I saw a diesel pull around the corner this morning and I held my breath hoping against all hope that maybe a new family was moving in. Checking out the back window I saw a container has been dropped at one of the larger empty houses. That was the most beautiful sight I’ve seen all summer long. My children are bored. They are lonely. They just want friends to play with. It’s been a long, lonely summer so far as friend after friend boarded airplanes westward bound to the US. I swear we are the only ones left on the planet that stayed in Singapore. We just need some friends. We’re at the point of desperation here.
I heard a rumor back in May from Melissa Bradford as we cleaned the pews in the chapel one Saturday morning that a nice Mormon family is moving from Switzerland to my very street at the end of July and they have five kids aged about 2 to 14. Her husband has worked with the husband in the past though she doesn’t really know them. Right now it doesn’t really matter if they are nice or mean. I’m thinking more along the lines of a warm body count here. We just need PEOPLE to play with even if we don’t make life long connections.
So I have inventoried our street over and over this summer. There are only about 20 houses. I’ve taken note of where this magical family could possibly be moving into. Five houses were vacated this last June. Five houses remain empty after all the painting and turn around crews finished their work. Empty those houses sit just waiting to be filled with seven year old boys and four year old girls and miracle of miracles – dare I ask – a two year old boy? It’s nearing lunch time now and I haven’t even showered but we all want to go meet our new neighbors. I know it’s bad timing. When the movers are hauling boxes in and waiting for direction on where to put each and every box you can’t be bothered with meeting new neighbors. So we wait. I’ll shower. And hope the movers take a lunchtime break so we can sneak in real quick to say hello.
Ben wants to bring over cookies right away. You have to understand the true sacrifice that will be. See a batch of cookies is expensive here. A cup of chocolate chips is $9. Plus the sugar, etc. And I just took in someone elses food storage flour stored in a #10 can since 1997. Technically it should be fine, but sometimes stuff like that takes on the metal taste of the can. Do I risk it? So I make cookies with $18 of chocolate chips and risk that the flour is metallic and have to throw the cookies out? Maybe we’ll find a snicker doodle recipe this time just in case until we prove the flour is good. I couldn’t bear the thought of throwing out that much chocolate brought over in my carryon luggage. Snicker doodles it is. And a shower so I’m ready for the lunch break “Hello!”
And if by chance this isn’t the magical family they will come someday but please let them have elementary aged kids. Please. Please. Please. And if all else fails today, at least the sea shipment crate parked on my road gives me some shimmer of hope that we have survived this long and dreary summer. The houses will soon be filling up with new families and old friends will return in four weeks. I feel like the little engine that could…”I think I can. I think I can. I think I can make it through this summer.”
No comments:
Post a Comment