A Buddhist and a Baptist....

A Buddhist and a Baptist walked into my door the other day...
Sounds like a joke, huh?
No, really, it is the truth.
I have this sweet, fun-loving little girl who lives next to me. I have watched her blossom over the year that we have been living here. She used to sort of get on my nerves, it was like having a fourth child around. Now she is much more teenager, but the good responsible, yet still fun kind. She comes over every afternoon after she is done with her homework, to hang out and play with the kids. Luckily, the religion thing has never once come up, and I am so glad. Normally I would want to share our thoughts on the Universe, but frankly, her Mother scares me. Her Mom owns this restaurant about an hour away from here, and she is there from early in the morning until late at night every day. She is from Vietnam. She is old enough to be my mother, but she has a 12 year old. She is the strictest parent I have ever known. She was yelling at her daughter about getting a 96.9% on on a big science project telling her she should have turned it in early to find out if she could have fixed something! I mean, come on, the girl has to wear long skirts to school every day, and feed herself, and stay in a cold, lonely house until at least 11:30, with no one to guide and protect her. I think she is doing pretty well for herself. It is probably good that her mother isn't there so much or she would go nuts. Poor girl, I am sure if her Mother ends up being around more, she will totally be rebellious in her teenage years. I think she enjoys being around here, because it is fun and easy.
She is a good influence on my kids. She teaches them songs, and shows them showtunes on the computer, plays her violin for us, and is currently trying to teach Laila how to play the piano (though not being very successful at it). So, I put up with babysitting her kitten away from my kids who torment the poor thing every afternoon.

Then there is the Buddhist.
I wrote a blog about a patient of Doug's who has a very sick daughter. We went to their house and had the most amazing dinner, and conversation. She is bringing her daughter in and after two adjustments, HUGE improvements! They are doing a trade of service with us (gotta love those trades!- haircuts, massages, handyman work, printing) she is cooking for us three times a week. We get amazing Sri Lankan cuisine (which is like Indian food with a lot of coconut!). I am in heaven not having to come up with a boring dinner of usually eggs 3 nights a week!
We have good long talks about health, and Buddhism. She is going to take us to her temple soon too, which I am totally excited to visit!

So, they were both in our house, the sweet Baptist girl on the brink of rebellion, and this sweet little Sri Lankan Buddhist, chatting it up like a big family. Life is definitely interesting in the St.Martin household these days!