talking up a storm

Lucy is surprising me every day with her growing communication skills.

Tonight she said "shoes" as I took off her shoes, "socks" as I took off her socks, and then suprised me with a new one--"pants!"  The adorable part is that she's SO pleased with herself when she says a new word.  She ducks her head and grins for all she's worth--precious!

I'm a self-admitted language geek, so I'm just fascinated at watching her acquire these skills.  My bookshelves are FULL of language books (501 Spanish verbs, Portuguese for beginners, Thai heart phrases, Japanese class text book, teach yourself New Testament Greek...I'm a little ashamed to admit that there are quite a few more than that).  I've worked HARD to pick up bits of these langauges.  I studied, I practiced, I worked to make sense of them.  And it just amazes me that God created children to just learn languages. No flashcards, no study guides, no vocab lists.  All it takes is what they need:  interaction with the people who love them.  I can't quite believe that it just happens, but Lucy Joy (along with...everyone else, (but she's my favorite example, and the one I get to observe this miracle in)) is proving that it's true. 

I wanted to capture a snapshot of her developing language skills at 17 months.
She says:

• Hi  adamently and often
• Bye
• Mom I tried for "Mama" but it's always been mom.  And MOM sounds good :)
• Pap
• Nana
• Uu Jaa Uncle John
• Da-du thank you.  She says it very stacatto and short, right when you hand her something. SO cute.
• Wah  water
• Muh  milk
• No  always like a question... No?
• Yeah!  very enthusiastically.  I walked into her room the other morning, asking, Do I hear a good girl in here? and got a YEAH! from her crib :)
• Quack   a surprising entry in the first handfull of words. (It *may* sound a little like cock)
• Cracker  sounds a lot like her "quack" :)
• Banana
• Uh-oh
• Shoes, socks, pants!
• A bite, A bath  she always uses the article "a" with these words, it's funny!
• Baby  it sounds kind of like be-be
• Ni-ni  night-night
• Iiii yu  I love you
• 2 and 3  kinda.  If her pointer finger is out, she's counting, by golly!
• Amen.  She says it after we pray, but also at the end of books. She reads to herself now.  Badadabadab.  and then says AMEN. solemnly as she closes the book.
• Baa and moo and ruf-ruf  When she sees these animals, she makes the noises.  But the moo is more like vruu.
• Aaall done.   after almost every bite. 
• I dop.  I'm adopted. :)
• up
• yum-yum
• nose, eye, mouth sometimes pointing to the right one... sometimes trying to pluck out my eye
• Side  outside

It's so funny to ask her questions (I have done that forever) and actually have her answer!  Communicating  :)  She tries new ones every day... I just haven't been able to decipher them yet.  There's one that she said several times today that I can't wait to figure out! 

And when she talks to her babies, she uses these words but about an octave higher :)

good times

figuring things out

Y'all, Lucy is at a stage that I'm SO excited about.  It's called "figuring things out" (and it apparently lasts until you're at least 31).

She is really taking things in, and making connections, and trying to get in the game.  It is adorable! 

In the last few days, she's been thinking about different kinds of brushes.  We brush teeth now, and brush hair.  I've seen a baby brush in her mouth (like a toothbrush) several times.  And she has a scrub brush that she loves (a gray, scroungy, cleaning scrub brush--I know, I'm a great mom).  Yesterday she walked up behind me and gently brushed my hair with it. :)

She hasn't been eating well, and I've been really talking up the eating.  At breakfast Saturday she lifted her shirt and looked down at her belly and tried really hard to feed it a banana!  It was so funny!  She was trying to find a short-cut, I guess!

I've been reading with her a LOT, and one book is "I'm the best."  It's about a dog who talks about how he's the best ("I can swim much faster than donkey, I'm the best!").  His friends feel sad and point out that they're good at things too.  Then they all decide they're good at being friends.  Lucy never gets very much past the first part, so she went around this weekend proudly proclaiming, "I'm the best."  It's so darn cute, but it's definitely the "don't do this" line of the story.  Ah well.

Finally, )and brace yourselves, this is precious) Lucy's figuring out who her family is.  I do a lot of "Lucy and Mama" talk with her.  We were at a stoplight and I turned around to touch her leg and say "Lucy and Mama" and she said, "Pap.  Nana.  John."  It was like, "you forgot a few important people, mom!"  I thought it was just great that she knows her family and that we all go together :)

And, ahem, as far as 31 year olds figuring things out... I realized (AFTER I got home!) that I'd gone to two stores and chatted with people there (including a cute but young computer guy) with my sweater on INSIDE OUT!  There was a big tag sticking out from my side like a flag and an obviously inside-out zipper right in the front.  Oh my!

a "wow" kinda day

And then...

A year ago today God did a miracle.  He made a family.  We're a little, tiny family.  But we're part of a beautiful bigger family, and then a spectacular even bigger family of believers.  He linked a girl from Kentucky, who traipsed around the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia and made her way back to a small town in Kentucky AND a sweet, tiny baby from a little town in Africa who was loved but had no home.  He matched us up perfectly.  He does pretty amazing things!

I was desperate to meet this sweet girl, but she wasn't at the orphanage when I went to pick her up.  There were confusion and tears, and an impromptu van ride several hours into the Ethiopian countryside.  I went in a small, dark orphanage and was handed Lucy Joy.  We spent our first 4 hours together in a hot van.  I was happy and a little incredulous.  This tiny wonder was my daughter!  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful start for us!

and then...

I got on a plane a year ago today to meet my sweet Lucy.  Right before I left, just last year, I was thinking these things:

Lucy, I’m trying to be so grown up here, being your MOTHER and all, but I’m just gaga. I can’t focus, I can’t sleep, I ramble and get off track and cry and laugh hysterically. I’m SO crazily happy to be coming to see you so soon. One week from today I leave. A week from now I’ll be on the plane with Mumsy somewhere over the Atlantic, getting closer inch by inch and mile by mile to…

You.

If I wasn’t leaving soon, I think I’d hop in a boat and paddle through the waves, and then chop my way through the dense central African jungle, and then trudge through Ethiopia’s desert and then climb up the beautiful mountains around Addis Ababa, then crawl through the busy city until I found …

You.

And then….

I’ll see you. I’ll know you from the second I lay eyes on you because I’ve stared and stared at your sweet face. I’d know those beautiful lips and precious eyes and fabulous hair from a mile away! I’ll see you, and walk on over, and one of your nice nannies will hand you to me. I’ll just touch your skin, and then scoop you up. Oh my, how I’ll squeeze you. I’ll kiss your precious little cheek and stroke your pretty curly hair. I hope it won’t embarrass you, but I’m fairly certain I’ll cry. I’ll just be so happy and happy and then a little more happy that we’re together at last. I might not put you down for days. (I hope you don’t get too tired of me!)

I can hardly bear to wait! I want to hold you Lucy, and love on you! I love you so. So much, already.

last year...

... around this time, I was staring at this sweet face:

and thinking these thoughts:

 Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. I’m waiting for you! I’ve been reading up. Trying to get ready. I think I’m already ready for you to talk. So you can say, “Hi mama, I’m ready to go with you now.” And I’ll say,” What a great idea, Lucy. Let’s hit it.” If you can’t tell, I’m a little delirious over the prospect of meeting you. Oh Lucy, I can’t wait!

 

I need you here with me, little one. I am SO thankful that you are where my adventures with God have led me. I followed Him all around this world, and he’s blessed me with you. I’ve wanted a daughter (especially one from Africa) for a looooonnng time. I thought it would just be a dream of mine, but you’re real, and you’re getting closer and closer to being here with me, my buddy, quite literally my dream come true!

Lucy, you’re teaching me so much about God. I love you (so much, already, you know). I’m shocked that I can possibly love you this much before I’ve actually held you. But I do, Lucy. I have been reading about how God loves us in Ephesians. It says he settled on us as the focus of his love long looong ago. He chose us, chose to adopt us through Christ. And he took great pleasure in planning it. Those words made my brain doing a little schwing schwang: Lucy, as much as I love you and as much joy as thinking about you and planning your adoption has given me, God loves us more and enjoys adopting us more. My brain was already stretched to understand how I love you (so much, already) and to go beyond that is, well, just plain un- imanigable. Unimaginably good. How wise and clever of God to use you to help me know how very much He loves me (loves all of us). He’s good, Lucy, so good.

 

Joy Zaidi's homecoming

A great man in India named Joy passed away yesterday.

I met him on a summer mission trip almost 10 years ago.  He and his wife (Grace, "a love match" in a society of arranged marriages, he proclaimed) run a non-profit to spread Christ's love to some of the most vulnerable in India's complex society.  They care for trafficked children in a home, they take in children abused to the point of being disabled and find expert care for them, and they minister to the poor women in the sex industry there and those with HIV.  These are some needy people, people.  And Joy loved them.

I spent one of the most eye-opening, game-changing days of my life with Joy.  We wound through the maze-like red-light district in his town, through alley after alley too narrow for a car.  We had coca-cola in the stall of one of the women indentured there.  I fought tears and talked to several young children wandering in and out.  Then we went back to his home for lunch.  There were about 8 of us at the table, and Grace dished out food from a big pot at the end of the table for at least a dozen more.  Who are all these poople? I asked.  They live here.  Or come here to eat. Joy replied.  His home was open to whoever needed a place or a meal.

In his last letter to me, just days before his death, Joy rejoiced about a young man from a Hindu background who just asked Christ into his heart.  He praises God and asks for prayer that he will remain firm.

I'm quite sad that he died.  But I'm so inspired about how he lived.  I pray that I can live and finish as beautifully as he did.

I have been thinking about joyful homecomings for adoptive families, how thrilled they are to have their children home with them.  I get all teary thinking about the joyful homecoming Joy is having in heaven.  Surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, praising God and what God did through Joy!  Welcomed into God's very arms, and being told, "WELL DONE, my child."

Because of the people he devoted his life to, and the responsibilites he took on, Joy could have been counted as one of the least, here.  HERE.  But NOW, in his forever home, Joy is GREAT, indeed.

Please pray for Grace and the many children under his care.  I'm not sure what will happen with them.  His website is  http://soupindia.com.