ahhh, my oldest

I have been looking at Anna recently with a sense of wonder at seeing
this beautiful little girl who looks so grown up and I keep wondering,
"where did she come from? How did she grow up into this adorable
little girl so fast?!" Anna, in so many ways, is a visual reminder and
a metaphor a bit of my life here in SE Asia. She came as a little 9
month old infant, clueless, dependent, mute except for a few grunts
and noises. Much like myself when I arrived. Now nearly 3 years later
she is a beautiful little person with a personality that is dramatic,
sweet, growing in maturity, loving and so much more. And her language!
Boy, can this little girl talk! Even the locals here comment on how
able are her conversational skills even though they can't understand
her English chatter . . . perhaps, I'm getting there myself, as I grow
into understanding and engaging with this culture. If I think about it
long enough I can see how I've come so far, even though I have so far
to go. (much like a nearly 4 year old looking at the years ahead). I
too have come so far developmentally in adapting to this culture, may
God give me the strength, courage and ability to keep growing!

Anna, in all her grace, has done some really adorable things recently.
She has most recently become aware that her skin is a different color
than everyone else around her. She mentions it fairly often, every few
days, and it sounds something like this: (we are at the beach) "Mommy,
there are no white people. They're all brown." Or perhaps we're on the
airplane. "Look mommy, she's white. He's brown mommy. But she's white
like me!" and in all her sweetness, the other day, she said, "Mommy,
my skin is white. they're brown (pointing to our friends sitting
beside us). What color skin does God have?" I smiled and laughed a
little surprised laugh that she would think to ask that! I answered
that perhaps his skin was all the colors since He made all the people
in the world and they have lots of colored-skin. Or, I said, perhaps
his skin doesn't have a color -- perhaps it's just bright like the
sun. She nodded thoughtfully and said. "Oh." and then she went on to
the next thing.

Today, she dressed herself and found a hat and a scarf and went to
town . . .what a cute little hippie she makes! :)