Flip-Flops, Sweet Tea, and Me: 8 months

Friday, April 26, 2013

8 months

It's hard to believe that we have been home from China for 8 months. We've certainly come along way from those early days where there were more bad times than good. Even to hear Madison talk, which she still does (A LOT), is simply amazing when you consider that just 8 months ago Madison didn't know a single word of English. While Madison is a handful we are lucky to have her and thankful we took the step to adopt. Life isn't easy by any means but it is certainly getting better and it's neat to see the little God moments along the way that make it all worth it.

Madison is:

Funny
Happy (most of the time--see below)
always smiling (most of the time--again see below)
loves to talk....did I mention A LOT!
loves to sing
adores playing in her kitchen
likes to dress up
a little fish in the water
still sleeping in her bed at night. YAY
loves to take her bucket & shovel & dig in the yard (maybe she'll find an old mason jar of cash one day)
a "I know what I want" kind of girl
a fast learner
loves playing on the ipad

As I said earlier, Madison has been showing some progress lately and that brings HOPE to this sometimes weary mama! As I have shared before anything can "set her off" and in the past, once she gets upset she cant calm herself down. While we have seen some big improvement in this area over the past 2 weeks (Praise the Lord), I will let this next picture show what some days are like. Keep in mind this was all triggered because she could not reach her pencil in the pouch on the back of the seat and she wouldn't wait for me to stop the car and get it. Seems silly to us but it does show some of the hurt and brokeness deep inside of her. This crying episode lasted 20 minutes.

But tomorrows a new day and most of the time we get to see this side of her (see video below) where she dresses up and makes me sit down and watch her "perform". I think she is singing Jesus loves me but I'm not quite sure :-)