalina at home with us seeing her parents and her world in a whole new way. Sometimes I feel guilty here because I don't feel like myself. I'm not very happy. I don't laugh or feel relaxed like I do at home. In our home, I'm creative. I listen to music a lot and even play the piano a little. I'm usually surrounded by cats and children. Kalina hasn't seen any of this, yet she's unbelievably happy. How fun and wonderful it will be to show her a different side to her parents and some of the beautiful parts of being at home! For all my young athlete friends, Kalina and I will come watch you play!
I received a sweet homemade card from Matee, my 11 year old English speaking friend. It read, "If you are alone I will be your shadow. If you want a hug I will be your pillow. If you need to be happy I will be your smile. But anytime you need a friend it will be just me." Talk about experiencing some of God's joy!
We received so many heartfelt, touching, encouraging comments in response to my blog posting from yesterday. One of my favorites is from one of my young friends who wrote that she hopes I feel better soon! The hearts of children are so precious to me!
We continue to face obstacles. The packages are still being held by Customs. Hasan's dad spent two hours out of his workday trying to get the package yesterday. They gave him the run-around and sent him to three different locations. Today he's going back, probably with Nadeem, to try to get the first package. The other is still in Customs. Nadeem feels terrible that our host family is now having to deal with this. He told them to just forget about it. Now we've learned that we can't forget about it, that the family will get in trouble for ignoring Customs. Crazy! Oorah Boorah!
Meanwhile, on the home front, the senator's aides told my mother that immigration said that the fingerprints belonging to Nadeem Kaiser that were cleared on November 24 belong to another Nadeem Kaiser, even though this set has our Nadeem's social security number, proper dates and history, and childhood name attached to them. Angela's sister-in-law explained that the departments don't communicate, and when senators and heads of departments get involved, it actually slows down the process. I'm not sure it could get any slower! We're enormously thankful to Senator Isakson and his staff because they enabled us to have our fingerprints taken here. If it weren't for them, the process wouldn't be slow. It would be non-existant! The new set FedEx'd from here to Nebraska supposedly is being processed this week. Can we have a repeat of Oorah Boorah?! Guess who's here in Bangladesh for three days? McCain! Maybe he can help with some of this oorah boorah nonsense!
I want to close with a beautiful prayer from a missionary held as a Prisoner of War during WWII. The camp was plagued with dysentery, and everyone infected, including babies and children, were quarantined and starved until the diarrhea stopped. The mothers were so distraught as they looked at their children's eyes filled with hurt and confusion. The missionary encouraged the mothers that the children still knew they were loved. Here is the prayer she prayed when she didn't understand God's dealings with her:
"Be patient, Father. Forgive my tears and whimperings. Just let me feel Your arms of love about me. Then my heart shall understand. I shall stop my questioning and know that You mean it unto good."
"You shall surround me with songs of deliverance." -Psalm 32:7b