Food for the Soul

Prancing in her church shoes, Miss Baylor waits on me.  She presents her Princess Tiana cookbook (with scrumptious pictures) as a menu and with assured poise she takes my order, climbs the stairs, and prepares in her toy room an array of dishes.  Keeping in character for over an hour, Bay writes and stirs and delivers and inquires, "Do you like your food, Ma'am?"

She knows that Beatha likes to cook, for real, and amid all of the work of family adjustments, we three ladies will undoubtedly have some kitchen fun together.  I imagine that Beatha, if typical of older Haitian children, will have an ingrained sense of responsibility toward the younger children, and it will be Chad and my job to teach her that here, in a family home, she can be a child.  We will worry about the things to which parents tend and she need only be concerned about her 12-year-old on-goings.  No small task to help her (and Jameson) learn these roles.  Nonetheless, Baylor will relish the attention of an older girl, who I predict will do some doting on the little one.

Assertive as one can be, Bay is also a kitten in the lap of affection.  It's been a difficult five months for us, to say the least, and it will soothe us all to have everyone gathered at the same table.