Operation GraceLove

Mistah and I make a calendar every year.

It's a year full of Bill's beautiful photos and we put it together in December and give it to assorted family and friends at Christmastime.

It's a pretty great calendar, if we do say so ourselves, and oh we do.

A few years ago, our great and glorious friend Jessica brought hers with her to South Sudan where she works tirelessly and fearlessly with MSF (Doctors Without Borders to us English-speaking types) and she reported to us that her great and glorious colleague Grace loved the calendar too.

We've never met Grace but we've heard so much about her -- what a remarkable woman she is, how smart and educated and hard-working and unique she is in her adopted country. As Jessica said, "And Grace is just, well, you can't be near Grace and not feel good."

So the next time Jessica went back to South Sudan, we sent a calendar back with her for Grace. And Grace loved it.

When we made the calendar for this year, we asked Jessica -- who was not headed to South Sudan this time around -- how one could go about getting a calendar from New London, Connecticut, USA to Juba, South Sudan.

If you know Jessica, you know that she does not take this kind of challenge lightly. Operation GraceLove was born.

Jessica reached out to her MSF friends who might be headed to various countries in Africa and who might be willing to carry a package to Grace in Juba, but nobody was conveniently headed that way.

And then Jessica was hired as medical coordinator for the Somalia mission, based in Nairobi.

Although Kenya and South Sudan are abutting countries, Nairobi and Juba are about a zillion miles apart, plus each woman was firmly ensconced working in her own country. During covid.

But if you know Jessica, you know once she was on the African continent, that calendar was going to get to Grace.

(that was meant to be "compasses" obviously ... damn auto-correct)

(we riff on this for a while, folks . . . )

"If only," we continued . . . "if only . . . "

Jessica kept me apprised and updated throughout the entire international operation . . . 

But then, a fly in the ointment! The calendar was on its way to Juba, but Grace was going on maternity leave the following day, which was also a holiday in South Sudan . . . 

. . . it was a race against time.

 

And then?

Last week Grace preformed a miracle of her own:

Grace asked Jessica to name the baby ("South Sudanese culture is so different.")

I asked: "Well? What's the name?"

"There's no way I'm naming that baby."

Then, finally . . . 

On Thursday Jessica texted, "Get ready... to cry..."

I assumed Grace named her little one Jessica -- because I certainly would have.

Nope.

Samreen Ellie!

That's right, my friends. I have found myself with a perfect, gorgeous little South Sudanese namesake. I'm beside myself with joy and love and incredulity and honor and I am utterly gobsmacked.

And the fact that I'm my Mom's namesake? Well, if you're sitting on a chair, this is the part when you fall off. Jessica certainly did.

Welcome to the world, Samreen Ellie. We already love you like crazy.

Oh, and Operation GraceLove? That was a success, too.

Grace got her calendar.