Visiting

The weird thing about Ramadan is that is sort of turns everyones' schedules around.  Here's today's example...

A few weeks ago, while Mindy, the kids, and I were living the hard life down on the Mediterranean Sea, my friend's daughter had a baby.  I have mentioned this girl in the past.  Three years ago she babysat for my kids during the summer while I was in language school.  Just last year, with only a week left until she finished high school, she ran off and eloped.  Obviously, the summer and fall were very difficult for everyone even remotely close to the family as they dealt with this tragedy.  Anyhow, come late fall she announced that she was pregnant, and slowly through the Lord's grace the family began to forgive and reunite.  This family don't believe in Jesus yet, but I do think they are close to the Kingdom, especially when I see them have the ability to forgive.  Forgiveness is so not a part of this culture and so I know it must be from Him.

So, enough of the back story...

The baby was born while I was away, and once I returned to the city Ramadan had begun.  Last week I asked in our circle of friends if I should just wait until the end of Ramadan to visit even though I was dying to get a good wiff of a newborn.  But the new mom asked us to visit tonight.  So we three (the girl's mom and 2 other mutual friends) set out after iftar, the fast-break meal that occurs at sundown, to visit.  It was 10:00 pm when we arrived.  Can you imagine visiting a first time mother and her new baby at 10 o'clock at night?!

Of course, the baby is precious.  I was quite selfish and hogged him for most of the time!  Eventually, I had to put him down so I could be a proper guest and drink tea- 5 cups!  We were there until about midnight, and then it was time to head home.  When I dropped one of my friends off, she headed over to visit a different friend.  What would you do if a friend showed up to hang out at 12:30 at night?  I mean, for Pete's sake, we're not in college any more!

I am quite the night owl, so I don't really mind this topsy-turvy schedule.  The only thing that is hard for me is trying to sleep after sitting around drinking tea for a few hours!  It takes me forever to finally settle in and fall asleep!