What The Chick-Fil-A Cow Says About Our Life

This picture was taken last year, when Little Girl had only been home from Ethiopia 3 months and she met the Chick-Fil-A cow for the 1st time:

She really loved the cow, but see that look on her face?  That look on her face as she took in yet another new and strange thing about her new life in America, and the question she must have asked in her mind a billion times that first year -- is this good or bad?  Am I safe or not safe?

It is 16 months, exactly today, since we brought home a 27 lb. non-English speaking Ethiopian 3 year old as our daughter.  We've watched her blossom into a 35 lb very fluent, talkative, English speaking Ethiopian/American 4 year old!  The past 16 months have been such a whirlwind of joy, pain, laughter, tears, new experiences, screaming, tremendous blessing and hard work.  Really, it has been a privilege to walk this road, but honestly, most days I'm just exhausted!  Between our new Little Girl and the other 3 children, there's been little margin of time to reflect, which is a huge reason I keep up this little blog, to process my life as it unfolds so fast.  But, it's impossible to adequately capture all that has happened from that moment we stepped off an airplane from Ethiopia with our Little Girl until now.  However, I think these cow pictures illustrate a bit of what I'm talking about.

Here is the one year later, just a couple weeks ago, when she met the cow again (he changed shirts and added a hat) at the same annual event:

She loved him this year, too.  But, look at her face here -- confidence!

We've learned in our adoption classes that when children feel safe they begin to blossom -- socially, mentally, physically.  If they know that their world is safe, everything can build on top of that.

This time they even danced!

Is all this to say that things are perfect now?  That all the hard work is done?  Not a chance, but we've come a long way, Baby!

We are continually in awe of the work that God has done in the life our Little Girl!