Family tree trimming party 2012... or the gift of older child adoption
I know I have written a lot about the challenges in older child adoption, but to give a really balanced view, I also need to share the joys. And if I had to describe H. in very few words, joyful would be right there at the top. It is amazing to me that a child who has been through so much in her short life and endured so many potentially life shattering changes, can continue to smile and take such joy in life.
And let me tell you, this girl LOVES Christmas. She loves everything single thing about it. Just seeing lights in people's yards sends her into raptures. Just seeing the decorations everywhere was enough for her, but it just keeps getting better. First, she discovered that Christmas is actually a giant birthday party. (And we know that H. loves birthdays.) She didn't believe us at first, but I think she pretty much understands now that Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday.
(And the biased mother in me can't help sharing how G. told me it all works. Gigi announces to me in the car the other day, "Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday. And He gets presents. But we open the presents for Him because He is just a little tiny baby. And He gets toys!! He will get a pandy bear.")
But back to my story... Then H. realized we were buying a Christmas tree to put in our house and that we were going to put lights on it and were going to decorate it. She is thrilled. The whole thing makes her smile. And seeing her smile and be so excited makes me smile. What a gift to be able to share this with her.
So you can imagine that she really loved our tree trimming party yesterday. We had treats. We ordered pizza. M. came home with one of her roommates for the afternoon. And we listened to Christmas music, decorated the tree, enjoyed each others company, decided that blueberry covered goat cheese is really, really good, and just generally had fun. We even managed to get a picture taken of all of us for our Christmas card. And for those therapeutic parents out there... no melt downs, or even near misses. It was just a really pleasant afternoon.
After dinner we lit our Advent candles and sang around the piano. No mishaps this week, we're getting back into practice. Well, the singers are getting back into practice, my piano playing is a completely different story. We're having some friends over later this month to sing carols and I really need to spend some time actually practicing. Let's just say it's a good thing my family doesn't mind laughing at my playing as it currently stands.
I'll put pictures on the Ordinary Time facebook page. I am not thrilled with this solution, and have found instructions about how to switch from Blogger to Word Press without loosing any Google standings or links. (Because the internet world is all about what Google thinks of you, you know.) But while I'm sure the person writing the instructions felt he was being clear, it makes about as much sense to me as reading Vietnamese. I recognize a word here or there, but not nearly enough to make any sense of it. My tech support person (AKA M.) has promised to look at it when she gets home and see if it makes any sense to her. We'll see.
And let me tell you, this girl LOVES Christmas. She loves everything single thing about it. Just seeing lights in people's yards sends her into raptures. Just seeing the decorations everywhere was enough for her, but it just keeps getting better. First, she discovered that Christmas is actually a giant birthday party. (And we know that H. loves birthdays.) She didn't believe us at first, but I think she pretty much understands now that Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday.
(And the biased mother in me can't help sharing how G. told me it all works. Gigi announces to me in the car the other day, "Christmas is Baby Jesus' birthday. And He gets presents. But we open the presents for Him because He is just a little tiny baby. And He gets toys!! He will get a pandy bear.")
But back to my story... Then H. realized we were buying a Christmas tree to put in our house and that we were going to put lights on it and were going to decorate it. She is thrilled. The whole thing makes her smile. And seeing her smile and be so excited makes me smile. What a gift to be able to share this with her.
So you can imagine that she really loved our tree trimming party yesterday. We had treats. We ordered pizza. M. came home with one of her roommates for the afternoon. And we listened to Christmas music, decorated the tree, enjoyed each others company, decided that blueberry covered goat cheese is really, really good, and just generally had fun. We even managed to get a picture taken of all of us for our Christmas card. And for those therapeutic parents out there... no melt downs, or even near misses. It was just a really pleasant afternoon.
After dinner we lit our Advent candles and sang around the piano. No mishaps this week, we're getting back into practice. Well, the singers are getting back into practice, my piano playing is a completely different story. We're having some friends over later this month to sing carols and I really need to spend some time actually practicing. Let's just say it's a good thing my family doesn't mind laughing at my playing as it currently stands.
I'll put pictures on the Ordinary Time facebook page. I am not thrilled with this solution, and have found instructions about how to switch from Blogger to Word Press without loosing any Google standings or links. (Because the internet world is all about what Google thinks of you, you know.) But while I'm sure the person writing the instructions felt he was being clear, it makes about as much sense to me as reading Vietnamese. I recognize a word here or there, but not nearly enough to make any sense of it. My tech support person (AKA M.) has promised to look at it when she gets home and see if it makes any sense to her. We'll see.
Comments