Nine months for a Rooster!

Nine months for a rooster! This might be an insult to many of you but to Mdme Kiki, returning to Haiti with Lonia after nine loooong months, it was the ultimate compliment! It was like something out of an old black and white movie or stories my great grandma used to tell of her childhood and how they used to pay the doctor with produce from the garden. It was a very small but very heart felt gift of poultry to convey the very essence of thankfulness in their hearts that little Lonia was alive and would live to see many more birthdays. I must admit I was a little overwhelmed and I felt a little selfish receiving it. I mean, not sharing with Dr. Gates, Beverly, Anna Lynn, Joe and Charlotte Tebo, Charlie and Teresa Bowen and so many others who had played such a big part in everything coming together and being accomplished for Lonia, it just seemed wrong.

I want to tell you more about how special it was and why there was so much meaning behind it. It was given by her grandma, her dad's mom. I had met her on our trip to Cupois as we took Lonia to the homecoming party that had awaited her up in those distant mountains. She apologized for not having anything to give me then. She laughed and hugged and kissed Lonia and I and promised she would be sending something. Little did I know what the "something" would be. Bright and early, Saturday morning, Pierre's brothers brought the rooster along with an apology from their mother. You see, she had also been fattening a goat. The prize possession of this elderly woman in her two room dirt shack was being saved and treasured to give as a gift for me caring for Lonia and all that went with it. The day they were ready to bring the goat, they found he had eaten someone's garden. The owner of the garden had proudly taught people the lesson of keeping their goats out of his garden by cutting the head off of the goat and leaving it lay in the garden to be found by its owner. Needless to say, the woman was devastated by the random actions of the gardner. She was also embarrassed to be only able to send the rooster, which I humbly accepted and proudly ate the next day before something drastic had time to happen to my new prized possession! Nine months for a rooster? You bet, and I would do it all over again without blinking an eye. What a privilege to be in the service of our Lord and King! May this find you serving Him faithfully!
Dee