Amader Meye'ra

Amader Meye'ra
Floating in the darkened night,
Wailing to come home.

"Our girls"  that's what Amader Meye'ra is in Bengali.  Like everything else about Childlife Preserve: Shishur Sevay, these words are a combination of English and Bengali....

First came the words, and then the picture -- or maybe together.... the outside wall of Shishur Sevay in April 2006 when we bought the house -- and then the words, as time went on and we faced obstacle after obstacle, and yet i felt the girls' presence -- my children out there -- frightened, waiting, wailing.  I put together the words and the picture.  Here was the address where I was waiting for them.  I showed it to people, like opening my heart... but I think mostly people just smiled politely -- and I understand that.

But that's how it felt, like the girls were out there already waiting, that all of this was predestined, that i had to understand that each obstacle, each delay, would still bring us to the place where the "right" assortment of us would all be together at Shishur Sevay.  Sometimes it was hard to remember this.

It was like this when I adopted, 23 years ago -- waiting for the child I knew i was to mother, naming her so she could find her way back to her name, and thus to me.  Now at Shishur Sevay, I was waiting.  I renovated, added a room, made the house more beautiful.    I secretly sprinkled glitter into the cement as the roof was being poured.  I wanted the roof to sparkle in case the children were coming by flying elephant.  I wrote a story once about Sarmu a flying elephant who brought children home to their mothers.  Always I heard my children calling.

Sarmu and Ma Kali brought them home.

Comments

[Jo Ann Fishburn]

Michelle, I would love to be able to continue to read your blog. Do I do that by checking the website occasionally? I just ordered and received your book.
Take care,
Jo Ann Fishburn