Mom and Hazel

we are continually being challenged by our two year old. Hazel Basil. she loves life so much! and she expects a lot out of it. her passions run deep and she is on a mission most days. she insists that our number system goes 1,2,3,6,8,9,10...there is no room for 4,5 or 7 and she really believes this! how her little brain works in both indonesian and english is quite amazing...i can see she understands so much indonesian. i think she believes she is actually Paul or Gavin's age and this is what gets her into so much frustration. she really WANTS to be able to do and think like they do...writing, drawing, communicating, running, swimming, going...but some things just can't be done at their level yet! because of her strong will, she spends a part of every day crying/yelling about not getting her way...and she doesn't give up easily! with her smile and quick wit, she wins people over in an instant here and all the neighbors and friends love her. they don't understand this "other side" and they can't stand to hear her cry. i say all this because we are having "a time" trying to be consistant with her. when we are here alone, she knows our rules. (and doesn't always like them) when we are with her and there are Indonesians around, she knows there is a different standard and she will get her way with them. when we aren't with her and she is with our Indonesian helpers only...i can only imagine her world is perfect! this culture doesn't want to hear children cry so they tend to get whatever they want to keep them from crying. most kids i see though, don't show that much emotion or strong will...so i just wonder what they do here with "hazel's" born into the culture? i wonder what that looks like? we are trying to figure it out for ourselves and right now we feel a little bit like our hands are tied to how we truly want to parent her because raising her is a community effort here. we have had to hand over the right to single handedly raise her because we are in language school. they know we are weird and have foreign ideas but i think hazel is beginning to think we are weird and have foreign ideas as well! so i write all this to ask you to pray for wisdom in raising our kids. i know a lot of you read this cuz you care about them...and i know you pray already...just giving a little more specific ways to do so! God has made her with a special purpose and he has made us to be her parents...so this all fits but we still need good wisdom and humor and flexibility and stability and love...about all...we need love!