“Mowgli!” I blurted out suddenly, “She reminds me of Mowgli from the Jungle Book,” I said after we got in the van after meeting our newest deaf child. Kathryn replied, “I was thinking the same thing!” Her curls were disarranged in a pile over her head, while her silly smile was contagious. She walked with her chest out in great confidence, although not always gracefully.
After explaining who we were to the grandmother we invited “Mowgli” and her sister to the program. They quickly bathed in the pila in front of the house, brushed out every curl into a tight ponytail, and threw on a dress… backwards.
Sweet 8 year old Annie has been reminding us of cartoon characters ever since!
I started talking to her sister who was just a couple years older on the way to that first program. She had many silly stories of messes they had gotten into together, but one that stood out to me was of her sister’s great embarrassment in church each week. “During worship she copies what she sees everyone else doing,” she explained. Seeing I was confused why that was so embarrassing she continued, “she puts her hands in the air and screams at the top of her lungs while everyone else sings, and she won’t be quiet until everyone sits down.”
When we arrived at the program she began picking up trash, mostly old potato chip bags left in the soccer field. She would flatten them out, fold them up neatly, hike up her dress, and safely tuck her newly found potato chip bags on the side of her underwear, after all dresses don’t have pockets. Her sister embarrassingly chased after her telling her to put them back. When asked what she does with the bags, she said she collects them and makes things out of them!
Having never been in a setting like that before, needless to say she was a little restless if asked to sit still for more than a minute at a time. She would run to a small ledge near by, while slowly sticking one foot out over the ledge. Then, she would look back at us with her silly grin and step off the ledge falling off a cliff, just like Wile E Coyote.
A few months ago she appeared to have significant eye gunk, which we had noticed that she had in previous encounters as well. Kathryn asked her sister if that was normal for her, and her sister very seriously explained that it was because Angeli catches every frog she can find. Her purpose in catching these frogs is to kiss them, on the off-chance they happen to turn into a prince!
Yesterday her latest trash creation was a fairy wand made out of a stick and a plastic candy container. On the drive back to her house she practiced her princess wave out the window, with the cows serving as her loyal subjects.
I simply can’t stop smiling with this one!
Annie, little one, as you grow older and wiser I hope you remember a few things:
God loves your worship no matter how “silly” the world sees it.
There is always beauty to be found in what the world calls trash, keep looking for it, creating it.
Never stop being fearless of taking a big step into the unknown. God will bless your relentless trust in Him.
You truly are a princess and just keep holding out for your Prince Charming because God’s got a special one for you!
