On Healing

This morning I was reading a friend's blog. She was talking about her newly adopted daughter. She reminded me of the notion that when children are young and their cries are ignored they learn to turn inward. They stop crying because they've learned it's a pointless exercise.

I experienced that with my girls, especially the younger one. For along time if she got hurt she would just drop her hair in front of her face and hunch her little self over and get really quiet until she was over whatever had happened.

If you have met my girls you know that the youngest now is a big card! She is chok-full of personality. A couple weeks ago we were helping out some friends by looking in on their dogs while they were away on a day trip. Their dogs are really fun and spirited. The Youngest was throwing balls for them and they were returning them to her. One of the dogs tried to grab the ball from her hand and inadvertently bit her finger. I was completely taken aback by her response. She dropped her head back and wailed at the top of her lungs. I stood there for a minute watching before I scooped her up to console her because it was amazing.

We've had the girls for 2 1/2 years now and in some ways I feel like we've had them since birth. Our family continues to bond and grow the easy camaraderie that comes from being with people you know extremely well. I don't see as often their tell tale signs of healing. They are still healing but the change just isn't as obvious as it was before.  I hope I don't ever start to miss those signs. They are encouraging.