November 7, 2007 - Life

I messed up my Indonesian words today. I thought the word for thirsty was “home”-so when Cale came in from outside, and drank a bunch of water, I told Ibu Poppi “ Cale home.” She looked at me funny so of course I said it again and she still looked at me funny. Then she realized what I was trying to say and laughed. The right word is “house” not home. I was close.
Yesterday we were able to go with my Uncle Russ and Aunt Carol and my cousin Randy to the place where my Aunt was in a terrible car accident 11 years ago. She and 3 other ladies were driving back from a conference when a drunk driver in a bus came into their lane and hit them. Two ladies were killed and my Aunt was seriously injured, and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Australia: the other lady was injured but not as bad. There is a monument set up in honor of the ladies who died. When we went to see it, there was an Indonesian lady there that helped when the accident happened. She remembered it all and was filling in the details. She planted flowers in the spot where the car flipped and landed. We took some time to pray and thank God for sparing Carol: we are so thankful that she is alive. Wyatt prayed before dinner, “Lord, thank you that we could go see Aunt Carol’s monument. Thank you that you kept her alive.” That night the girls were praying. Sophie prayed that that “the driver would come over and tell Aunt Carol he was sorry and then go see the police, and never drive again.” Emma prayed, “Thank you God that you let my Auntie Carol live.” It was so moving to be there and think about what could have happened. Life is short. You never know when it might be your last day. It is so easy to take it for granted that we will wake up in the morning every morning. Randy was talking about how at the time of the accident he was 9 (same age Wyatt is now). Randy said he was playing Legos with a boy whose Mom was one that died in the accident, when the phone rang. The phone call said that 2 ladies lived and 2 ladies died. So during the drive to the hospital they didn’t know which category Carol fit into. I can’t even imagine being a kid in that situation. I remember getting the phone call back in the States, and all we could do is pray. Boy, did we ever pray and pray and pray…Thank you Lord.
Randy spent the night last night so he went to our Indonesian class with us. That was fun, and Carol babysat Cale while we had class. She was going to take him over to the airport and watch the airplanes take off and land. I am sure he will want to stay, and not come back here. He was so fine with us leaving him. We just said “Bye” and he waved and said “Bye” while he held Auntie Carol’s hand. No problem. He doesn’t seem to have any sort of separation anxiety like some of our other kids had.
Time to Go,
Love to all-Rachel