So Very Thankful..

This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for this beautiful six (almost seven) year old girl who has been home with us for four and half years.  The progress that we have seen her make in the last few months has been beyond anything we could have hoped for in those first months home when she was so isolated and broken.  God continues to restore her bit by bit.

He continues to put people in her life to love her, build her up, and push her to be all she can be.  She sat at the table this very weekend next to her sisters and played a game that I  made out of cups, pipe

cleaners, and beads.  She willingly came to the table, signed work, and played for several rounds.  This momma couldn't hold back the tears to see her interacting with her siblings.  She put pipe cleaner feathers in her turkey, rolled a dice, used her nova chat to name the number she rolled, and put that amount of beads on her feather all to complete her turn in the game.  She even seemed to keep "getting" six as if she understood that she could win if she rolled six.

He continues to use her in our lives to teach us so much.  She can now smile for a photograph.  When you say smile, she looks at the camera and smiles.  To this momma, her smile is priceless.  She loves so big, and, because I fought so hard and prayed so much for her heart to receive me, there is nothing like her signing "I love you".  Oh, this girl can reduce me to tears in no time flat when she is loving her family.

He has shown us the value in the smallest accomplishments

as she faces so many challenges.  We watch her living out life when it seemed she would be trapped in her own world forever and are so very blessed that she is our baby girl.  She is sitting at the table regularly playing playdough right along side her sisters.  AND...At nearly six now, she has potty trained.  WAHOOOOOO!!!  It has been so easy as she was ready to do it!

She continues to fill our home with much joy!  We love, love, love her and are so blessed to be able to call her our daughter.