Hard to ask, harder to hear …

Last updated on: June 28, 2010 at 12:00 am by Cathleen Falsani

Hard to ask, harder to hear … 2010-06-28T00:00:00-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

They day after the High Court approved Vasco’s adoption in Malawi, we went back out to visit with his extended family in Chileka, one of the poorest sections/districts of a really poor city in one of the poorest countries in the world. That’s where Vasco lived, on and off, for an undetermined period of time after his mother and father’s deaths and living on the streets.

The family tells one version of the truth about how their desperately sick, orphaned nephew ended up begging on the streets. Vasco has another. We read between the lines and have our own idea of what happened and it’s not pretty. It’s maddening. As his mother, it makes me want to thrash a few people. Some of them are in the video below.

This is some footage I shot on my iPhone (before AT&T turned it off, bastardos) while Rob Feldman (the co-producer of the documentary film being made, “Vasco’s Heart,” interviewed the family at length on camera while Francisco (we love him so) shot beautiful footage, much prettier than this version. But this was easier to upload and … well … you get the story.

The fact that Vasco lived through all of this with such an incredibly sweet spirit intact is part of the miracle of his life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFbx22EJ3Uw&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1

Seated between Rob and Vasco’s uncle, Mavuto, in the video is James Phiri, one of the many angels God dropped into our lives on our journey to becoming a family, was our luck-of-the-draw (if you believe in such things – I don’t) driver hired along with our rental SUV. James is a beautiful man of faith and, among many talents and blessings, he speaks Yao, which turns out to be the tribal language that the older members of Vasco’s extended family are most comfortable conversing in, rather than the national language, Chichewa, or English. He was our translator, guide, driver, protector and really became a member of our family through the month he was with us. He was unflappable, deeply cool – like Dusty Baker cool. We had a car accident one day and he was more concerned about the woman who blindsided us and how she’d be able to pay for her repairs than he was for the rental vehicle for which he was responsible. He got pulled over in a speed trap on another occasion and just laughed. This man is an angel. We consider him a Big Brother to Vasco and we miss him terribly. So grateful for this man’s grace and elegance and generosity of spirit.

Previous Post

June 26, 2010

AN OPEN LETTER TO MADONNA: THANK YOU, FROM ONE MOTHER TO ANOTHER

Next Post

June 28, 2010 Kondanani Children's Village: Shelter in the storm

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A little happy ARCHIVED COLUMNS BECOMING FAMILY BelieberNess BREAKING NEWS! Disquiet Time DJ JEFF'S SPINTASMS falsani FILM from OCRegister From Sojo.net God Nods GODSTUFF I Take Requests incubatespirit LURKING IN THE NARTHEX On My Nightstand ONEMOMS Polling the Room PONTIFEXCELLENT Thru My Eyes TWO CENTS Uncategorized Upcoming Events VASCO VASCO'S HEART

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 October 2003 March 2003 December 2002 October 2002 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many times does the word "Christian" appear in the Bible?

Select your answer to see how you score.

7 10 3 12