I was thinking about this, and thought perhaps it might be worth sharing.
Two of my friends are becoming grandparents for the first time.
Their daughter is in labor right now, has been for 16-17 hours.
Moms and grandmas out there can possibly imagine this scenario.
Those of who you live a long distance from your kids probably know this too.
Understand that cell phones have only been present for maybe a year now. Long distance telephony is unreliable and expensive. Plane fare is VERY pricey, and internet connection is slower and more unreliable than in the U.S.
Imagine this situation.
Wanting to be there with your daughter giving birth... knowing you can't be because it costs thousands of dollars... and if you're going to spend the money you try to be practical and decide the BEST time to go visit... would it be a few months later?
Then she goes into labor and you're living for an email... will the email get through?
Is email broken? Why is our internet down.. or is it down?
Or now.. a cell phone text message.. will that go through internationally? You only have one cell phone between the two of you so you arrange if you get a call or a text to immediately call your wife or your husband and clue them in.
Waiting... wondering.
Many couples go through this here... and each one handles it differently.
This particular instance I got to talking with others... and it's amazing how many folks have family members they haven't met yet.
For OLDER missionaries this is the lifestyle and they're used to it. For us NEWER missionaries (you thought I was going to say 'younger' didn't you?) it's still rather new.
I myself have a nephew I have yet to see face to face.
A friend of mine has 5 nieces and nephews he hasn't seen yet.
And so the story goes.
Yes it can be a tad sad... but it is one of the things you learn to deal with on this chosen path and you have many friends around who understand and are comforting.
I don't mean it this to sound like a complaint or a sob story... it simply is a part of life we've come to accept, and if it makes folks sad, well then it becomes a sacrifice of worship.
The reason it's worth mentioning, is that these are the moments when having someone like me here, responsible for keeping the network online, are really appreciated. Yes it has no direct impact on translation work, but has a huge impact on people's lives.
If you can imagine this like one of those sappy long-distance telephone commercials from the 1980's....
Picture the scene, a young woman giving birth in a hospital on the left side of the frame. On the right, her mother sitting in front of a computer terminal... in the middle several network cables connecting them... my face in the center with your faces around me. Or even a telephone, as I'm doing a lot of that now too.
Maybe a ditty or a slogan... 'working together to bring you together' or something sappy like that.
All joking aside, you enable me to enable them to communicate.
So for them and for me... thank you... for all the things you do to enable us to be here.
-Chad
p.s. I always think of that collect call long distance commercial 'wehaddababyistaboy' at times like this.
RANDOM MEMORY: popcorn is a popular snack around these parts, easy to get, low cost... every time I hear the kernels hitting the pot, I think of my Grandma Jonnie.
