One Year Ago....

I cannot believe that we left for Uganda a year ago. We met Masey for the first time one year ago yesterday. The time has flown by and to be honest I am really glad to be through with those first few months. She is now a happy, vibrant, very strong-willed, chatty little two-year old. Her language is amazing and she loves to talk all the time about how she feels such as "I am happy now mom, I'm not crying." She also says things like "I don't know how to say that word" when asked what something is that she doesn't know the word for. She is a great little sister and though they bug eachother a lot, she and Kaya are best friends and one of my greatest joys comes from seeing them play together. I don't know what Kaya ever did without her. We still deal with jealousy and fighting over mom but great strides have been made. She is very healthy now and other than some extensive dental work, we haven't been to the doctor for quite some time. We will continue to have her knee checked every few months. It is straightening great and she can run and jump and only very occasionally has any sort of a limp. My gratitude for Western medicine cannot fully be expressed. People have been wonderful and very supportive through this whole process and we have been lucky to only deal with a few ignorant comments every now and then. We are thankful beyond measure that we were able to expand our family through adoption.

Finally, here's some pictures of the cuties!

figuring it out

Kaya in the tub : "Mom, I think my skin is turning a little bit brown"
Kaya two minutes later: "Mom, was Masey's skin black in Uganda?"
I find comments like that so adorable. Kaya has never mentioned that Masey's skin is black except one previous time before this when she just randomly in the car said that she wished she had brown skin like Masey's. I always explain how Heavely Father makes us all different colors and that Masey's tummy mom had black skin and so she does too. On the first day of preschool, I was talking to her teacher who told me that she immediately was drawn to a black little girl in her preschool class and wanted to play with her and sit by her. Another time, she went to a birthday party and again sought out the only African American child in the group. Later she told me that Masey would have liked to have been friends with that girl. When I asked why, she just smiled and said I don't know. I love the innocence of children and find it incredibally sad that intolerance is fostered by adults and passed on to their kids. How much more peaceful and loving would our world be if we viewed skin color through the eyes of a 3 year old?