The Little Firsts...

   Nine months ago almost to the day, I held my little barefoot girl for the first time in China...she was so weak and scared and grieving, but still had a mind of her own. The first time I set her down on the floor with some toys I slipped some precious little shoes on her feet. I had held these shoes so many times as I dreamed of her sweet feet knowing that someday my little girl would wear them. So I slipped them on, holding back tears and...my sweet little girl took one look at them, screamed, ripped them off her feet and threw them across the room! Underneath that frail body was a spirit of fire! For the rest of the trip to China we wrestled back and forth over shoes ( bet that match will look different the teens years!),  I would slip them on and she would throw them off. She didn't even like to be near my shoes! She even freaked out if we were near shoes in a store...I was sure that she would walk into her first job interview barefoot someday!
      Then, we got home from the whirlwind hospital, open heart surgery bit and she had a new found best friend...one blue dress up shoe. She wore it for weeks, just one lonely blue shoe. You could hear her as she learned to walk pad, clomp, pad, clomp around the house. Her relationship with footwear slowly warmed until, while in Mexico, her favorite passtime was shuffling around the campsite in whatever shoes she could find!
 Today we went to get Georgia new shoes. Turns out spending the first two years of your life in a crib full time does not do too much for ankle muscle tone! Anyhow, up until this point Georgia has had one main pair of shoes that we got her early on but truly has prefered to raid the bin of Ravenna's old cast-aways. She has spent her days wobbling around typically in mismatched dress-up shoes on the wrong feet.
    So today was her big day! We walked in the store and she stared in amazement at the plethora surrounding her. When the lady brought out a pair of bright pink sandals nestled in their box, tissue and all Georgia's eye gots HUGE and her little chin dropped in awe. I helped her put them on and showed her the mirror and she literally did a dance (when Georgia dances she gets her whole body into it, arms flailing, feet flying, head waving)...then looked wide-eyed up at me and said in a voice of solemn reverance, "shoes."
     Even though it has been nine months, even though I am dead tired many days, I still catch my breath at all of the 'firsts' with my priceless girl. When adopting a two year old I worried that I would have missed so many of those firsts (smile, laugh, steps) and it still breaks my heart that I did...but oh the magic of the ones still to come. They are delicious beyond belief.
      Later in the day we were leaving the grocery store. She was sitting in the little seat thing in the cart. Can I just say that I love pushing her in a shopping cart? We are eye-to-eye and can nuzzle noses, she grabs my cheeks and pulls me in for more...then she tries to climb out and screams at the top of her very loud lungs "Out! Out! Out!" if I make her stay. I seriously go from gooey lovey Mama to sweaty high blood pressure mama in a matter of seconds! Anyhow...she was happily, nose-nuzzling in the cart as we left the store and the wind blew her hair. She giggled with delight, pointed to her head and said, "Wind! Hair!" tossing her head around in the breeze....and my breath caught again at the sweet child who once was a shaven head orphan never allowed to leave her crib, never ever taken out side...as she relished her beautiful locks blowing in the breeze.
   I am pondering anew tonight this verse:

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37:4

and how many of those delights are right at our fingertips...