Naphtali's adventures with his family

 While making a speech for Naphtali's graduation from high school, I was inspired by the lyrics of a Lost Dogs song. Here are some of the lyrics: 

Daybreak. Now this sunlight just might turn strangers into friends. A surprise for sore eyes, another place I've never been. I can hardly wait!... to get up in the morning. A new world is forming behind these tired eyes. I'm here and I'm breathing , feel my heart beating, lucky to be alive. I don't care if I see rain or a blue sky. I only know I survived. I'm alive. 

Every morning is a new start. When Naphtali woke up in North Idaho, he might have seen a moose walking across the edge of our backwoods. Later he might ride his yellow, Mongoose BMX bike back there on all those trails and jumps that Leon and the boys made. Naphtali got 2 new brothers from Africa while we lived there. He also got  a new baby brother and sister, (Elsie and Nehemiah). We lived on top of a wedding cake every long winter. We made snow igloos, went skiing, built huge bon fires and ran around yelling like wild indians. 

The first morning in Chile, South America was an incredible sunrise seen from the airplane window flying over Santiago. Lazuli joined our family a few months later. Then we moved into a tiny apartment on the 22nd floor. Every morning before dawn we could hear the clip-clop of that mule pulling a cart of vegetables to the Feria market, where we got most of our food. Rising we looked out the window at a city full of lights, lights for miles. A short distance away they were building the tallest building in South America; The Grand Torre de Santiago. 

When we moved to the beach town in Chile, we woke up cold the first morning. The children wandered out one by one to stand by the campfire wrapped in their bedding. Leon passed around his hot Dragonwell tea untill we were warm enough to make breakfast. We cooked over fire, used outdoor toilets and poored cold water over our heads outside to wash our hair. 

In the morning Naphtali would wake in the hanging bed that Ephraim had designed and all of us had built together. The chains would rattle. He would watch me working by candlelight, trying to translate the gospel into Spanish for the regular flow of visitors who would ask. 

We would all eat sitting on the floor in a circle holding our plates on our laps. Then the work and play would begin. Two people and their Feria carts would head off to get food in Valparaiso- an hour and a half ride on a crowded bus, (often standing room only for the men). After dark they would get off of the last bus on our hilltop and find our little cabin by the 3 candles that were placed in the window for them.

In 2016, After returning to America and living back in the Northwest for 3 years, we bought a house in Oklahoma. Havilah and Ephraim went ahead of us to prepare the house. Our first morning there, we woke Havilah by laying her newborn sister Nelinha, in her arms. 

What will happen next? Will we be cold in the winter without heat? will we ever have an indoor toilet?, will we tire of squatting in a plastic bin and pooring water over our heads to bathe? what about the cochroaches that have multiplied unhindered for years? will we fall through the open floor where the kitchen should be, into the inky black water below? Or even worse,.. will we forget to give thanks in all things!?  (wait for the next entry in a few days)