We managed to get away to the lake for a few days last week. It was a relaxing time with family and an awesome opportunity to provide Lily with new experiences. She loved the water, tolerated the life jacket, and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her new cousins. I counted at least 7 new English words during our stay at the lake…

1. boat (Lily loved riding on the ski and pontoon boats)

2. out (as in “I’m ready to get OUT of the water now.”)

3. yeah (no explanation necessary if you live in the South)

4. go (as in ready, set…)

5. bow

6. hairbow

7. sand

Lily in the pool. She loved the fountain.

 

Mommy & Lily on the pontoon boat.

 

Riding the raft with Mommy.

Korean Peek-A-Boo

Look what I found in Mommy’s cabinet

I have an idea…

“Where’s Lily?”

“Gakkung!!!” — pronounced Ka-Koong
(Korean for Peek-a-boo)

Sitting On My High Chair

Now that we have a toddler at home, keeping up with blog posts is next to impossible; but God continues to do a great work at our house as we watch amazed. We celebrate Lily’s homecoming perpetually. She is such a joyful little girl — she makes us laugh hundreds of times a day. Despite the language difference, or maybe because of it, she is constantly looking for something to laugh about — or giggle, grin, snicker, smirk or cackle about — and she always looks expectantly to see who will join her in her moment of glee.

Everyday she makes us love her more than we ever thought possible. God is good and her adjustment seems to be coming along smoothly. She is learning English at an amazing pace — we have heard her use more than a dozen words meaningfully; but she continues to use a good many Korean words as well. Lately I have been struck with how difficult it must be for her, understanding so little of what we say and left to guess about our meaning much of the time.

We know she misses her foster family. She pretends to talk cheerfully to Appa on the telephone many times a day using anything that can be remotely construed to be a telephone. She always invites whichever family member is nearby to join her in chatting with Appa.

We think she chooses joy ’cause she is just that kind of girl. Oh yeah, she’s a keeper…