Just over 5 years ago, the story of a sweet little girl in India was shared with us by another family that was looking to adopt. We reviewed her files for them and then shared a glimpse of what her life may look like if they adopted her. They decided they were not the family for her, but we knew we were.
Fast forward 2 years and that sweet little girl, living in a country we didn't even know you could adopt from, was coming home as our daughter.
Today, 3 years later, Ramya turned 9. It's crazy how God orchestrates events in our lives; events we never foresaw coming, yet are so perfectly predestined.
We celebrated with a simple family party (though we do plan to have a party that includes all of our extended family in Phoenix in a few weeks). Ramya requested vanilla cake and Indian food, so that is exactly what she got!
The kiddos all helped me make a vanilla cake. They even decorated it, which they loved. Conner did the lettering and the girls made the "flowers" and put on the sprinkles. I think the fact that they helped make it made it that much more special for them! Conner told me that my cake was the best cake ever because it was made with a secret ingredient; love. He also told me that I outdid myself, which I find humorous because I actually felt bad for not having something bigger and more grandiose planned. We are trying to figure out what it means to live away from friends and family and are working on how we will have celebrations and the such in the future.
We went for Indian food at a new family-owned restaurant I found on Google. The girls love dosa, but not all Indian food restaurants carry it, so I made sure to find a place that did. They loved the food and the owner was really sweet, though he did ask us if we were missionaries, ha! David told him "no" but I don't think he believed him because he later asked me what I do too. I told him that David works in finance and I stay at home and homeschool. He followed us outside to say good-bye and chatted with the kids for a while. Ramya has decided that she wants to go back to the same restaurant every year for her birthday.
Fast forward 2 years and that sweet little girl, living in a country we didn't even know you could adopt from, was coming home as our daughter.
Today, 3 years later, Ramya turned 9. It's crazy how God orchestrates events in our lives; events we never foresaw coming, yet are so perfectly predestined.
We celebrated with a simple family party (though we do plan to have a party that includes all of our extended family in Phoenix in a few weeks). Ramya requested vanilla cake and Indian food, so that is exactly what she got!
The kiddos all helped me make a vanilla cake. They even decorated it, which they loved. Conner did the lettering and the girls made the "flowers" and put on the sprinkles. I think the fact that they helped make it made it that much more special for them! Conner told me that my cake was the best cake ever because it was made with a secret ingredient; love. He also told me that I outdid myself, which I find humorous because I actually felt bad for not having something bigger and more grandiose planned. We are trying to figure out what it means to live away from friends and family and are working on how we will have celebrations and the such in the future.
We went for Indian food at a new family-owned restaurant I found on Google. The girls love dosa, but not all Indian food restaurants carry it, so I made sure to find a place that did. They loved the food and the owner was really sweet, though he did ask us if we were missionaries, ha! David told him "no" but I don't think he believed him because he later asked me what I do too. I told him that David works in finance and I stay at home and homeschool. He followed us outside to say good-bye and chatted with the kids for a while. Ramya has decided that she wants to go back to the same restaurant every year for her birthday.
After dinner we went home for cake. Ramya was beaming the entire time. It was very cute!
We usually give the kiddos their birthday gifts in the summer where we have an "un-birthday" for all of them at once, because they get so many gifts at their friends and family parties and we like to spread it out. Now that we are away, though, we may need to re-think that and give them gifts on their actual birthdays. We gave Deena gifts on her birthday this year, but that was because she had just come home and we wanted her to have some things of her own. Ramya was pretty happy, though, and never asked about gifts.
Ramya declared this the best birthday ever and told me "thank you" multiple times. I was feeling bad because I'm having a hard time figuring out the new birthday thing and trying to plan a family party back in Phoenix, but she loved it. Go figure! I think sometimes we get so caught up on things needing to be just perfect that we fail to see the beauty in simplicity.
Happy birthday to our sweet, spunky, thoughtful girl! We love you Ramya!
1 comment:
It's not easy navigating the first special events once you move away from family and the traditions they have always been a part of, but in time, you'll find new traditions for your special days. Sometimes, those end up being just as special as the ones built with extended family. We always lived close to family and pretty much spent every holiday at my grandparent's house, including the big, extended family Christmas on Christmas Day. When we moved across the country, we flew back for that first Christmas, because we couldn't imagine it any other way. But, that was a little much for my parents, so after that we stayed home for Christmas...several years later, when we finally moved back closer to family, close enough we could have driven there for Christmas (~7 hours), we just wanted our quiet immediate family Christmas that we had become used to! We ended up driving up on the 26th each year and celebrated with family later, so it was the best of both worlds!
Happy Birthday!
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