Elliana has been home one month! It's hard to believe it has been a month already because time goes by so fast. But at the same time, I can hardly remember life without her here. I was looking through a photo book of our trip to Michigan this June with Raelynn and it was so weird to not see Elliana in the pictures.
We love her so much and are having a wonderful time with her. I would be lying if I didnt say it wasn't hard though. It's hard to have a child enter the family and be a bit demanding of the attention. And we are trying our best to balance the fact that she needs to learn we are here for her and that she isn't the only child in this house. And I do have to remind myself often, that sometimes she just needs to be held. She just wants to know we are here. And that is such a GOOD thing. That's HUGE! It's good when she cries. I'm used to that with a newborn, but not an eight month old. But it is hard to have any child enter your life-from my belly or someone else's. With every child you have to learn to be a bit more selfless and that definitely doesn't come natural. And with every child God blesses you with, you welcome another sinner into the family. This mama is in need of grace and thankful for my Savior.
And as wonderful as it is to have Elliana home, I am reminded that adoption exists because of sin. Because of trauma and loss and separation, there are orphans in this world. If everything were perfect, every child would have a family with their biological mom and dad and they would stay married their entire life. But again, enter sin.
Adoption is a beautiful picture of redemption and restoration. It is simply amazing to me how I can love someone so much who didn't come from my DNA. Only if you have adopted could you understand what I am talking about. Adoption is incredible and supernatural. It is a beautiful thing that comes from a very ugly thing. I am thankful that we get to have Elliana in our family and call her our daughter, but it doesn't make the hard side of adoption disappear. It is a daily reminder though of how lost I was in my sin before God saved me. And that because of the blood of Christ, when God the father looks at me He sees his daughter. A fellow heir with Christ. Adopted. Redeemed. An orphan no more.
God is definitely using these circumstances to stretch me and cause me to lean on Him. Elliana is the most amazing thing that has happened to us. Don't ever say she is lucky to have us. It is the other way around. She has already blessed us and God has taught us so much through her in one month more than we could ever hope to do for her. The journey has truly just begun.
This weekend, we were so thankful for the help of our friends David and Paige to paint with us! It was fun!
I was having the hardest time choosing colors for the house, so finally we picked the fabric we will use instead. Then we went from there. I got fabric for pillows and we are making cornice boards! I will have to post a tutorial when we get around to it. That will make me feel like a real blogger. Haha.
The kitchen is harvest yellow and the family room is graceful gray. I was so thankful for Kay Walden's interior decorating wisdom of leaving some white for a nice "pop" :) so we did just that!
Here are a couple pictures, I will get more as the room comes together. I plan to accent with a teal/light blue.
**please ignore the MESS....can't wait to get this all cleaned up! :)
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