Scourby-sleep, email, and James 1:5

We have now begun putting Elijah to bed listening to Alexander Scourby's reading of the Bible on CD.  During my childhood years I fell asleep every night listening to Scourby on cassette tape, so it is really special to me that my child(ren) will be doing the same as they grow up.  It is heartwarming to hear Elijah say, "Bah-bul! Bah-bul!" excitedly as we tuck him into bed.  It is so true that children go through phases in their sleep patterns.  Elijah has always been a "bad" sleeper, since he was born.  We have wrestled and cried and soothed and rocked and nursed and comforted and sat through screaming for hours, and even as he has gotten older he has struggled, but gradually improved.  For the last few months he has done really, really well and got to the point where naptimes and bedtimes were a joy.  We were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief and really relax... and then within the past couple days he's had another regression.  This usually calls for a switch of something in the bedtime routine to get him settled again, thus, the introduction of Scourby to encourage him to fall asleep calmly listening to God's Word!

It's tough being a parent.  (It's even tougher when you feel so far away and so disconnected from everyone you would love to ask advice of and learn from.)  The Lord has been laying some things on my heart and I have been prompted to really start making personal correspondence much more of a priority than it has been up to this point.  It is so easy to think "I really don't have time to send that person an email" or to forsake writing personal letters of any kind except the most urgent and business-like.  The longer I live here in Eastern Province, the more I wish I could benefit from the wealth of knowledge and examples of Scriptural family life and marriages that are represented by couples in my acquaintance. So, I am determined to seek out fellowship to the extent that it can be found through the medium of email.  I am also going to make every effort to keep this blog updated on a regular basis!

I don't usually post anything on my blog on the Lord's Day, so I want to be sure to keep this focused where it should be.  I am trying to prepare a Bible study on the topic of Prayer for the upcoming Women's Conference here at the College this week.  One of the verses I am considering is James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him."  As I am pondering this verse the biggest question that comes to me is, How do you know when the Lord has answered your prayer?  How do you recognize the wisdom when it is given to you?  How do you really know when you are making a wise decision?  I guess as a young mom, it's easy to feel like I'm floundering along in the responsibilities and challenges and not quite knowing how to make my way without a clear guide... and, conversely, struggling with guilt or the feeling of inadequacy when I know I've made a mess of it.  So, speak up!  How has this verse been proved to be true for you?

Language

Last night at dinner Elijah leaned forward excitedly.  “Boh! Boh!”  That’s his word for Pooh, aka Winnie the Pooh, which he has recently been introduced to by way of a fun pillowcase and the Pooh character on his nappies and his new dummy (pacifier).  Elijah was pointing at the mug I was using, which has Pooh on it.  Clever boy!  Then he said, “Owies, Boh, owies!”  He saw that there were honeybees depicted next to Pooh.  Honeybees = “owies” in Elijah’s vocabulary (even more so here, where our standard honeybees are African Killer bees).

This very cute incident illustrates what communicating with Elijah is like.  His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, but we have been amused to see that his “words” come in different ways.  More and more he is learning to repeat words as he hears us saying them, or use the point-and-identify tactic.  However, he also mixes in sign language and sometimes simply makes an onomatopoeic sound which serves as the word. 

For instance, “airplane” is NEVER repeated as a word.  Rather, he “says” airplane by going “Wooo, woh, woh, woooo” and flying his hand through the air.  

The same with “snake,” which he says by making a gutteral growling/biting noise and hitting his chest (explanation: we have told him that snakes will bite him, and so his brain interprets the word by signing “bite” with sound effects).  And yes, we are working VERY hard to teach him about snakes – and YES, he has actually identified snakes without any prompting or assistance using this method. 

Some things he simply signs, like “wash hands.”

He is also becoming bilingual, gradually picking up Nyanja words and phrases as he is picking up English ones.  When he says “thank you”, a full 50% of the time he says “koko” which is the Elijah-ization of “zekomo.”  The other half of the time he says “dank oo.”  :-)  He has also been heard saying “iwe!” which his friends are often shouting at each other (“you! You!”).  And he has made several attempts to say “bwanji” in greeting.

And at least although he does say "NO!" very emphatically, he says it so adorably!