I've been watching that come true, painfully, over the last three years - every time I had to leave these beautiful babies, and I'd come back six months later to children utterly transformed, grown tall and strong and more gorgeous than I could have imagined. And now that I don't have to leave anymore, it feels like we have all the time in the world - like I don't have to write anything down because they'll stay with me forever now, and when you're watching the changes close up they blur and disappear.
But that's not how it works - they've been home six weeks, and I've mostly just been trying to survive, lacking the time or energy to chronicle it. And already I can look back to a few months ago when I arrived and see how they've grown. Day by day I can hear their English vocabulary improving - day by day they say funny, adorable things as they figure out how this new language thing works. It's beautiful and incredible and I don't want to miss it just because I'm trying to keep my head above water.
It's not all perfect. In 4 months I've gone from an engaged graduate student living in London to a married mom of two, with two kittens and a house, living in Tanzania, running a nonprofit basically single-handedly, and trying desperately to figure it all out as I go. I have made and will make mistakes, and probably lots of them. Hopefully some of those reading these posts will have advice, ideas, or even just sympathy - reaching a digital hand across an ocean or two.
So here goes - trying to capture some of these moments with my brand new, crazy instafamily. And to share those moments with our amazing family and friends who are so ridiculously far away. Time to stop trying to do this all alone.
Quote of the day:
Me: "Why is the cat wet?"
Zi: "I spit on it!"
Me: "WHAT? Don't spit!"
Zi: "On the cat?"
Pictures of the day
Zi and Saimoni when I first met them in October 2010. Saimoni was two and a half and still not walking because he had bad rickets, and Zi was one year but the size of a 6 month old, with bad worms and pretty manourished. They've come a long way!
