You at 18 months

I love shoes, any will do!

My beautiful daughter, you are 18 months old, and you have been home with us for 6 months now.  Soon we will go to court and make it all official, as if it could be more official than the family God has built for us.  You have made our family stop and pay attention to the blessings around us.  You have made me remember why I love being a mama, what's really important to me in this life, and just how little control I have over anything in this world.

Today you stayed in the nursery for the whole time, it made me weepy and nervous, as I'd always been called back after only 20 minutes.  Your Daddy read my mind and went and checked on you.  You were not thrilled but you were not crying most of your time in there, just one more answer to prayers.

Do you know how much you have been prayed for, I surely don't know the extent of it, though I know it involves many people who loved you before they ever knew you.  Every night I pray for you as I lay you down, that you will feel safe, you will know you are loved, that God would heal you of the pain I still see in your heart.

your first time to play playdoh and you didn't even try and eat it, I was shocked...I still am tempted to eat it!

I call you "munchy" it's short for munchkin and really has no meaning behind it, but as I sit here to type this you are on round 5 of your snack and it occurs to me what an apt nickname it is, as you are always eating, you always have the munchies :).

I often get comments on how petite you are, and you are like a little doll, so tiny and perfect, with your porcelain skin and your almond eyes.  But here's the thing you are in the 30th percentile for height, you are far below in weight but as I mentioned before that's nothing I can worry about with all the food you ingest.

You will not understand this until you have children of your own, but over these six months I have gone from loving you and knowing you were mine, to falling head over heels in love with you.  Mommies love their children with a kind of crazy love, I often catch myself looking at you, doing your cute things you do, and I feel like my heart might explode inside my chest.  I cannot believe that He gave you to me, you are a gift beyond what I could have imagined.

Speaking of cute things you do, you have quite the personality now, you smile on command and you know when to turn on the charm to get what you want.  Your Daddy would rope the moon for you if you were to ask, he has no ability to tell you no, but considering how long he had to wait for you to trust him, I can't say I blame him one bit.

packing up to "leave", got your glasses on

One of your favorite games to play right now are "wait right there."  In this game you go to the play kitchen and make me some food, bring it to me and then hold out your hand as if to say, wait right there, and go and get me more food.  You do this over and over again.  You also really enjoy, "bye bye."  In this game you get your backpack (that we bought for you in Korea) and put it on, then come and give everyone a kiss and a hug and tell us bye bye!  You return 10 seconds later and we repeat the process.  If you find of your sissy's purses this game becomes more fun for you and more cute to watch.

bye bye

You demand more of my attention than either of your older siblings, you've had your first ER trip, and I'm afraid it won't be your last.  You are a climber and an explorer and a fan of the toilet, toilet paper, paper towels, crayons, you get the picture.  I was under the impression that because you were my third you would also be easy and laid back and I was sorely mistaken :).

I've never seen siblings love each other the way you and Jack love each other.  It makes me so happy, to see you two find each other's hands as we walk in the park or drive home from school.  You have become a hitter and he's yet to hit you back, but I would hope that you won't push him too far.  You study him and copy everything he does.

caught you putting on my underwear, just like mommy!

I am amazed at your ability to re-produce what you see us do.  You can open doors (if you can reach the handle), open tubes of cream, turn on water, get soap, and my favorite, if the pantry is left open you will go in find the box of raisins, open them and eat them by the handfuls!

You have begun to give us kisses and it is the best thing that's happend to me it seems, not just because I love your kisses, but because you are showing us that you too love us back, and we waited so long for that.  You now shout, DaDa when ever he comes home and you get excited everyday we go to pick up the big kids from school.  You understand that this is your family, you feel safe here, you feel loved.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for our life together.