In the middle of the night...

Many of you know that Russ and I both served as missionaries in the Philippines. Eleven years later we finally got to go back. Pictures and details will be coming, I just want to share one quick experience.

At 2:30 a.m. I woke up to someone coming into our dark room. I had been in a very deep sleep and when I heard this person talk, I didn’t know who she was or where I was. She approached Russ on his side of the bed and with the little light coming from our bedroom window I could only discern that she had long hair. She was short and I thought perhaps she had a form of dwarfism. What she was saying didn’t make sense, something about a noise and that she was worried. Her words were all jumbled. Russ spoke to her and said, “Wala ‘ko kadungog.” (Meaning, “I didn’t hear anything.”) I was glad he spoke to her in Visayan, because her English was so confusing and I was sure that we would better be able to understand this Filipina if we just spoke in Visayan. However, this only upset her and she couldn't understand.

Finally it came to me that this was our daughter! I just didn’t know which one and I was relieved when Russ identified her as Savannah. With a weak voice I called her over to me. She came and I was just about to let her climb into bed with me when I realized that we were home and instead of the hard floors in the Philippines there was carpet and she could bring her bedding into our room and sleep next to us. When I suggested that Russ protested. I knew what he was thinking and explained, “There’s carpet on the floor,” and he replied, “Oh, we’re home.” After she got settled, I laid awake and reviewed the event in my mind, the parallel thought processes between husband and wife, and my dwarfism assumption. I laughed off and on for almost ten minutes, for some reason things are even funnier to me in the middle of the night. Russ did not laugh, he was trying to go back to sleep.