Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Sweet Gift

This morning I had plans for our homeschooling day. Plans that included reading out of Bubbles' 2nd grade reader. A math page. Working on multiplication facts. Practicing spelling words. Pre-writing activities for a journal piece about family. But then plans changed. While Bubbles was waiting for me to get myself ready this morning, she went to the closet and pulled out a scrapbook. It was one my sister and I had made for our mom when she was battling cancer. Bubbles came into my room with the scrapbook and a whole bunch of questions about my mom. Right then and there, I scrapped my plans for the day and decided to turn it into a "learn about my family" day.

Ever since we finalized our adoption, Bubbles has been starved to make connections with our extended family. Her extended birth family was more important to her than her birth parents. A grandmother, especially, was a VIP in her life. Over the summer we traveled all over the U.S. visiting family and helping our girls make connections to our extended family. It was huge in their adjustment process and attachment to our family. Bubbles, especially, hungers for belonging in the family. Her questions today inspired me to break out the old 8 mm camera and tapes, so I could show her video of my mom. My mom passed away 10 years ago, so none of my kids have memories of her.

Bubbles and I spent three hours today watching video together. She heard my mom sing, laugh, talk, tease, and watched her interact with Matt, Snapper, and me. The most precious moment for me was discovering forgotten video of my mom singing You Are My Lucky Star to 6-month-old Snapper, and seeing Snapper sit there, completely enraptured, smiling and cooing at my mom. I miss that woman so much!

Bubbles was also captivated by my mom--her Grammy--and continued to ask question after question about her. I was more than happy to share. Bubbles also loved watching toddler Snapper's antics. Snapper was a clown of a toddler, and the videos of her are hilarious! We laughed and laughed together. Snapper also got to see videos of the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that she met this summer. She loved seeing cousin Claire as a baby and toddler. She rolled with laughter at video of cousin Brenna (as a baby) picking her nose. She got very excited to see Poppa, Grampy, and Uncle Jack making jokes over dinner, and Snapper delightedly screaming "POPPA!" at the sight of my dad.

Today in our home school we studied family connections. Bubbles commented on how lucky she is to be part of such a fun, wonderful family. She felt important because she was able to identify most of the family members in the videos. Today we nurtured her heart and she feels even more connected to us. Tomorrow we will start working on a family tree...the family tree she is grafted into. It will be her next writing assignment. She is itching to start, and so am I.

Can I just say how much I love adoption?

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