annabelle’s new words

One of the frequent questions that I’m fielding is about Annabelle’s vocabulary.  Is she learning English?  Lilly told us this story tonight at the dinner table, and she wanted me to pass it along to you…

Lilly and Annabelle were hanging out upstairs this afternoon.  At some point in the doll-dressing (I’m guessing here; they could have been working on reducing the National Debt.  But my guess is probably pretty close) Lilly asked Annabelle how old she was.  Now, you know that Lilly knows how old her sister is.  But we do that, don’t we?  We ask questions we already know the answers to in order to help and encourage kids who are just learning to speak our language.  Anyway, here’s their exchange:

Lilly:  Annabelle, how old are you?

A:  2.

L:  2?  No, you’re 9.

A:  No, 2.  2 ears. Annabelle then pointed to either side of her head, and counted out loud, 1, 2.

We all got a chuckle out of that tonight at dinner, even Annabelle.  I’m not sure she knew what we were laughing about, but she’s good to join in with us like that.  She’s doing really well with communication, even when she doesn’t understand all the words.

There are ways for us to tell her that we love her, that we will care for her, that she belongs with us, that we’re family.  Words are important, sure, but we can convey a sense of caring, support, belief, and love without words, at least for the immediate future.  We’ll continue to speak those words to her, knowing that our actions will whisper them to her heart.  And some day she’ll have the vocabulary to tell us what she was thinking and feeling before she had words to say those things back to us.

If you have questions about our adoption process, or adoption in general, shoot ’em my way.  I’d love to chat with you about how great adoption is!