Wednesday, January 11, 2012

It's like she's always been here.

 You know I never understood before when I'd hear adoptive parents who had recently taken custody of a new child say, "It's like he/she has always been here."

Now, I get it.  I totally get it!

Our new little girl has only been home about 2.5 weeks, in our arms forever just over 3 weeks ago.  And it's so hard for me to believe those numbers are so small, I mean of course I remember time without her here.  I definitely remember all the hard days of waiting for her to be able to come home.  But, she just fits so well in our family that sometimes it really does feel like she's always been here.  

I keep having to remind myself that my daughter lived in an orphanage just 3.5 weeks ago!

I still have piles of random stuff I'm tackling.  Things not yet put away after our trip to Ethiopia, new things we got for Christmas that need a place to belong, mail that has entered our house any time in the last 4 weeks, etc., and today I came across the photo book that I took with us to Ethiopia when we took placement of our daughter.  It is an exact copy of the one I left in the care center with her after our 1st trip when we met her, the staff gave it to her after we passed court and were officially her parents (which happened on Oct. 20th).  This is the book she got to hold on to of her family when we could not be with her.  We flipped through the book a lot during our week together in Ethiopia before coming home, talking about her siblings and her house, but then I kinda forgot about the photo book once we were home.  It got stuck in a pile.  I came across it today and little girl was excited to see it, "Photo!  Photo!" she cheered and carried it around much of the day.

Here she is pointing to her referral and update pictures that I included in the book, because it was her family book, of course there would be pictures of her in it, too!


I was so excited for her to be given this photo book while she was in the care center in Ethiopia, really, really wanting her to know she had a family coming for her.

And now she has the real thing.  A family, not just pictures of "her family" to hang on to.


In awe of God's goodness!


Find more Thankful Thursday here.

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