Speaking the Truth in Love

How do you tell an 8 year old that all the plans that have been made are no longer true?
How do you tell her that she is NOT going home in nine days, that her country is unsafe right now, that there are people burning cars in the streets.
Very carefully...and with much prayer.
I started with..."something in haiti is not good". Your family is OK. There are angry people doing bad things. Schools are closed. The markets and banks are closed. The Embassy is closed. I HAD her attention now.
I brought up the news story on the computer and did the slide show for her, telling her where the things were happening. Her response was in english..."OH my goodness! Oh my Gosh! Look at that!...Oh My Goodness" (No garde La!) All in English. She knew the places we were seeing. She knew it was her country.
I told her that travel in haiti was NOT safe right now. Schools were closed. People were staying in their houses to be safe. She would be staying with me for a while longer until the embassy said it was safe to travel again.
We prayed for her family, her country and for safety and peace. We prayed for God to help her return to her family soon.
She wanted to know that her family was safe. We phoned her sister, and her Godmother. Her papas phone must be affected, because we couldn't get a ring through to him.

She wanted to make sure that she could still ride the horse on saturday, and that she could have a "fet" (birthday) in America. I assured her that she could.
She held onto to me very tight for a while and buried her little face into my neck and we just rocked for awhile. I told her that I would take her back later, maybe May or June. She said that she was OK.
She slept alright last night, but she's been testing the rules a bit tonight and is a little irritable. I guess I would be irritable too if I was going to spend my birthday away from my twin for the first time in my life. Her birthday is April 25th. She will be 9 years old.
I can't imagine what is going through her little mind. She never cried. I can't say the same about me. I let her see my tears.
We never anticipated this turn in her journey, but we put our trust in the designer of this roller coaster ride a long time ago. I guess we'll just fasten our seat belts again and see where this all leads. Praise the Lord in all things...at all times. Blessed Be the Name of the Lord! Cynthia