How do you answer this?

My Captain that I work for almost broke my heart tonight. Or maybe it was the children that were breaking my heart. You decide. How would you have answered? Keep in mind what is really best for the children, not just the emotions of your heart. Search your heart for what is best in God's eyes. I'll leave it open-ended for you to decide, but here is the story...

Tonight we went back to a friends house that we visited last week for the celebration of his new baby girl. Veseli is a bodyguard for one of the TMK Generals that we work with. The TMK is currently a civil disaster reaction force in Kosovo that my section is partially responsible for their supervision and training. Veseli is a great friendly guy and treated us to more hospitality then we deserved when we were there to celebrate a good thing for him! He has many children, 6 or 7 if I understand correctly. Last week we played with a few of them throughout the evening. Tonight, there were more then last week! Haha. Funny how the word spreads about soldiers and how much the kids want to be around them. The children range from the new two week old, a one and a half year old boy, a one and a half year old girl, a two year old boy, a 5 year old boy, a 6 year old girl, and then Jeneta who will be 8 years old tomorrow. Jeneta was one that we heavily played/talked with last week and I was interacting with her again.

Veseli was telling us how Jeneta has always told him that she wants to go and live in America for the "good life." Interesting how many people still believe in the dream of America and just want to get there for a better life. My captain was telling Veseli and Jeneta that next year for her birthday they should come visit him on his farm and he would have us soldiers (myself and our other sergeant) come there as well. Of course she is interested in it and my captain gave her one of his business cards to include his home email address and phone number on it. She treasured that. A little while later Jeneta is curled up under my arm and trying to learn to read the business card that my captain had given her. She is asking what everything says on it and I'm teaching her to say all of the words. Veseli and my captian were talking about how Veseli would really like for all of his kids to go to America and be raised there and taught in school there. The captain was explaining how it might be possible but they would definitely need to learn their English first so they would not be too much of a delay in getting them transitioned into school in America as well. They were talking for quite a bit and I hadn't realized how serious they were and all they must have been saying until my captain told me to come over there a minute because he seriously needed to talk to me about this. (I was only a seat away to begin with.) Jeneta slid down from the chair we are sitting on and I went and sat next to my captain. Jeneta knew what he was talking to me about because she came over and rested her elbows on my leg and propped her head up there and listened to everything the captain was saying to me. It would have been tough enough without her there, let alone her right there in front of me cuddled up. I'm being asked if I would be willing to move to Illinois and raise Veseli's children. Not all at once but a few at a time is how they would bring them over and I could take care of them. The captain was seriously proposing to me that he would purchase a trailer to put on his farm for me to live in with the kids. All I would have to worry about was some job that I could pay the utilities for the trailer and he would take care of the rest. My job would be to raise the kids and help integrate them into America. He even told me if I have a significant other that she could come along and together we could raise the kids. He asked what I thought about that? He told me that this isn't just a question to answer tonight, but something for me to think about as this would change the course of my life.

Here is Jeneta:



How would you answer that?

[Don't misunderstand me. I'm leaving this open ended not because I don't know my answer, but because this story doesn't need my answer. It's more something for you to question yourself. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in a comment. I'd love to hear your opinion of this matter and have it shared with others.]

[BTW, we are returning tomorrow to Veseli's house. You see from when we had been there last week and interacted with Jeneta, she asked her father Veseli if he would call the Americans and ask us to come to their house for her birthday. So tomorrow we head back again, as undeserving guests for a very special little girl's birthday.]