kauya

The only man who has held my heart in his hands is just under four feet tall.
With his smile, he has taken my love and run away with it in his bare feet.
My heart is satisfied when he snuggles into my arms.
His sunshine sweeps me off my feet.

I saw him today. I saw this sweet boy for the first time in almost six months.

Out in the village where there is no dust, just bright green grass, sunshine, and water puddles.
It's a different world than the one I left a few short months ago.
Kauya is different too, physically different. He is so thin, his frame so tiny.
He is so different that I could barely recognize his little figure from a distance.

We walked down to the new house being built in Chongwe, assessing the damage to its roof from the violent storm the night before.
Just before I entered the shell of a house, I saw him walking a good distance away and looking down towards me. I was not sure if it was him. I yelled "Kauya!". He raised his tiny little hand straight up in the air. It was him.

I let my joy and excitement just take me over. I started running through all kinds of mud, sediment, green mossy puddles. I didn't even look down. He was running too, in his pink crocs.

His tiny body took a leap up into my arms.

He was shy today, a new dynamic of his larger-than-life personality. His arms wrapped tightly around and his head pressed into my neck. He breathed the same relieved words over and over....Mama Mary, Mama Mary, Mama Mary.

I never knew my prince would be an orphan.