Laughter

A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones. ~proverbs 17:22


There is nothing more heavenly than the sound of a child laughing.  No matter what kind of day I have had, that sound will always cause a smile to come across my face.  We like to be silly at our house and we love to laugh.  The road of adoption is filled with stressful days.  Emotional rollercoaster.  One day can hold a high where I am shouting and dancing and also a low where I am weeping on the floor.  Sometimes this happens all in one hour.  Some of my favorite times with our family is when we are home alone just being silly and everyone gets a case of the giggles.  Especially now that everyone in the house is laughing.


Kody is deep compassion and strong desire for justice can make him, at times, very serious.  This week they did a writing assignment at school - "What I would do if I was President of the United States".  Kody wrote that he would free all the slaves in the world, he would find every person who had a slave and would put them in prison.  These are the types of thoughts swirling around in that boy's head.  So I just love when he gets laughing.  He has a soft laugh that takes control of his whole body.  The kind that produces belly cramps and the inability to walk.  From the first moments of Tyler's life, we knew he was going to be funny.  He loves to be silly and loves to laugh.  He has this amazingly deep chuckle for a child his size.  The stronger it gets, his face gets all red and the laugh consumes whatever space he is in.


And then there is our precious Faith.  She has always had a smile that can melt a room full of people.  We had the privilege to see that even in Ethiopia.  For a long time, though, there has been no laughing.  Not even in response to being tickled.  After about a year of being home, she began to force a giggle when the other kids where joking around but nothing spontaneous.  Honestly, I never thought much about it.  She seemed very happy.  I thought that she was just a person who wasn't ticklish and who didn't really laugh on the outside.  After that first year, she began to giggle a little when someone would tickle her.  Then a few months ago it happened.  She giggled.  All on her own, when no one else in the house was laughing.   Her laughter is like sweet, pink cotton candy. In the past few months another thing has changed.  It's her hugs.  They are coming with more emotion, more strength.  I feel like we have reached the next layer of her heart. 


We are missing one child's laughter now to our symphony of joy.  I wonder what it sounds like, I wonder if she likes to laugh, I wonder what makes her laugh, I wonder if she has actually every laughed before and when will we get to hear her giggle.  My daughter is 4.5 and I have no idea what the answer is to all of these things.  It just is not right.  We made one huge step towards bringing her home this week, though.  We are officially DTC!  (You can read about our timeline here)  Thank you for partnering with us on this journey.  Please continue to pray for favor and a quick turnaround with our dossier.  



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