Happenings at Home & the Last Letter

Well it's been a week now. It's been good to be back and see everybody again. At the same time, it's certainly been hard to be back and I miss my babies every moment of every day. Life here in Michigan has been busy!

On Friday, mom and I started talking about Donaldina Cameron again. We were thrilled to have Sue Leong attend our talk - she lives in Ann Arbor, but spent part of her childhood in San Francisco at one of the orphanages started by Donaldina Cameron for the younger girls! She had met Donaldina on a few occasions, and we were privileged to have her present.

After a lovely euphonium concert, I stood there while at least half a dozen friends took out braids round two.

Marginally painful experience, as is evidenced by this particular grimace.

Final product!!!

Went back to church this past week in three different rounds! This was the first time back on Wednesday night. Definitely wonderful.

And, perhaps best of all, I had a surprise visit from one of my many collegiate friends who came home for the weekend and surprised me on Friday night!

Little boy –

Only you would laugh so hard at the sight of my face that you'd tumble right on over, banging your head on the ground. And only you would sit right back up again after banging your head and continue to laugh.

Only you would toddle deliberately away from, turn your head, and give me that evil grin, daring me to chase you across the balcony until you couldn't run anymore from the laughter.

Only you would remember to grab that same blue ball the minute you walked onto the balcony.

You were the perfect mix of playful joy and sweetest cuddles. You could run and run and laugh and laugh and play and play and play so hard, but you knew when it was time to be held. You'd stop your play, drop your toys, sit down, and stare at me with those beautiful eyes of yours and then I'd know that it was time to pick you up, and I'd hold you, sometimes for only five minutes, sometimes for half an hour, until you were recharged and ready to go back at it again.

At first you weren't too sure about me. You just toddled around the balcony, holding your blue ball, watching me with a suspicious stare. But that only lasted about a day. Every subsequent day, you became more full of joy and freedom. You toddled with reckless abandon. As you learned to trust and love me more, you needed your blue balls of comfort less and wanted just me to play with more.

Sometimes you were just so so so so so so so incredibly cute that I didn't know if I could stand it. I'm not usually at a lack for words, but as I'm sitting here, staring at the blinking cursor, I actually am at a lack for words to describe how just how darn cute you are. It hurt inside because you were so beautiful and so wonderful and so zesty and so fantastic. Walking in the big nursery and standing there while you bolted (in a wobbly toddley sort of a way) across the room, laughing and burbling the whole way, was priceless. Opening my arms while you tottered into my embrace never got old. On the contrary, each time I saw you, it became exponentially more wonderful. 

You gave me such an abundance of joy. My cup overflowed when I was with you. One day, I tried to see if I could suppress smiling at the sight of your giggling face, but it didn't work. I actually tried. Really hard. But it was a sheer impossibility.  

You have an insatiable sense of curiosity; don't ever let that change. You know how to have the best kind of fun; don't let your joy dissipate. You are charged full of life. There is never a dull moment with you – indeed each minute I was able to spend with you was like a golden nugget of sheer happiness. I see heaps and mountains of vast potential in you, and I am convinced that God is going to a great work through your life and that He has already prepared good works for you to do in His name.

You have the sweetest sensitive side to you as well. GLA is a fantastic place, and you've been there your entire life, and I can see what a good job they've done in helping you grow, but you need to be home. You need love to thrive. You need tender attention, someone to read you bedtime stories, sing you lullabies, and tuck you in at night. You need love, and I cannot wait for you to go home, carried by the loving arms of your mommy and daddy to your new life with them forever.

For God did not give you a spirit of timidity, but He gave you a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. May you use this resilient, sparkling spirit God has given you to change the world.

I love you so so so SO much!

Kathryn