The First Snow

I awoke at 7 this morning to Diamond's loud, obnoxious voice--this, in and of itself, is by no means atypical--however, when I opened my door to threaten his life, all of the children were dressed in their snow suits with the front door wide open. On the lawn was a freshly fallen two-inch layer of snow. The children were beyond thrilled and were out trying to make a snowman. Diamond, Florence, Sophia, and Giselle have never seen snow before and obviously couldn't wait one second longer to experience it for the first time. The problem is that we have 9 am church and it is no small task to get seven kids ready and tame Florence's afro in time. I promised the kids that if they were really good at church they could play in the snow the minute church was over. While I really HATE snow, it was a marvelous incentive--the kids were absolute angels at church.

Within minutes of our return, the kids threw off their church clothes and pulled on their heavy snow suits, hats, gloves, boots, etc. (Think about the kid in "A Christmas Story," who falls and can't get up--now you get the picture.) For people who are used to cold weather, it was probably overkill. However, we're accustom to wearing flip flops 80 percent of the year, so as it turns out, the kids' thirteen layers were still not enough. They lasted 15 minutes and came inside whimpering and whining. Diamond announced, "Snow isn't that much fun, Mom. I don't like it, it makes your hands all cold!" Live and learn, right? I guess those pictures of snowy Christmas scenery they had seen in the orphanage didn't quite get the "cold" point across. Having never felt anything below 70 degrees in Africa, they really didn't quite understand the true properties of snow. Now they know. By the way, there's a reason there aren't any pictures to document the event--I know what snow feels like and there was no way in you-know-where that I was going out in it, even for pictures!