Somebody Just Hit Double Digits!

Look out! Angie just turned ten and she's sassier than ever! Also, more beautiful, more confident in her English, more ticklish, and taller!  We put her up to the door frame where my sister and I were measured growing up and she's already surpassed her aunt's notch from when she was 12!  Sorry Tia Kiki. 

Until her time at Talita Cumi she'd never had a birthday celebration, nor even known when to celebrate one.  Two years ago, we joined 7-8 other kiddos, with birthdays estimated to be in that quarter of the year, for her first birthday ever.

First birthday presents for her 8th birthday.

Then last year she had her first private birthday party, where we took ~30 of her closest friends bowling, then topped it off with a sleepover at our house!

So, this year, since we've yet to make any friends here in the U.S. she's been anxious about how her birthday could be a success, we may have set the bar a bit too high last year.  But I don't think she was disappointed.

Friday, the spoiling began with a bouquet of fruit from her aunt Kira, a party with some of her favorite foods, and her favorite thing; presents!  Thank you all who sent birthday wishes and/or sweet gifts.  She's already enjoying the clothes and scattering her new art supplies around the house in traditional don't-finish-one-project-before-you-start-another fashion.  

But we wanted to do something uber-special for her first birthday away from Bolivia to prove the US could be just as fun, so Saturday we loaded up seven of us and headed to Holiday World for her introduction to amusement parks.  Turns out she's not super fond of things that go fast or high, which really limited our options, but the other five adults along for moral support and to help ensure she had an awesome time were fabulously flexible and stayed positive even when things sometimes looked bleak.  Overall, the wave pool was the place to be, unfortunately not only for Angie but for 4 million others as well, but she didn't mind the underwater mosh pit and she was really the only one that mattered that day...

Now, as long as we can transition her back into normal life where the world's not actually revolving around her, we'll be fine.  Yesterday, was a great start, as we celebrated what I'd imagine was her first Father's Day in ten years with a truly good dad. She so sweetly told Jon that I've been there for all three of her birthdays. I'm pretty sure he'll be there for all the rest.  

I praise the Lord for Angie's amazing Daddy, for Coach Bulo her awesome tennis coaching grandfather, and for Her heavenly father who brought her to us all and is guiding her so gently through this big change.