Other | Amy Medina

Joy and Grace

On June 22, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, we had the privilege of attending the wedding of a friend from HOPAC, our drama and music teacher, who happens to be named Grace. Gil was invited to be the lead photographer–his first time shooting a wedding. He had a blast, and so did all of us HOPAC friends who got to attend. It was a very, very joyful day.

And didn’t he do a great job? (Some of these pictures were taken by Jessi, one of his photography students, who was his assistant that day.)

This wedding (as most Tanzanian weddings) was seriously one big dance party. The bride and groom danced their way from the chapel to the reception, the guests danced at any opportunity they got, and my favorite? When everyone formed a line and danced their way up to the bride and groom, holding their gifts over their heads as they presented them one by one.

Makes an American gift table seem downright boring.

My Grace loved it….she always takes any opportunity to dance!

HOPAC friends (that is not Josiah, in case you were wondering…he and Lily stayed home)

My wonderful Gil with very tired eyes….after shooting pictures for 8 hours straight!

Middles

By Amy Medina

On June 17, 2012

In Other

We see but middles.

So wrote Andree Seu, one of my favorite-ever columnists.

Things that seem good can end up bad.

Things that seem bad can end up good.

We see only the middle.

Things appear opposite of their true condition for a while, she writes.

There are people who think things are going badly for them, when actually things are going quite well, but they do not perceive it yet.

Think of the life of Joseph.

The favorite of his father: That’s good!

Jealous brothers sell him as a slave: That’s bad.

Top of the heap at Potiphar’s house: That’s good!

Sent to prison for something he didn’t do: That’s bad.

And so on. So is the story good or bad?

What was evil, God used for good.

Romans 8:28. It’s all good for those who love God. But now, we see only middles.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot with Lily’s story. The timing of when we brought her home, last summer, is still affecting us now. We went through delay after delay after delay. Unnecessary, ridiculous delays. And I knew then that those delays would affect us now. As they indeed are.

We want to go home this summer. It’s been over two years since we’ve been home. The only family members who have met Lily are my parents. We want to go home!

But the delay in bringing her home meant a delay in getting her adoption finalized. No finalization means no passport. No passport means no bringing her out of the country.

And now, I am seeing only middles.

All those delays last summer: That’s bad.

But in April we got assigned a great judge with a reputation for being pro-adoption, and getting court hearings done quickly: That’s good!

We got our first hearing the very next week: That’s good!

Even though the social worker, Gil [who was in Kenya], and the paperwork were not at that hearing, the judge still started the adoption process: That’s good!

The next hearing was set for June 6th. The judge, the social worker, the paperwork all showed up: That’s amazing!

At this point, I started thinking, Yes! God’s going to do it! He’s going to fix all those problems from the delays last summer and get us through a lightning fast court process!

At the June 6th hearing, the judge heard our case, but put off the ruling for another week: That’s…..disappointing, but not too bad.

So we went back June 13th–last Wednesday. And he said that the ruling still has not been made, so come back this Tuesday: That’s getting kind of bad. We are running out of time.

From a few months ago, we thought our chances would be slim to take Lily home this summer, so we made plans to take two separate trips: Gil and Josiah would go for two weeks in July, and Grace and I would go for two weeks in August. We bought plane tickets….hoping that we might have to change them. And then when we got this great judge, and he brought us in so quickly, I really got my hopes up. Yes! It’s going to work out.

So I wonder: What, exactly, is going on here, God? Are you making this happen, or aren’t you?

But I have learned: He is making something happen. It has purpose; it has meaning, and there is rhyme and reason to it. I just can’t see it, and I might not ever see anything but the middle for a long time.

And that’s okay. Because even the good stuff won’t necessarily last, and I know the bad stuff won’t. So circumstances don’t really matter, do they? What matters is God, and His promises, and that one day, when we see the End, it will definitely, utterly, be All Good.

Kindergarten Grace

By Amy Medina

On June 16, 2012

In Other

So this is really a grandparent post. For those of you who are not Grace’s grandparents, forgive me. But since I also make this blog into a memory book each year, I want this stuff recorded.

So if you really are not interested in the details of Grace’s kindergarten year, then please go back to your previous activities. 🙂

One more week of school left….and my sweetie will be a first grader. She has had such a great year!

Grace had the teacher on the far right until Christmas, and then HOPAC’s regular kindergarten teacher (who had been on maternity leave) took over for the rest of the year. Both were fantastic, dedicated, talented teachers.

Outside the kindergarten classroom

One of the things I love about HOPAC’s elementary school is that each class puts on three assemblies each year….full of singing and dancing and presenting. I remember when I was teaching at HOPAC, I thought, You’ve got to be kidding…you want me to do what each term? But I got the hang of it and loved doing asemblies with my class. So it was so much fun to see Grace do assemblies this year. One of the major advantages is that the kids get so used to performing that they have no stage fright by the time they get to the upper grades.

Grace was a break-dancer in this assembly….oh yes, she was!

Assembly #2

Grace and three of her best friends, wearing their “outside” hats. All elementary students are required to wear hats outdoors. I think this idea came from Australia. Who knows? We are an international school!

The day our puppies visited kindergarten……

The day the fire truck visited kindergarten…..

Grace with her kindergarten teacher for the second half of the year, on Sports Day. This teacher is British, which means Grace comes home with all kinds of expressions like, How sensible! and Well done! and I put a full stop on the end of my sentence!

I love it (full stop).

When I was little, Sports Day was my worst day of the year. I would cry every time. I would be last in everything.

Not this sweetie. She was running against the first graders, and was the only kindergarten girl to place in any of their races.

Second Place in the 400 meter!

She’s reading and writing like crazy. This story made me particularly happy because she did it at home, in her notebook, totally on her own. I discovered it one day and am not even exactly sure when she did it.

Here is the translation, with fixed spelling, but everything else hers:

The Turtle and the Monkey

Once upon a time there was a mean monkey. The monkey lived in the tree. And a little turtle that lived in the
water. The monkey be so mean to the
little turtle. The turtle had an
idea he wanted challenge the monkey to a
race. They raced. The monkey was going so fast one of the
branches broke and the monkey fell in the water with an AAH and with a
splash. Turtle was still swimming until
he saw the poor monkey. He felt sorry
for the [monkey]. The monkey was
sad. The monkey said he was sorry that
he had be mean to the turtle. He
promised to never to be mean again.

The
End.

aaaand….the illustration.

But this is what made my whole year.

Yesterday was the Kindergarten Awards Ceremony, when each child in the class was presented with an award. Grace received hers for “kindness and thoughtfulness towards others.”

Not much else I would rather her to receive an award for!

Onwards to First Grade!

How To Buy a Car in Tanzania

By Amy Medina

On June 10, 2012

In Other

Step 1: Decide that you are tired of four children (our three plus Sam) plus backpacks plus other assorted children stuffing themselves into your mini-mini van.

2. Decide that it’s time to upgrade to an actual mini van.

3. Contact middle man. Tell him what kind of car you want.

4. Middle man sends you lots of websites for car dealerships in Japan.

5. Spend a couple weeks looking over all the cars on all the websites.

6. Choose car. Base a huge part of your decision on how much ground clearance the car gets.

7. Take a deep breath and wire the money to Japan, taking a leap of faith that this dealership actually exists, the car actually exists, that it runs, and that it will make it to Tanzania in one piece.

8. Wait a few weeks as car is shipped to Tanzania from Japan.

9. Wait for two months as middle man works to get the car cleared from port and registered in Tanzania.

10. Get the call to come pick up car!

11. It’s a 1999 Toyota Noah. Never heard of it? Well then, you obviously don’t live in East Africa. Or Japan. This is like the Odyssey of Dar es Salaam.

12. Notice this sticker in the window. Not really sure how to feel about it.

13. When you pick it up, take the car immediately downtown.

14. Get the darkest tinting possible on all the windows. This is to prevent racial profiling by police, and prevent thieves from being tempted with what’s inside.

15. Get alarm system installed.

16. Get every light fixture, every piece of rubber, everything that could possibly be stolen off the car, bolted down.

17. Secure side view mirrors. Get license plate number etched into every window and every light. This also deters thieves.

18. Buy a fire extinguisher and reflective triangles, since every “random” (see #14) police check includes a request to see these two objects. Mount the fire extinguisher onto the windshield so that you can just point to it every time you drive by a police officer.

(I do, however, wonder what exactly I would ever do with such a fire extinguisher, should my car ever catch fire. I think “run and duck” would be a better strategy in that situation.)

19. Be very thankful for car! Runs great! Lots of room! Great ground clearance! Thank you, Japan!

20. Begin process of selling previous car. A whole other adventure…….