October 4th, Maely's first two days in the US

I picked Pat and Maely up at the Seattle airport a little before midnight Sunday night and although she was wore out from the long trip, Maely stayed awake most of the way home.  She was in awe of the skyscrapers and the space needle in downtown Seattle.  The night was fairly clear and she got a wonderful view of the city. In spite of being up until 2:30am, she was up at daybreak ready to explore her new world.  I had to go to work but Pat kept giving me updates all during the day as Maely discovered one magic moment after another.  She learned that by turning the silver handle in the bathroom should could not only produce water she didn't have to haul to the house in a bucket....but it could be HOT as well.  She couldn't wait to go outside this morning and see the horses.  Pat gave her the tour of the property and she was excited to see ducks in the pond behind our house.  She asked Pat whose ducks they were and since they were wild, Pat said they belong to God.  I wish I could have seen the look on her face when she must have come to the conclusion that God kept HIS ducks in our pond!

Later in the day Pat took Maely to Costco and she stood in awe of an entire section of the market that was nothing but cheese.  She had never seen so much cheese in her life.  As they walked up and down the aisles shopping for groceries, they came across the kids toys and Pat discovered that Maely had never had a doll.....never had a doll  Here is a little girl almost 12 years old who had never had a doll of her own.  Needless to say, she walked out of Costco with a barbie doll but she refuses to take it out of the box.  Instead she set the box on her dresser and just admires it from time to time. When I shared this phenomena with a friend over lunch today, he said "its because she doesn't know how to play with a doll, she probably doesn't know she can take it out of the box and create imaginary scenarios with this toy"

I have been sharing this story with you in real time from my vantage point but allow me to tell you some of Pat's experiences while bringing Maely from Honduras to Seattle.  The first night in Roatan, Maely and her grandmother stayed at the hotel with Patt and since there was only one King size bed, they all slept in the same bed.  Pat awoke early the next morning with the feeling she was being watched.  She opened her eyes and found Maely's face only a few inches away as she was staring intently at her while she slept.  As soon as Maely saw Pat was awake, she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.  We can only imagine what was going through her mind.

While sitting in the Houston airport waiting for the flight to Seattle, Pat noticed Maely had what appeared to be a worn out dishrag on her head.  Puzzled  by this, Pat asked what the rag was for and Maely shyly refused to answer.  A fellow passenger seated nearby who spoke very good spanish, chatted with Maely for a few minutes and then explained to Pat that this was like her security blanket.  It was then Pat realized that this rag was her only possession and it served as her last link to her family and village.  Thanks to my daughter Niki, I now have the knowledge to post pictures on the blog so you will be seeing a lot of them from now on.  Here is Maely's security blanket.

Pat told me later that everyone they met while flying from Honduras to Seattle was intrigued by Maely's story and captivated by her smile.  Her journey has just begun and she has already touched the lives of more people than we can keep track of.  God's hand is evident in this girls life and we are blessed to be a part of it.  Here is a picture of her with one of the flight attendants she met on the flight from Houston to Seattle.

This afternoon, I had to cut the grass in the backyard before it got too deep.  When I fired up the John Deere riding lawnmower, she asked me what the machine was for so I told it was to cut the grass.  She looked puzzled for a minute and then asked "Why?"  Now I have been asking my self that same question for years and still don't have a good answer!  I was trying to think of a way to explain to her it was just so the yard would look nice when she suddenly lit up and said...oh I know its to feed the horses the grass right?  Relieved that I didn't have to painfully construct an explanation in my less than conversational spanish.... I quickly agreed that was the reason and left it at that.  Here is Maely and Pat on the mower.