Back in April, I took the kids to a nearby park to meet some friends at our church playgroup. After we were there a couple minutes, Mary Taylor escapes to play with some kids underneath the playscape. I walk over to see who she has met and to my surprise, she is talking to some kids with a lady that is probably their nanny considering their opposing skin colors. As I said hi and started talking to this nanny, I realized she did not have an American accent. I thought maybe she was from England or Africa, but I wasn't sure, so I asked her. She was most definitely from Africa, and I was more thrilled to meet her. Jeanette is an aupair from South Africa and she has only been in the states three months. God seems to be putting more people from Africa in my path and I am always so excited to share how God's leading us to their continent. Of course, I proceed to tell her we are in the process of adopting a child from Uganda. Jeanette seemed very pleased with our decision to adopt and agreed that Africa has an overwhelming orphan problem. After we talked a little more, I informed her of our weekly church playgroups and told her she should join us. She was very excited to hear about our church. Jeanette said that she had been looking for a one, but she did not know where to go. So I got her email address and told her she could come with us...So I emailed her and then a week later we picked her up on our way to church.
The rest is history!
We soon learned that everyone loves Jeanette. She is so friendly and loves children. My kids grew attached to her very fast, especially Mary Taylor. Jeanette is one of those people that is very discerning and understands people. She is very honest and open and a very rational person. And a lot of fun too! But, most of all she understands her need for Jesus. She has a real love for people that can only come from our creator. So, we became friends pretty easily... But, after three weeks, she informed us that she was going back to South Africa for personal reasons and she would rather not talk about it. So we respected her request and said that we would pray for her, but we were there for her if she needed to talk.
Jeanette taught us so much! She opened our eyes to the differences of American life and the life in Africa. Life in Africa is so much harder and at the same time so much easier. Jeanette never worried about having the best birthday party, or making sure you have money to send out Christmas cards, or any of the social pressures we face here. Their biggest worry was making sure they had food on the table. And she informed me that she did not always have a full belly going to sleep. There were many nights that she went to bed hungry. But, she never cared about that, she just knew she had parents that loved and cared about her and would be there for her. Unlike many children around her who did not have parents, who lived on the street. Jeanette also thought it was interesting that Henry gets money when he does chores around the house. I also told her I got an allowance for cleaning my room when I was growing up. She just laughed and said, "We just had to clean our room because we were part of a family." By talking to her I realized how spoiled we have already made our children, just by living in America. Our kids think they deserve and they expect to get certain things like dessert, toys, ect...this is a true problem. Dee and I have made our kids like this. This will take time, consistency, and lots of pray to reverse this pattern. But, the first step is realizing we have a problem. I told Jeanette, maybe we should just move to South Africa, life would be easier if we did not have to worry about all these social pressures, life would just be more simple.
Jeanette also gave me another glimpse into the life of being a minority in a white world. I had no idea the extent to which South Africa still experiences extreme racism. They are many years behind American in moving past segregation. Dee did his thesis in college on South African history, so he knows much more about this struggle than I do, but it was different to hear it from a person and the things she and her family have had to endure. I have had the "white privilege" of being oblivious to racism most of my life. So it is just in the last ten years my eyes have been open to this unbelievable struggle that so many Americans go through everyday, just because of their skin color. It is so so very important to understand and hear from people that do experience this and realize it is real, so we can become more sensitive to people's struggles. Understanding where she comes from allows me to sympathize with others like her.
Jeanette is also an amazing chef. I hope to one day see her on her own cooking channel! She made two Italian meals for us while she was here and they were so yummy! I am going to try to recreate her masterpiece meals, but with my cooking skills it will be a stretch!
The last night she was here, we decided to have a dinner party and invite her good friend Rubie and her fiance Jim. We all enjoyed Jeannette's delicious salmon pasta and salad, along with my homemade chocolate sauce poured over ice cream with strawberries. What a treat! Of course Henry tried to jump in on all the fun, but it was past his bedtime. Yes, and don't forget the wine!
Jeanette was convinced by the end of her stay that we were being called to move to South Africa. She said she had several dreams about us moving there and maybe that's why we met her. I am excited to see God weave our story. Who knows where he will take us?
Even though we only had a month or so to spend with her, we will really cherish the time we spent together and the things we learned from her. I will continue to pray for her as she moves back into her life in South Africa. Thank you Jeanette for allowing God to use you in our lives! We miss you!
