11 April 2012

Ethiopia Baby.

We talk about our Ethiopia Baby daily in this house. I mean, it is a regular thing around here.

Makayla asks us every day when our Ethiopia Baby is going to come home. And it makes my heart ache to tell her that we have no idea. She actually thinks I'm going to get 'her' (I'll get to that...) when I go on my mission trip. Oh, how I wish that were true!!

So, our big girl thinks that our ET Baby is going to be a girl. She's convinced and will have it no other way. Makayla always refers to our babe as a girl. "When is she coming home?" "What's her name?"

Yesterday Makayla was coloring, which is her new favorite pastime and I love that, and when she was finished with her picture, she told me it was for Ethiopia Baby. Melt. my. heart! She then asked for Daddy to help her write Ethiopia Baby's name at the top, which for now happens to be...Ethiopia Baby! And she did it so well!!

Near the end of March, Makayla drew a picture and then she came and showed it to me...nothing out of the ordinary. She always shows me her drawings these days and she draws A LOT. But this one was different. She brought it over and said, "Here's Addi, here's me and this is Ethiopia Baby!" So naturally, I grabbed a pen, marked who's who, wrote the date on the back and then framed that bad boy. Oh yes, I did. And it is going to proudly hang in our baby's room.

Just the day before Makayla drew that picture, she was cutting foam (another one of her favorite pastimes) and she cut out this teeny tiny piece of foam, put a Jasmine sticker on it and told me that it's for Ethiopia Baby. And you know what? It's in the shape of Africa!!!

I love seeing that Makayla, at four years old, understands. I know it's on a very basic level, but she gets it. She knows that this baby isn't growing in my tummy, but in my heart. And she (or he!) is growing in all of our hearts. She knows that we care for and love this child with everything we have. She knows that we are expecting another child and that child is very much a part of our every day, even now.

One more cute story...I made this 'adoption mix' CD for the car and it has a bunch of adoption related songs or songs that make me think of adoption or whatever. Anyway, there's this one song on there that's called 'One Less' by Matthew West. And it's about adoption...and how every time a child is adopted, there is one less orphan. So part of the lyrics are:

And there's one less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight
Yeah, there's one less
One less
Yeah, there's one less broken heart in the world tonight

And at some point, I told Makayla that this was about our Ethiopia Baby. And that he or she doesn't have a family right now, but we are his or her family. And when I told her that she said, 'But we are her family!!' Now every single time this song comes on she says, 'That's our Ethiopia Baby!' And then she proceeds to sing along!! Oh, to have a childlike faith...we should all take lessons from our sweet little ones.

Adoption is a beautiful thing.

Oh and P.S., we raised $272.55 for our adoption with our Delicate Fortress fundraiser!!! WOOHOO!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What if it's a boy?

The Warner Family said...

To anonymous, if you read the blog again she clearly says he or she. It's her sweet little girl that insists that it's a girl. Typical childhood notions! :D Lindsey, this is a precious post, God is using your little girl to help you with the wait for that LONG AWAITED referral!! She's just precious! God sees your little ET baby and I'm praying that you can see him or her very soon! :D Brenda