Our Adoption Journey: Two months home

Our night out at an Ethiopian dinner organized by adoptive families. She loved eating injera again.

She fell asleep reading about the Olympics. Hopefully she will love them as much as we do!

She loves to cuddle with her brothers.

A wise friend sent the girls these dresses as she knows I love the matchy matchy.

Our little fish!

Showing her patriotic spirit already!

She LOVED to jump in with the swim team for the pre race cheer!

Notice the blue tongue!

She has an obsession with turning her tongue different colors!

First tea party with the dolls,

She is following in her sister's footsteps with her love of dance.

Loves her Andrew!

We have now been home with Lila two months which doesn't seem like a long time but it feels like it has been much longer. I honestly can't even imagine what we would do without her and I feel like we have always known her. One thing I worried about with adopting an older child was whether or not I would grieve the fact that we missed the first few years of her life. I thought that I might obsess about missing her first steps, first words, and other first milestones. However, I haven't focused on this at all because after meeting her and now spending several weeks with her I can imagine in my head all of those milestones and can picture them perfectly. Using what we know about her I can draw a picture as to just how she would have behaved and reacted. This girl is SO FULL of personality!! She goes non stop and I can hardly keep up with her. I mean it when I say she NEVER stops moving. She does have the ability to focus and she will sit and do a craft, read books, or participate in a structured activity. But when there is any down time she is on the go. We have quite the sporty little girl on our hands. I see many, many sports in our future. So far she has proved to be an excellent swimmer, runner, dancer, and gymnast. Brooke does approximately 857 cartwheels a day and Lila is having no problem keeping up with that daily number. We are having the best summer with her and I am so thankful that God chose the timing of her homecoming to be in the summer because it has been a wonderful bonding time for all of us. There are a million things I could write down about her but here are a few glimpses into her personality.

She is picking up English at a rapid rate. We quit using any Amharic words after being home three weeks because she began using so many English words so quickly. Amharic isn't her native language anyway which is why she is losing it so quickly.

She will still sing songs in her native language which is Anuak. She especially does this in the car. It is precious and priceless and it breaks my heart to think of her losing her native tongue.

We think that she thinks America is one big party because that is pretty much how our summer has been since coming home. With all of the fun activities and events we have participated in we laugh that when back to school comes she is going to wonder where all the fun went.

She points to the American flag and yells, "America!" I ask her if she likes America and she vigorously shakes her head with a, "Yes! Yes!" She already knows to put her hand on her heart when she hears the American Anthem.

Feeding her is like feeding a toddler. She likes some foods one day and then refuses them the next. Her favorites are spaghetti, hamburgers, fruit, corn, yogurt, and ice cream. We discovered she loves guacamole which she had for breakfast and lunch one day this week.

She hates conflict of any kind. If any of us raise our voices she doesn't like it at all. She wants everyone to be happy all the time and works hard to help resolve conflict. One day when Andrew was mad about something and started to sulk away from the breakfast table she marched over to him and turned him around and ordered him to, "Sit down!" She then handed him a newspaper and gestured for him to stay with us at the table and read the paper. He was trying so hard not to laugh and obeyed her. She has this ability to get anyone to do what she requests.

She and Brooke were doing cartwheels one day at Andrew's baseball game and she started motioning for people to join in the cartwheels. Next thing you know there are several kids AND ADULTS (including the coach and a dad who was recovering from a broken arm) doing cartwheels! Like I said, for some reason she is hard to say no to. I think she needs to be a diplomat!

We kept her in our room to sleep for the first two weeks until she pointed to her bed one day with a quizzical look on her face as if to say, "Why the heck am I in your room when I could have this nice big bed all to myself??" She has slept in her room from that day on and sleeps like a champ!

She loves to go wake up the others in the morning. Her favorite way to wake up Luke is to sneak in and then viciously yank the covers off of him. He startles awake but then never stays mad at her. I might have to use this tactic when it comes time to get him up for middle school next year!

She loves to play jokes and trick people. She will definitely be my April Fool's sidekick next year. My family and friends already hate me on April Fool's Day and now I have an accomplice! God is so good!

She still loves that snack bar at the pool and has to get a "yamburger" every time we go. And a blue slush.

People ask if she seems to prefer one of our family members over the other. Yes. She does have a favorite and it is the dog! Anytime we have to scold Macy she comes running to her defense, "ASHA (her word for dog) MACY!!" and throws her arms around the dog.
Thanks Lila, I didn't really need that loaf of bread. Side with the dog.

She learned to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "This Little Light of Mine" the first week home and it melts my heart every time she sings it.

She also belts out Katy Perry's, "Firework" like a contestant on American Idol. My friend is convinced that once she understands how stupid the lyrics are she will give it up. I am not so sure. "Boom, boom, boom, even brighter than the moon, moon, moon!" You can't get any better than that. She rocks it!

When we took her to the library we tried to get her to look at the books on Africa and Ethiopia. She was much more interested in The Wonder Pets dvd. Go figure.

She is starting to share with us stories from her life in Gambella and it is a treasure to listen to her recall memories.

She still calls Andrew and Luke the wrong names. They laugh as they patiently correct her every time.

She has an obsession with the Madagascar movie. We took her to see the third one in the theater and it was a big hit!! Se sat there wide eyed through the whole thing.

From the first day home I taught her to make her bed get dressed and put her clothes in the hamper. She does this almost every morning without me having to ask. I love this girl.

She knows how to pick the best mangoes at the store.

She smells good all the time. No matter how sweaty she is or what she has been doing during the day she still smells wonderful. She probably thinks I am weird because I hold her and inhale deeply several times a day. I wish I could say the same for my boys.

When the kids did their first triathlon of the season guess who shed tears because she wanted to do it too?

At her 4 hour long international pediatrician visit the Occupational therapist declared after being with her for three minutes, "Umm, I think you all won't need me."

She was a trooper when she got her blood work done. She sat still on Matt's lap and stared at the needle, watched the blood being drawn, and then cried afterwards. One tough cookie.

I had no intention of signing her up for any activity for at least a year. Guess who starts gymnastics August 27th?? It was either swimming, gymnastics, dance, or soccer. My sister helped me make that decision after being here for a week and watched her cartwheel, flip, twist, turn, and leap for 6 straight days. Might I add that Gabby Douglas (first African American to win gymnastics gold) celebrated her win with "Firework" playing in the background. A little foreshadowing......hmmm...

We stand amazed every day at how perfectly she fits into our family. I can't wait to share with her someday about all of the countless hours we spent praying over her and the details of her life. Every night as I tuck her into bed I tell her that I will love her FOREVER and we will be her family FOREVER!! She smiles at me and I think she understands. She is is a gift, a joy, and I will be eternally grateful that God called us to adopt and expand our family in this beautiful way.