This year we are celebrating in two parts. This week happened to be the dates we were providing respite care for a classmate (and good friend) of Esther's who is in foster care, so we are postponing our big family activity until next week during our open house. But Tim and I and Joel went to Esther's school to eat lunch with her. She always asks for bacon on her Family Day, so we brought bacon and tomato sandwiches. Then in the afternoon we got out the slip 'n slide, which Esther has been begging to use for a few weeks now, and I watched the girls and Joel play in the water.
The day was not all roses, though. After the school lunch, a kid from another class asked Esther (about us), "Who were they?" It left her feeling really bad that we don't look like we match.
Actually, this has been a big year for her processing her history and her feelings about it. When it became clear that this was something she was thinking about a lot, I read Kids Like Me in China with her and we watched Somewhere Between together. She was intrigued that one of the girls in the documentary was able to track down her birth family and that it was a positive experience. I really hope we can get our family back to China in the next few years, before Daniel is working full-time and before Esther becomes a teenager and has to deal with all the standard adolescent emotional tasks in addition to integrating her history with her present life.
But that is something to work on another day.
In the meantime, Esther is still our precious Esther. She's sweet--and often sassy! She laughs at the drop of a hat. She lets her baby brother play with her beloved blankie...sometimes. She doesn't like to sit still. She does like to tease, especially her brothers. She is physically daring, but dreads insects and public speaking. She still isn't a fan of dresses and skirts, but she loves nothing better than to be wearing high-heeled shoes, fake fingernails, and a fancy hairdo. She has an amazing fashion sense. She loves books as much as I did in my bookworm youth, but instead of reading them she listens to them. If she's not actually having a conversation with somebody, she's likely to be found carrying a listening device around with her. I think her favorite books are the Allie Finkle series, but she enjoys a wide variety. She recently finished Sign of the Beaver and said it was really good. She likes to make things (like a dollhouse out of a cardboard box) and to do art. She loves Jesus.
And we feel blessed beyond measure to get to watch her grow up.
