Treasures from Baghdad
Jul 21st, 2008 by indigo-daisy
The year before the first Desert Storm, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit my husbands family in Baghdad. It was the year I fell in love with them… these beautiful loving people that accepted me so lovingly into their home and their life. I had big dreams of going back every few years to visit them and becoming a part of the family.
Then the following summer, American bombs started falling in Baghdad, and my dreams were crushed.
But now in about a month from today, my beautiful niece who was just a little girl when I met her, will be coming to America with her husband and two children, one is 2 years old and the other is 2 weeks old, and I will have the opportunity to help her and her family start a new life here in the states as refugees.
Since the first bombs started falling on Baghdad, I had dreamed that one day I would be able to do something to help them. We have sent money when we could, and I know that helped, especially during sanctions. But it never seemed like it was enough to me, I always wanted to really be personally involved.
Now here is my chance. "Breathe, Breathe, Breathe" …..I know it is going to be difficult, and it will require some sacrifices and I have not had a baby in my home for 15 years….but I am determined to make this work.
So if you could spare a prayer, a loving thought, or even a warm wish or two, I certainly would welcome all the loving energy that comes my way.
My heart aches so much, because since she was a small child she has never known a life without war. Her husbands father had edured 18 years in an Iranian prison as a POW and he never even got to know his father until he became an adult. They both had virtually lost their childhood to war. My hope is that they now can both give their children something they themselves have never had, an opportunity to live in peace.
What a HUGE event! How exciting!
sending you all good karma and all that jazz.
Thank you Jen! Gladly accepting good karma and jazz! Not sure how this is all going to roll out, I guess like your blog…one day at a time….
How excited and nervous you must be. Will they be living with you or a place of their own?
I can’t even imagine what a huge adjustment this will be for them, and know it will be of some comfort to them to at least have some family close by to help them get started.
Our next door neighbors were refugees from Bosnia, and they’re a delightful family (the man’s a little odd, full of conspiracy theories, but we like him). I’d pick them for neighbors over many Americans I’ve encountered any day.
Wishing you all well in your new venture together. Keep us posted on the blog.
This post is a great example of the often-overlooked casualties of war. Good for you for offering your help and many good wishes and so on benin sent your way!
Pita, I am both excited and nervous, they will be staying with us until they get their papers in order and find a job. Then we will look for a place for them to rent close by. I am determined to stay positive about the whole transition and make this work for them. Thanks for the warm wishes
CoW, tis true that we don’t always see the true casualties of war which not only lasts lifetimes but transfers over generations. Oh, and thanks so much for the warm wishes!
Huge news!!!! All my best thoughts your way! I hope you can share a little of your journies through your blog
Thank you Anon for the thoughts! And yes I promise to share the joys and trials of the coming adventure.
Girl if anyone can make it work you can. Your being realistic about the issues and bumps in the road, their are your families expectations, their expectations hopes and dreams, and somewhere in the middle will be the reality…and if times get hard…just blog it…lol sending you all the positive vibes i can muster…x
Thank you Abz! Fully accepting the positive vibes! And agree, being realistic is the key, knowing that their will be bumps along the way, but also knowing that with the right attitude we can deal with them.
Hi! I’m new, from PITA’s blog. What a wonderful opportunity to learn all kinds of things and rewarding from helping someone. I agree, it will likely be hard and challenging, a sign that it will be well worth it.
Hi Cathy! Welcome to my blog. Yes in the long run this will be more than worth it for all of us. I think we will have a lot to learn from each other.
What a beautiful story and loving heart. I look forward to reading about your experiences. Such a wonderful way to reach out to others in this chaotic world, creating peace one person at a time.
New reader here, but wow, what a great reminder that there are actual people ALL OVER the world that are impacted by what is going on there.
What a gift to have family like you to make this kind of difference
…never known life without war… what a huge statement that is. we make statements all the time like that…kids out west have never known real rain… But to have never known life without war is huge, and will take a lot of time to adjust to, how lovely that you can support your husbands family this way, from my point of view it can only enrich your own life and wellbeing, after all, what are we here on earth for, if not to look after one another, blessings and good thoughts coming your way xo
ta Vickie, I will be sure to post more when they get here
Welcome Paige, there are so many people impacted by war that we never see. The effects trickle down world wide from our soldiers and their families, to civilians and their families, to aid workers and their families, to the environment, to the economy, and continues still to trickle down to the next generation.
Thank you for the blessing Kyles! Gladly accepted! We are going in with a positive attitude, determined to make it work.
[...] day my husband called me at work about receiving Treasures from Baghdad …life for a moment seemed surreal…like it just stopped all of a sudden to take a [...]
Dear Indigo-Daisy
Salaama
I’m very touched by your responses to my poems, and now that I’ve spent some time at your blog even more so at your own story, and that of your family.
Below is a poem written when we were visting our son and daughter-in-law in London and their new baby, and we hadn’t had any babies in our household for many years…
_____
BABY’S CRY IN THE NIGHT
When a baby wakes up in the middle of the night
making cries like the ripping of wood and water
you can almost see the commotion of angels
in a vortex above her in the blackness
The entire village is asleep and only
wolves prowling with incandescent eyes
through the sleeping streets might hear her
among the living creatures
She’s in pre-speech and this is her only
articulation almost forming later words
these cries might ignite into being
She stops to listen for a reply
The mother wide awake waits for her
to find the answer for herself
And when she finally falls back to
sleep she almost seems to have found it
_____________
I’d like to send you my newest published book, The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak, if you’ll email me your address.
My prayers are with you and your husband and the new addition both to your house and our country (with some slow inchings toward reparation?), and all who have suffered in this tragic war.
Salaama Daniel,
Your poetry is like a painted canvas, or an illustration from a storybook, one needn’t even remember the words.
I can visualize the dear little one “stopping to listen for a reply” and the mother “waiting for her to find the answer herself”. It is something we continue to do long after they find their own voice.
Thank you kindly for your prayers, they are gladly accepted and will surly help our situation. I have opened my heart to the divine for guidance and feel that all will be as it is meant to be.
How generous of you to offer me your book, I am so honored as I have loved every poem that you posted for it and was waiting to see when it would be published. To this day I can still visualize “The Drunken Solider”. There is something about the way you write that resonates well with me and seems to calm my spirit.
Blessings you you and your family and many many thanks,
Deborah