Overheard on Tarragon Street

Esther is a very clever girl. In fact, the orphanage ladies told us that on the first day we met Esther in South Africa (although with their accent she was "clevuh"). Even in those short 6 months she had managed to give them all that impression, enough for them to mention it at our meeting with them.

And of course I push her to learn because I see her potential and know that the more time I invest in that, the more it will pay off for her in the end.
Some things, though, I don't even recall talking to her about, and she just somehow picks up on them, which I guess is just part of being clever.

Lately she is VERY INTO families. Any time she sees like 3 or more of something, they are automatically a family. This can be cups on the table, or the horses in the field, or small pieces of bread that I've cut up for Sylvia.

She is very aware that the four of us make up a family unit, and the other day we all happened to be in the hall, and she had all of us hold hands in a circle and she sang about how we were a family - Mamma, Pappa, Esther and Sylvia.

She is also more and more aware of the fact that she was adopted, and that she lived in South Africa and Mamma and Pappa took the airplane to get her, and that she needed a family and we wanted her in our family and we adopted her, and she knows that that is also what happened with Sylvia. We have some great kids books that address this topic well, and they are some of her favorites. Whenever she sees a "single" of something, like the cup or piece of bread I mentioned above, she says that that thing is "lost" and "needs its family" and is "looking for its Mamma and Pappa" and "needs to get adopted".

It's quite fascinating. She seems to "get it" already. In whatever way she can get it at this point.