Pow! Pow!

James says he has good teeth because he chewed in rocks!! He did tell me seriously that, if a tooth got a hole in it, he used to clean it out and put a little pebble in it. Today Peter complained of a loose tooth. I told him it was only a baby tooth and if he pulled it out, I would give him the leftover strawberry icecream we made for Sunday dinner. James gleefully volunteered to help him, and the two of them disappeared into their bedroom. I told them no punching.Apparently they tied dental floss around it and yanked.

Normally a buddy would give a fist to the cheek of the one with the loose tooth. Peter demonstrated by spitting on each fist and then, pow! pow! James demonstrates the fist to the teeth routine so easily, and the three-thrust punch-and-kick so smoothly, complete with sound efects and a big grin, that I think it was a normal part of defending himself on the streets and in the orphanage. Just survival. He will be sought after for the school football team because of his spunk! I used to fell so sad for those little "street kids", but never thought we would get to adopt one.

It is hard to imagine, because he has such a peaceful, intelligent face, loves poetry, is writing his own life story, has memorized the Lord's prayer, a number of verses about faith and can quote the books of the New Testament. All of this with little or no prompting from me, on his own initiative, and all in English.

He has memorized the Beatitudes to music, his favorite portion being the verse, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." He really does love righteousness and sings that phrase over and over. Of course he also loves being filled rather than hungry!

He looks forward to meeting his new Grandpa next week in Canada and asked if he could go on pastoral visits with him to the jail. "I could tell the guys my story," he said. Sorry, they don't let 12 year olds do pastoral counselling.