My Best Friend at GLA

Allow me to introduce to my best friend here at GLA. Her name is Lilly, and she is a kindred spirit. This girl and I bonded from the first day that I was here. She has a full head of the most gorgeous red, curly hair – it looks identical to the hair of the little heroine from Pixar's Brave. I enjoy her company greatly and value all of the time I spend with her. She is four years old, and she has an imagination strikingly similar to the imagination of four year-old Kathryn. Her intelligence, her comprehension of concepts, her inquisitive and analytical mind, and her ability to imagine far exceeds that of a typical four year-old. My day gets quite a bit better when I hear her little feet come pattering up the stairs as she comes up to see me on the balcony.

She loves my babies too. She loves helping me watch them, and play with them. She is very kind and considerate of their needs, and is always asking if they want some water, or if she can get them a toy, or if they can have a treat. We love to go on imaginative exploits together. The two of us have been to China on a flying carpet despite the many perils of flying carpet escapades over the Pacific Ocean, we've rescued a whole family of ducks (names: Mommy Duck, Buster, Lisa, Laura, Keeny, and Peeny) from the vices of an evil shark, and in between the wild adventures, we tend to the mundane necessities of life such as grocery shopping and cooking and eating and cleaning. We also have the best discussions. Everything with Lilly can be turned into an adventure, including climbing up the stairs which were insurmountably gigantic mountains that we had to overcome in order to find the treasure at the top. Part of the fun is that 50% of these are my brilliant ideas, and 50% of them are her brilliant ideas. We make the best kind of imaginative team. Lilly is also a wonderful conversationalist with a fantastic ability to focus very hard on one topic for an incredibly lengthy amount of time. We've had theologically deep conversations about Heaven and about the characteristics of God, we've talked about what it means to be a baby at GLA and what it means to be adopted by God, and she's asked questions about my family and life at home more than anyone else here has so far.

She also has many interesting perspectives regarding America. For instance, one day, she very solemnly beckoned me over to the toy keyboard. “I have a secret to tell you,” she whispered, “this song, this song is only in Haiti.” There was a dramatic pause as she peered about the room to make sure no one was eavesdropping on our conversation before she continued, “Nobody in America knows about this song. Nobody.” She pushed a button, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star began to merrily play. You Americans are missing out. But people in Colorado Springs can know about the song, because Colorado Springs, which is where her family is originally from, is not a part of America. It is evidently its own entity in and of itself. Oh and in America, they have real live mermaids. She saw them once at a museum.

My favorite way to spend lunch breaks is giving her my undivided attention, since during the day, I have to often let her play on her own while I tend to my charges. (At one point, we did have to have a conversation about how Kathryn can't always play with Lilly, because even though she loves playing with Lilly, that was not the reason Kathryn came to Haiti.) She loves photobooth, and we've taken quite a number of goofy pictures. She calls it “two heads” since her favorite effect is the mirror effect that produces two of everything. As soon as I get down to the kitchen for lunch, she starts jumping up and down shouting, “Two heads! Two heads! Two heads!” She has also kindly agreed to be my photographer. I taught her how to use my camera, and she takes surprisingly good pictures of me and my babies, as well as anything else picture worthy. And everything that isn't picture worthy too for that matter, but that's the beauty of digital cameras!

On Friday, I told her the story of Narnia. She had never heard it before, and she was utterly transfixed as I told in great detail about the grand adventures of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy and the White Witch and the great long winter that had lasted for 100 years with no Christmas. I know few children her age who would be able to focus on the story like she did and track all of it without any kind of visual aids. We sadly didn't quite get to finish the story, because it was time for her to go home. Aslan had just died, and Lucy and Susan were spending the night crying on his dead body. For the full effect, I probably should have let her go home believing Aslan had died, but her little face was so distraught I just couldn't do it. So I told her about how at the break of dawn, the stone table cracked and Aslan came back to life. Exuberance ensued.

She is the best kind of companion, and life is much better with her by my side.