Stop and smell the roses...and rain!

Rainy season is officially upon us. Well, it’s been here for a few months now but it was a come and go thing.

Yesterday, it poured, heavy downfalls. It rained even in to the early morning. I loved it. I love the sound of the rain on the roof; I love the smell of the rain. It’s not like the wormy spring smell that we get back in Canada; here it’s a fresh scent.

There’s a comfort in the sound of the rain; especially in the evenings. The chill that’s in the air and the security of being under the heaviness of my blankets pulled up to my chin, my head drowning in one pillow, while I wrap my arms around another one.

Every morning at 6:00 am, the birds begin to chirp. Without looking at my phone to see the time, I know that it’s 6:00 because I can hear the beautiful different sounds of the birds.

There are mornings where I hear the dogs whining and I know Timo, our little monkey, is in the yard and the dogs are desperately trying to play with him. They don’t dare take their eyes off of Timo, fearing they may lose the opportunity to get him.

The other morning, Timo was in the tree next to the guy’s house (that overhangs our walkway to the door). I went in to our pantry and grabbed a banana and went and stood under the tree. I shooed the dogs away, peeled back the banana and called Timo’s name. He came “tarzaning” over to the edge, only a foot or so above my eye level and looked at me, his head tilted. I lifted up the banana to him; he grabbed the top of the banana with his cute little hands and put the banana in his mouth. I sat in amazement that I was about a foot away from him, watching him eat and not an ounce bit afraid of those massive fangs that were chomping down on the banana.

When Timo finished that piece, he tilted his head at me again, telling me that he was ready for more. I peeled back the skin of the banana a bit more and reached up to him. He took the rest of the banana and repeated his chewing. He looked down at my hand, realizing that he had finished the banana. Then he “tarzaned” away.

I watched him jump from one branch to one tree to another tree. He traveled from the front of our compound to the back of it, never once touching the ground but flying through the air in to the branches of the trees.

We have this huge beautiful tree on our compound with the most beautiful purple flowers on it. Right now, it’s in bloom and the flowers are bright and plenty. We have the same tree above our compound gate. If you tell someone we live at the house with the purple trees, they know exactly where it is. The one in the yard is so big, it can be seen over the fences and hedges and the one in front of our gate is so bright as well, it’s the only one in our community.

There’s a species of bird that is in our yard every day. It’s a gorgeous smooth black bird with a bright yellow face and a dark red feathered head. When it flies, the underarms of the wings are the same dark red that is so vibrant across the sky when the wings are spread out. We have these sweet little, bright yellow birds that love to bathe in our bird bath.

It’s beautiful; absolutely beautiful.

Then there’s the children. There’s a beauty that can’t even be described.

We recently added a grandmother with five grandchildren in to our program. When we went and visited her and the situation was so sad. The six of them live in a falling apart one-room mud home with tin roof. There is one bed with an old, stained, thin mattress. There are two wood couches with thin cushions for seating. This bed and two couches are the beds for the six in the household. The bedroom, sitting room and kitchen are all the same room.

The two youngest boys, Kevin and Joshua were home when we visited them for the first time, the others were at school. They were extremely nervous and scared when we arrived; probably their first time experience with white people. After a few minutes, Kevin warmed up to me, sat on my lap and even allowed me to cover him in kisses, while he laughed like crazy, showing his front-toothless grin. Joshua was a little hesitant until I pulled out the handy dandy digital camera, took a picture of him and then showed him the picture of himself.

We put the five children on our website and within a week, they were all sponsored. This month (this week), was our first food delivery to their home. The grandmother was beside herself; full of thanks for that she could now feed her grandchildren, that she could now have soap to wash the grandchildren and their clothes. We are also looking in to relocating them to another home, a better, more secure home.

It reminds me of all we take for granted. The beauty of what God created around us; the sound of the rain, the smell of the rain, the sound of the birds, food in our stomachs, soap to wash our bodies and homes that don’t have gapping holes in the sides or in the roof where the rain pours in like there isn’t a roof at all.

In moments when I cry because my heart has broken from something said, seen or done; in moments, when I wonder where God is, I look at the things surrounding me, I look in the eyes of a child and I see His beauty, I see His love.

So take a moment and do as the saying says: “Stop and smell the roses.” Take time to enjoy the things around you, the people around you. Thank God for what He has created, for what He has given you. Tell the ones you love that you love them. Don’t take them for granted. Show them that you love them. Be thankful because we have been given so much and sometimes don’t realize it.

So with that said, I am thankful for you. And to my family and friends, I love you so much. Thank you for being a part of my life and my journey.

This is Kevin. I love the front toothless grin. :-)

This is Joshua, posing for the handy dandy digital camera.

This is the grandmother with her grandchildren:

(Phylis, Edwin, Joshua, Kevin and Adelide)