My Broken Heart

My darling son Pedro died this morning, September 20, 2010.

He was 14 years old.

Sometime, I will be able to write him a more fitting memorial to try and convey who he was - the love of my life.

For now, an earlier post will have to do.

Tchau my littl-y son.

You are so precious to me.

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A Visit With Pedro

Oh, how I love having my little boy visit for the weekend. Oh, how deflated I feel on the drive home after I've dropped him off at his house. Oh, how empty my house feels.

So many things I want to teach him, I'm just brimming with ideas! A country a day. Devotionals for teens. Multiplication tables. How to bake a cake from scratch (and not out of a box as we did this weekend). English sayings like "hold your horses" and "don't let the cat out of the bag" (wait, do I know where that one came from??). Cribbage. How to talk to God about anything, at any time. How to forgive. How to apologize - and really mean it. How to spell in English. How to make chili. How to eat with chopsticks.

The list could go on and on - oh, it did. But you get my point. It's tricky to pack all that learning and living into a weekend and not make it feel like cramming for the SATs. My desire to bless him and teach him and raise him - all condensed into the occasional weekend, leaves me feeling agitated sometimes, like I haven't done enough. But I don't want him to feel like he's a student - he's my son. I so wish all that teaching and learning could just flow naturally out of every day life.

But, I am oh-so-grateful for every moment I do have with him. So we just enjoy our time together although we both feel it isn't really enough.

Here's the highlights of this visit: (with his little friend Fauso in blue)

-Making a cake (from a box though)

-Making blueberry muffins (NOT from a box, from a packet!)

-Practicing with chopsticks at the Chinese restaurant

-Multiplication practice during Yahtzee

-What does Easter mean to me personally discussion

-A short note added to my mom with some English spelling practice.

I love this little boy, well, young man, so much my heart sometimes wants to burst! It almost did when I left him at home, pictured below with the little neighborhood children, on Sunday evening. My world isn't quite the same when he isn't tangibly in it.

Riots in Mozambique - please pray!

Hello from New Jersey in the United States!  Although I am far from my home in Mozambique, my heart is still there, especially at a time like this.  Since I'm not there to tell my firsthand account, I've stolen this post from my friend Meghann's blog:

 

I'd love to ask for your prayers. Maputo, Mozambique has experienced riots today. Something quite similar happened in 2008. But this morning we awoke to mobs on the streets looting shops and burning tires.They overturned a bus in front of our center and burned it. These riots are in response to the increase in food, fuel, water, and electricity costs.

Here is the information we received from the directors of our base...
Today is September 1 and we are in the midst of riots in Maputo. In July this year the price of passports rose 600%, visitor visas 500% and our annual permanent resident documents went from $80 to $700 each.
Today September 1 the price of a bus ride doubled, bread rose by 30% and the price of a 50kg bag of rice is more than half a months salary for an average Mozambican (if he is one of the 18% of people that has a job).
So today the people rioted -upturned buses and burned them right outside our base, looted shops, burnt tires, petrol stations and threw rocks and bricks. The city was closed down as were schools and the airport and the official figure is 6 dead. The police and army are controlling the rioters and streets with tear gas. It is now 4pm and it is quiet. We will wait and see what happens tonight and again in the morning. We are all safe and sound in our compound here -except for runny eyes from tear gas. No workers here today but the missionaries, educators and children prayed and played together.
This is Mozambique -still the 6th poorest country in the world and living in such difficult circumstances. Please pray with us for a miraculous breakthrough.

(The gate of our center is barely visible along the right side of this photo.)