11/5/2006
Wow, so much I want to share and probably not enough time or space to do it. First, I haven't updated words in a few days. Today I started writing down some of the "newer" words...I was amazed. (I apologize if I have listed any previously). The newest list includes "beso and embrazo" ("kiss and hug" in Spanish), Guatemala (sounds SO cute from her little mouth), yum, yuck, clean up, pumpkin (says VERY plainly), "go bye", tired (every time she yawns), "this" (like "What is this?"), Gotcha, Boo!, Halloween, brush (she LOVES to brush her teeth and asks to do it several times a day), Cheerios, milk, Grampops (my dad), hug, down, and pizza. As you can see, she has learned a LOT of words! We are amazed at her 100+ vocabulary in just two short months. (She understands much more than what she says.) We are seeing her slowly start to string words together, like "go bye". She is also starting to use them to communicate need, like "Eat. Nana." (banana, her favorite fruit) It just amazes me.
We had a very nice day today. Shhh, don't tell anyone, but we stayed home. It was raining all night, the kids were sleeping well (unusual on the weekends!), we were all snuggled up in bed, and we decided to stay home and enjoy some family time. We haven't "skipped" church in...gee, I don't remember the last time. The last time we missed was when we went to Guatemala I think. I don't recommend doing it often, but we truly enjoyed the time at home. We didn't even do anything worth reporting really. Just spent time together. Oh, one thing we DID do was watch some video from our June trip. Maria thought it was neat seeing herself on t.v. I was very interested to see how she would react to the video of the Hogar. She didn't. She showed no reaction. She looked up and repeated one of the Hogar worker's names when I said it, but otherwise she just went back to playing. I don't know what I was expecting, but not that. We are amazed at the child on the video (all scowls) and the child before us (majority of the time smiles). I am not saying in any way she was unhappy at the Hogar. I know that our visits were very stressful for her, especially knowing how she is with transitions. But I will say that we truly enjoy the child we have with us and are so pleased to see there was a little personality beneath those dark clouded eyes and scowls. It is NOT always easy. And I know we don't do everything right. But together, we are learning how to be a family. And it has been such a blessing. We are blessed to have you, Maria Elizabeth.
As you can see, Maria is very interested in praying now. Every time I sit down for a meal, she has her little hands folded, ready and waiting. And then we pray at bedtime, and even before I kiss her, she thinks she needs to pray again! I hope one day she will truly understand what a privilege it is to go to God in prayer. And I hope she knows someday when she goes through an "angry" time at being adopted, how we feel like prayers and most of all God, brought her to our family...
Thank you for being part of that! |
