Charles Hedrick Birthday and Poetry Month: Expat Kid

Charles Hedrick examines a 4th Century Coptic manuscript

Coptic Museum, Cairo, Egypt

c. 1974

 

Today marks a Very Important Birthday for renown Bible scholar, theologian, author, teacher, celebrated rabble rouser and poet, Charles Hedrick. In honor of this great event, I offer 4 blog posts as 80-word poems (I'm not saying which, but one of these numbers is significant to Charles's birthday).

 

To learn more about this great man I get to call Dad:

 

Read Charlie's blog at: http://blog.charleshedrick.com

Visit Charlie's website at: http://www.charleshedrick.com

 

Hedrick family

Cairo, Egypt

c. 1974

 

Expat Kid

 

the top of Egypt's

pyramid is flat

strewn with large stones and

ancient graffiti

 

below, minarets

dome topped mosques the Nile

a green stripe carved through

endless miles of sand

 

where expat kids took

saddled horses to

Sahara City

without permission

 

trouble with Dad but

opportunity

for life lessons like

don't be stupid plan

 

live wonder grow get

the degree study

language culture seize

possibility

 

pray risk dream praise God

climb pyramids, and

leave a note before

long desert journeys

 

Expat kid meets Henry Kissinger (sort of)

Coptic Museum, Old Cairo

 

On Growing Up Overseas

 

They're army brats like my mother, the lawyer, Peggy Hedrick (visit her popular website about all things law here: http://www.peggyhedrick.com). They're children of ambassadors, oil execs, teachers, contractors, doctors, missionaries and scholarly PhD's working on the translation and conservation of ancient documents found in remotest regions of the Arabian desert.

 

Expat kids come in all nationalities, colors, shapes and sizes and are found in interesting places across the planet, including Doha, Grand Rapids, Los Angeles, Taipei and more. They play soccer in Paris on Tuesday and debate in London on Thursday. They speak English, Arabic, French and German before breakfast and ride streetcars to school.

 

It's a charmed life with an edge, as a Scottish-American-Doha-expat-married-to-a-Texan-raised-in-England-with-three-children-born-in-three-different-countries-looking-at-colleges-in-Holland-Switzerland-Colorado-Texas reminded me: expat kids experience the world, but miss out on family stuff other kids take for granted. Like stopping by Grandma's after school for a hug and snack, weekend overnights with cousins and tough talking Harley riding across the street neighbors named Shane who will scare off the bad guys and may or may not have changed your diaper.

 

To some expat kids, ice cream with Grandma is right up there with the weekend safari and China's Great Wall.

 

Expat kids are as different as grains of sand in the desert. But whether the overseas period lasts a year like mine, my sister's and brother's or an entire childhood - there are two things the expat kids I know seem to have in common: tales of crazy what-were-you-thinking life altering adventure; and an understated appreciation for the uniqueness of the opportunity until it's long past.

 

Because when you're a kid, whether living abroad or at home, it doesn't matter if you're waterskiing Table Rock Lake, Missouri or Doha Bay, Qatar. As long as you're loved, scaling Giza's pyramids and learning to milk a dairy cow in the U.S. landlocked Midwest are, well, just - part of life.

 

Happy Birthday Dad! Sorry (again) about the horseback-riding-Sahara-City thing. And the Beatlemania thing in London. And lots of other things. You're pretty awesome for a rabble rousing 4 or 80 year old. Thanks for loving me no matter where we are in the world.