It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Her Heritage

Traveling to Texas and introducing Grace to the Anderson side of the family led me to do a lot of thinking (ok, so I'm sure the 36 hours in a car inspired some of that thinking too, but still...). As I watched Grace ride around the rodeo ring on a horse with her Daddy, I kept thinking, "She's a Texan." Grace is as much a Texan, (and a Coloradan) as she is anything. Her heritage is her daddy, who grew up wearing his Wrangler jeans and showing sheep, her Grandad, the farmer and rancher, her uncle and Grandma in the Texas telephone industry, the trombone skills of her Aunt Casey and all the creativity of her Aunt Crystal. Grace's adoption means that she isn't a cute little visitor in our home, she is ours and we are hers. She gets all our history as far back as it goes and we get her future and all that comes with it. Welcome to the family, Grace.

Meeting the TX family

Since TX is an 18 hour drive from our home, we haven't been brave enough to venture there until now. So this Thanksgiving, Grace is getting the privilege of meeting her Texas family and beginning to understand what her Texas heritage means (now that's a loaded a statement as this Texas-by-marriage girl has learned).

Let's just say that it has begun with meeting her bona fide cowboy grandad, who promptly fed her biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

10 months old

I can't believe a month has gone by without blogging. Actually, I can. It's not so much the busyness of our new life as a family of 5 that has kept me from it (although that is certainly a factor). It's been more about my loss for words. Or maybe it's my abundance of words. So many posts are brewing in my head and yet I haven't been able to get them down on "paper."

The experience of adopting is so profound that a lighthearted post about Halloween costumes doesn't seem to capture enough but at the same time, verbalizing the depth of our experience can seem too heavy at times. Maybe that sums it all up right there. This experience is full of dichotomies. We make the huge decision to add another family member and yet after we fill out the paperwork, the process is out of our control. We meet our sweet Grace, who is a stranger to us, and she suddenly is entirely our own. Her actual adoption was such a big deal and yet it will be but a small part of her history. She looks very different from us and yet she has the same eyes as her brother and sister (lots of people tell us this). Just 4 months ago she was in an orphanage halfway across the world with no family, last month she wore a poodle skirt and cruised the neighborhood for candy. She is sitting next to me in her highchair eating cheerios as I type. And yet again my mind can't decide between "what a normal baby thing to do" and "there is a little brown person sitting right next to me who was born in Ethiopia...and she's my daughter!" It's hard to make sense of it all sometimes and yet, it makes perfect sense every time I look at her. She is ours.

9 months old!

Grace is 9 months old today. As everyone who has walked the adoption road ahead of us says, it's hard to believe that she has only been home for 3 months. - it's like she's always been a part of our family. Adoption has truly become a past tense verb at our house. A funny thing is happening for me; the farther away from our trip and the day she became ours, the less I am inclined to distinguish her and her unique story. When we first came home, I would tell anyone who noticed her, "This is Grace. She just came home from Ethiopia." I felt like I should explain it all. Now, I'm certainly happy to tell varieties of her amazing story as we really hope the Lord uses it to inspire others to adopt. But I have to say that now I prefer to just introduce her as my daughter, Grace. Adoption is what happened to Grace, not what defines her. She is an Anderson through and through now.

And yesterday, In honor of Grace's 9 month birthday and her Anderson heritage, we had our annual trip to Sky Top Apple Orchard. We have been going every fall for 9 years and, as in just about every other way too, Grace fit right in!

Happy Fall!

8 Months old!

What a difference 2 months makes! In just eight weeks this girl has learned to put weight on her legs, roll over, sit up, wave bye, clap and the best of all, give kisses! She has gained 3 lbs and is now on the American growth charts. The most amazing thing has been to watch the light in her eyes come alive. She is now on the floor trying very hard to get somewhere, anywhere. There is a big world out there and she is ready to go discover it all...and put it in her mouth :).

In addition, today is also the Ethiopian New Year so Melkam Adis Amet! It's now 2002 in Ethiopia. They are on a different calendar and 7 years behind us.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday! We love you, Grace