Boomerang Express

Today was our second day of Vacation Bible School. The theme song "Boomerang Express" is still jangling around in my head. I am volunteering in the nursery with the babies and toddlers. Flannery and Percy-Kate are loving life and looking forward to getting up for another day tomorrow. I fear they'll form a false impression that public school kids have this kind of fun everyday. Flannery thrives in groups and chaos. Percy-Kate has to unwind from the overstimulation when we get home. Yesterday, Percy-Kate got out her chess set and pretended the chess pieces were attending VBS. I took it as a healthy means of processing her day. She lives in her head a lot as I did. Both Flannery and Percy-Kate have already committed all the VBS songs to memory and almost have the hand motions synched. They have no idea how precious they are praising the Lord with their chirpy voices and stiff dance moves.

Then there is Ruby...She did not go with me to VBS yesterday. She stayed home with Andy as we thought surely she would need a nap before noontime. Alas, she held vigil until sisters arrived home yesterday. This morning she, too, hopped the Boomerang Express. It's funny that I don't realize how oversized she is until she is mixed with children close in age. How this child was birthed from my 5 ft frame remains a mystery. She will be taller than me by age 6. One of the nursery workers astutely observed that little Ruby was "very demanding". However, she played well with the others and even held her own with a couple of grabbers.

At the end of VBS as part of the missions message, the children were told about a little Bolivian girl who lives in the orphanage our church supports. The little girl, Viviana, had been pushed into a fire and burned severely. The girl talking about Viviana wrapped up the bio by saying that Viviana was now a very happy child. I was a little taken aback by the graphic telling of Viviana's story. I watched Flannery's and Percy-Kate's faces trying to guage their reaction. They were not as upset by the story as I thought they would be. When we got home, they told Andy the story. They carefully cropped the photo they had been given of Viviana and framed it. They said they were told they should pray God would bless her. Percy-Kate seemed especially touched by Viviana's plight as an orphan. As Andy and I consider taking his sabbatical in Bolivia to serve the orphans there, I think about the impact on the girls of meeting many more "Viviana's" with heartbreaking life stories.

The lightning from the evening storm has stopped overhead, so I must attend to the dishes. I hear Ruby piddling in the kitchen, probably practicing her walking.