For my Daughter

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day we brought Hannah home from China. It's a pretty big deal, I say. 10 years ago tonight I was showing her one of the stray cats outside on the deck at 4 in the morning when she couldn't sleep because of the time differences, and that calmed her down. I remember it so clearly.

And now she's writing sentences containing words like microcosm. Go girl, go.

To celebrate, I took her to Powell's Books and let her get some stuff. She picked up 4 books: one standby favorite Animorphs, and three new ones. She's branching out in her literary tastes. On the way home, she said "Mom, did you know there are some people who don't like reading? I think that's just... ugh." I had to laugh. You should see our house. We had to build a library. When she was in 1st grade we were late to school one day because I went downstairs to get her ready for school and she was sitting in bed reading a book by herself, for the first time. Told her teacher why we were late when we got to school, and Mrs. A said that was the best excuse ever and she was all for it. And now I have an amazing, brilliant, artistic, and self-confident kid. But just so you don't think she's entirely perfect... she still hates homework.

Happy adoption return day anniversary, my sweet little bearito. I love you so much more than words can express.