Today in which something sad happened

That something sad happened and honestly I didn't see it coming. Today I was going to be a good boy and do something that I have been putting off for years. Today I was going to keep up my part in a bargain that I made back in 2006. I was going to write. While I have made attempts at this at times past I have always found myself lacking in the follow through. Today was going to be my day, today I was actually going to do it. The email, yes email I know that it isn't exactly pen pal status but we are talking baby steps here. The email was returned no such address.

six years go I was introduced to two little girls in a park on the west side of a field. These girls were playing on the other side of a chain link fence and they came running up smiling at the person who was with me at the time. They at the time had no idea who I was and certainly had no idea what they would mean for my life. I was in Cuarnavacca Mexicali, Mexico. Nallim was four and half, and her sister then Rebecca was a mere two years old. When we crossed though the gate of the fence and entered into the playground there were two slides, three swings and only two out of the three support bars connected properly with the ground. It was janky to say the least, but it was clearly a palace that only Shell Silverstein could imagine. "mya muah mua" was said to me by the taller of the breakable little girls, the girl whom I had come with was only worth laughter at my expense and as I only spoke the spanish taught to me by a band by the name of Offspring, if it wasn't numbers 1-6 then it sounded like charlie browns director. When finally I was able to get an answer out of someone I learned that I was to push harder and from on the plastic seat of a jenky park swing I was given a smile that I will never forget. For five years I went down to see that girls smile and her younger sisters, later meeting and falling in love for her caring mother Gaby and her hard working mother who I know prays for me and everything in my life every night. Over the last few years I had gone Gaby would make us a cake for her birthday and on the piece of card board she would right us prayers for our lives.

Now I have a child of my own, and for two years now I have had to tell myself and Gaby an excuse neither of us believe but both of us accept as to why I can't come down to Cuarna vacca with my family in early april. Now I have a boy of my own who smiles at me, and a child that I choose to raise on the mission field. The mission field can be dangerous, dangers that I can not imagine and I will need prayer for this part of my journey. This is a job for a small family. A husband and wife who have lived in the same house for over 20 years to make sure that their daughters can grow up near where the missionaries come every spring. Today in which something sad happened.

There is a thorny tree that blossoms the most beautiful red flowers that grows just inside my favorite front gate. bugambilia is how it is spelled but bugamvilia is how it is said, with love and admiration for a desert flower that blooms like fire. Inside that gate lives that family and today I tried to write them a letter and the address that I had didn't work, but that wasn't the sad part. The sad part was that I couldn't remember spanish, while I know after a day or two of speaking a majority of it would come back to me, but for now it is all gone. I have lost the ability to speak to the family that I love so much, while I know that there are things like Google translator that do a better job than I ever could have, there is still something to be said for the broken spanish that conveys desire and effort. That was my sad day, but tomorrow is chapter two in which mark breaks out his work book.