Tuesday, September 6, 2011

One Year Ago Today

We laid our eyes on this little girl for the very first time.

And our lives were changed forever.

She wore a little peach dress, and several little chicken pox.

She ate noodles and a banana for her very first breakfast with us.
She carried a bag made for her my my sweet friend Heather, and a year later, takes that bag to dance class every Monday morning.

She talked nonstop that first day, and has not stopped talking since.

She speaks English now, and sings in her bed after we turn the lights off.
She cut her own bangs a couple of months ago with a pair of scissors she dug out of the junk drawer.

She loves getting dressed, and usually requests "two bows" in her hair.

The other day she and her little sister made a game of throwing their baby dolls down the stairs, then screaming "Oh, No!" as they ran to rescue them.

She loves going to school and church.

She is very bossy, and has discovered that if she is confident enough in her delivery, people will usually do what she tells them to do. Especially little sisters.

She is nothing like what we expected.

She is not in any adoption book that we read.

Nothing about our Emerson matches up with what we know of her first three years of life. Her sass, her language skills, her appetite, her health, her outgoing personality, her confidence. None of this is consistent with what a child who spent three years in an orphanage should be like.

And we are so, so thankful for that. We are so thankful for the little girl that God made her to be, and we know without a doubt that He created her for us, and us for her.
Some days have been easy, some days have been very hard, but we wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

Happy Gotcha Day, sweet Emerson. We love you so, so much.


5 comments:

Angela Stoltzfus said...

she is SO preciously beautiful!!

andy said...

she cries when her cousin zane leaves back for home, she doesn't want any of her family to be apart... she really is amazing forsythes. so are you all.

Unknown said...

Hard to believe it has been a year since you got her! She has grown so much!

Anonymous said...

The other day she and her little sister made a game of throwing their baby dolls down the stairs, then screaming "Oh, No!" as they ran to rescue them.

That's gotta be heredity.... Your mother and I used to do that with you when you were a little girl....

Anonymous said...

The same day you met Emerson for the first time, I fractured my wrist at work. Then later that week, I watched Harper for a day, and had to change her diaper one-armed. Good story.