Blog post #8

April 22^nd, 2013

Today is Tabby’s fourth birthday, and the day has been lovely so far. I am so, so proud of how mature and open she has been throughout this adventure. Sure, she has had her bratty moments (as have each of us), but she has largely been good-natured, trusting, and kind to everyone here. If we were at home in the States, first thing this morning I would’ve stood her against the door to the nursery & measured her height. We have done that every year on the 22^nd of April. Three lines of black Sharpie, representing the three best years of my life. I feel a little sentimental pang that we can’t do it today. But I can stand her straight-backed against an aloe tree and take a photo.

One of the gifts Tabby received today was a pair of kites—one for her, one for her sister. When I bought them months ago at Walmart, I didn’t know they would be flying them on the most perfect, windy morning here in Camperdown. But God did. Last night was a ferocious storm, with extreme winds bringing down a lot of branches. I’m told it was unseasonable, but we have experienced almost every type of weather since we arrived. I couldn’t have guessed last night, as it was pouring rain, that 8 am this morning would bring beautiful kite skies. To a child, that’s no surprise. They greet each day with joyful expectation, certain life will bring them good. I’m so thankful today is bringing my girls good. I pray for the children still living at Lily, that they will be able to hang on to that precious expectation.

After kites, we spent the morning at a zoo in Cato Ridge, where we hadn’t visited before. The previous zoo we went to mostly had birds & tamarins, and those wild monkeys uncaged. This one had tigers and lions, which A had never seen. The girls are getting along well enough that I was largely able to stroll & think my own thoughts. They did continually chant, “Mommy, look! Mommy, pick me up! Mommy, I can’t see!” But it seemed to me so mundane—not adoption-related, not other-country-related, not out-of-birth-order neediness—it was very welcome. They were just little girls being sisters at a zoo.

Not so mundane was Tabby getting a serious, bleeding slice on her finger from a tall blade of grass she was trying to pick to feed to a lion. I’m pretty sure only Tabby could sustain a grass injury.