Finally, an update!

Phew! It's been a busy couple of weeks in our neck of the woods!

To begin with, Danny's sister and her family were up from Texas and spent the week with us. I'll post a picture so you can see what a "girl Danny" would look like (for those of you who haven't actually seen Danny in a dress...for those of you who have, well, that's just sad).

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The girls enjoyed having another "pumpkin in the patch," and Brenin and her cousin were in full superhero character all week.

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Then for the really big news...LUCA TURNED 4!!!!!! This was actually her 1st birthday, as birthdays aren't celebrated in Ethiopia, so we were all pretty excited for her.

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Tuesday was her actual birthday (although we celebrated officially on Friday due to those pesky jobs we have). Tuesday night we took the girls to Build-A-Bear and then out for dinner at Sarento's.
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How could you not buy this precious face a $150 teddy bear on her birthday?!? :-)
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It's a woman's world!

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Then on Friday the celebration carried on all day, starting at our favorite birthday bakery for a sugary breakfast!

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Luca had been planning to have a Dora birthday ever since she saw her sister's birthday party in April. We had the party at Devils Lake so the kids could play on the playground and swim (one of Luca's favorite activities).
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There was lots of pink (Luca's favorite color)...
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...and silliness...

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...and snuggling (Grandpa's shirt says "Grandpa" in Amharic)...
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...and more snuggling!
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She was just as excited about the cards as she was the presents...she worked hard to get this one open and was just tickled to see a colorful card inside!
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The kids swam until the sun would shine no more.
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Whenever we would ask Luca what she was going to have at her birthday, she would simply say "cupcake" (her word for cake). I knew this was an important element, so I took great joy in ordering her very first birthday cake with Dora on it and pink frosting! (Admittedly, I'm a bit of a birthday junkie, so these things thrill me).
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And then she did what kids everywhere have done for years and years before her...dipped her little birthday finger in the cake for a lick - Yet more proof that kids are the same in every language!

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Luca got super spoiled (big surprise) for her birthday. She got lots of toys, books, clothes, a princess gown, art supplies, Dora backpack, a Leapster and a princess bike. She literally hasn't stopped playing with at least 1 thing she got on her birthday since the party. She was pretty thrilled.
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Just when we thought the party was over, some friends showed up and the kids played until they literally could do nothing but lay on the couch with a birthday hangover.
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It was so fun to be able to give Luca a "first," as many of her firsts happened before we met. I wondered if it would be strange celebrating my child's birthday and not reliving every excruciating hour of her birth (like I do on Brenin's birthday and my mom does on mine...we're sick, I know!). These are details of Luca's life that I'll never be able to share with her...what we felt on the day she was born, what her pregnancy was like, who was the first person to hold her, and for some moms that can be a hard pill to swallow (not this totally put together one though). ;-)

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What I've come to realize throughout this process though is that every person has a different story...and that's okay. Some people have video and pictures of their birth. Some people have funny stories about the day they were born and getting to the hospital in time. Some people have scrapbook pages dedicated to their labor and delivery with little heart stickers all around the picture of the epidural-giver (okay, that one was me). And some people have the knowledge that they were born to a different mommy and came to find their forever mommy a little later in life. And that's okay!

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Luca has already asked me if she was in my tummy after she saw a friend of ours with a baby in her tummy, and oh how I wanted to tell her that she was, but I knew it simply wasn't true and more importantly that it was okay that it wasn't true. In the end, it is my job to raise a whole child, and in order for her to be whole, every single part of her has to be acknowledged and okay, even and maybe even especially the painful parts. I imagine we'll have this conversation many more times over the years, and each time I'll tell her her story with great pride so that she can embrace it for what it is, a part of her.

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I'm so grateful that God brought this precious girl home, that He gave me her future, and that the rest of her story is yet to be written.