A crying child connected the dots.

 

 A crying child connected the dots.

When I was seven I made this really vivid memory.  It's a big deal
that I remember this because I'm notorious for forgetting
everything.   Lisa and Mindy (my cousins) are constantly reminding me
of stories that I can't recall (maybe they just make them up).  My
memory is just bad all-around though.  I swear if we did research
that my memory would have fewer slots than the other people in the
study.   Anyhow......
The memory that I have is breaking down, crying and running after my
parents who were leaving town for a week.   We were left at my
grandparents house, which I loved, but for some reason I just got all
panicked that they were leaving me and I literally ran after their
car as it drove down Katie Lane, away from little me.
This morning I saw it all happen again.  Jolie (my mother here) and
Samedi  (the father) were heading out to go to the market on the
moto.   Armelle (3) was going to stay home with one of the other
older girls but as the moto started up, Armelle started gushing tears
and gasping out sobs.  She ran after the departing moto and her
little naked body just reached out all abondoned-like.   I went over
and picked her up like I remember someone doing for me.   She just
buried her little head in my T-shirt and cried.  For some reason, it
just brought back that memory like I was watching it in film form.
Put something else in her mind, Emily.  So I said, "Armelle!  Come
see my hut!"   We went in (this is a special thing because the kids
don't come in my hut (they get a bit mobbish when they do) and I
found her a ball to play with.   Then, I showed her my new tent that
Jacob left for me when he went back to America.  It's completely made
out of mesh so it keeps the bugs out but you can see through the
walls and you have good ventilation.   Anyway, we climbed in the tent
and sat on the hard ground (the africans sleep on hard ground...I
thought I could too...but after three nights my back really kind of
aches).   She loved it.   I think it felt like a fort because she
kept looking up and touching the walls.  Soon, Dinga, came to my door
and so we invited her in.   Then another came in.  And then
another.   Soon people were smashed up against the walls of the tent
and i started thinking maybe we should get out.  :)  But just then
Jolie and Samedi got back from the market.  They parked the moto
right outside my hut and as they looked in they both burst into
laughter...a bit shocked at all of us in my tent.  These are the
funny little things that I believe God works through to draw lines
between his people to get them all connected again.   I can just
imagine how frustrating it would be to be a spider and have someone
walk through your web and break all the little strings that you spun
all night from branch to branch.   And God must feel the same.
It seriously has been one of my most valued lessons yet here in
Chad.   I can get through anything when my connections to my
incredibly (insert words I don't have here) God and the people He's
put around me......are in strong!  Life starts to have perfect
meaning and rich definition.   It might even explode out of the
dictionary because there wouldn't be a definition that could wrap up
all of the facets of blessings that would exist.  I've written about
connection time and time again but it just means so much to me here.