It is so wonderful to see Sarah become more comfortable in our family- truly a miracle only God could have orchestrated! She has done especially well this time with all the older children around. Her personal growth has amazed us!
Sometime the conversations can be very superficial and a little frustrating. There are a few language and comprehension issues. I have longed and prayed for more meaningful conversations with our daughter.
Today we received a Christmas card from her orphanage in Ch*na. It was addressed to hubby and I but it had her Chinese name on the address! She was so happy to see it written in Chinese and recognized it right away! That brought on a bunch of memories and she began talking. Talking about everything! I have noticed that her ramblings often start out factual and then drift into fantasy, but she had my complete attention. I could tell she meant what she was saying. She talked about her life in the orphanage, about people who where nice and those that were not nice. She told stories about school and how she cared for the babies. She spoke of some that died and some older children that never had the surgeries they needed.
That conversation lead into her Momma's heart for the orphans. How every child needs to have a Mommy and a Daddy. She was right there with me- for the first time I could tell she genuinely agreed. We talked about adopting her sisters- Emma and Ellie and whoever else God had in mind for our family. We talked about helping other orphans find their families- it was a good conversation. A really good one! She did not feel intimidated or threatened, she was so comfortable.
We talked about her life in China. She said she was so glad we came to get her quickly! Earlier she wondered why didn't we come when she was a baby, like Anna. We told her that Ch*na had not put her up for adoption and as soon as they did we grabbed her quick. Right away we saw her picture and right away we grabbed her! We new God wanted her to be our daughter!
She told us she was so glad we brought her home. We talked again how she is our daughter FOREVER! She likes the sound of that a lot! She is happy that Emma and Ellie will be in our family and that they will have a forever family, too. Of course, I do know there will be many "feelings" amongst the crew once everyone is home. We will work through it and become a family once again.
We have had conversations of life after the orphanage. She has seen many older orphans become caretakers at the orphanage. She has seen some of them leave, never to be heard from again. Today- it really dawned on her what would she be doing without her family, what would her future have been like? Today she said to us " I don't know what I would have done?"
I am not saying this in order to show her gratitude or to make us into heroes. I am saying this for all the other orphans that need a home. What will they do when they age out?
