10 December, 2007

My Regal Brow



When I was living in Ecuador I met a darling Ecuadorian who was slightly mentally handicapped, completely deaf and completely committed to teaching HER Gringa (trust me, I belonged to her) to sign. She was a gem! She worked at the orphanage where I volunteered, so we had lots of time together. One day after work, she grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me out the door and up the street. . . we seriously trecked for like 3 miles to a corner of the city I'd never seen. . . for a second I actually got a little nervous; I wondered if this was going to end up as the type of freak thing people would later watch on dateline. We finally made it to this little house tucked between two tall buildings. She knocked on the door and then just let herself in, all the while dragging me along. Suddenly two American Senior Citizens with skin as white as their hair came around he corner and started speed signing back and forth with my kidnapper. After a few moments the old woman says to me, "she wants to give you a name in sign." "Ok?" I respond, still a little jostled from our freakish journey. Then she (kidnapper) does some sign I'd never seen that involves the waving of the hand near the forehead. Then old woman repeats it to her, kidnapper then repeats it back a second time at which point old woman turns to me and says, "this is the sign she wants you to be known by" she proceeds to repeat the sign again, this time in my direction. "Great!" I say, now smiling first of all to keep from laughing out loud, and second because I think it's so sweet that she dragged me all the way here because she had no way to tell me that she wanted to "name" me. Ha ha ha. . . "what does it mean" I ask. It means "girl with a big forehead. She says your forehead is huge." At this point I did laugh out loud and all I could think to say was, "I prefer 'regal.'"

Anyway, I saw this picture yesterday and thought to myself "my your forehead is huge" and then this memory of my crazy afternoon in Cuenca flooded my mind and I wanted to share. Anyway, enjoy a laugh on me.

7 comments:

Annie Link said...

Natalie, I think your entire face is BEAUTIFUL. Chin to forehead--every inch of it is perfection! (And this opinion has absolutely no connection to the fact that I happen to be the genetic origin of your Regal Brow.) -Natalie's mom

Heather said...

I love that story, and I love your forehead! I have never thought that you have a big forehead, and the first thing I thought of when I saw this photo was," that's a great photo of Nat!". You're so pretty!

Jessica said...

You look beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I was so WRAPPED UP in that story, Nat! I LOVE it! How have we never heard it before? By the way, I saw your picture and it actually kind of "took me back" with how beautiful you are. I know that's not the reaction you expected to that story! Hahaha! Sorry -- just true!

.From Her. said...

I'm with Shelly! When I first saw the picture, I thought (INSTANTLY!), "Wow, she looks so great!" It's a flawless picture.

'Way to try and ruin it for me...It didn't work. You are still Beautiful Natalie.

AJ said...

Natalie-
Who doesn't think they have a big forehead? We are all with ya and it so not true. When I first got my braces off I never wanted smile because I felt like I had gum for kernels. They were HUGE! How can our minds have such misconceptions? We are beautiful. We are women. We are great.
P.S. Please tell Raleigh Roo that we will definitely name one of our children Wilbur and what a great name. He is genius.

Gibson Gang said...

Natalie,

What a gorgeous pic! So brave to take a dead-on shot (I'm afraid to, don't want to see the outcome). You look amazing. This story made me laugh because one thing I learned while studying ASL in college was that the deaf community is extremely BLUNT! Painfully so! I have a few stories of my own!!

p.s. We had the "free flying" conversation recently! Don't you love it? :)
I have a lot of those kind of conversations with Maika... so much fun, yet,exhausting! Recently, Maika wanted to know exactly how the baby comes out of my tummy. I wasn't quite ready for that one... he's only 4!