Our sweet, loving little boy...and...Fourth of July!

Here is an example of what a wonderful little boy Lucas Digafu is. We are so blessed to have him as a part of our family. Yesterday as I was trying to get in a few pages of the book I'm reading There is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene, Lucas Digafu jumped onto my lap and started pointing to the Ethiopian girl on the front cover.

This prompted me to turn to the pictures inside the book (which is about the struggle of an Ethiopian woman to care for the numerous orphans in her country) and show these pictures to him as well. One picture in particular is of a girl named Mekdes who is crying because she has just been dropped of at the compound run by Haregewoin and is dealing with recent losses in her life. Lucas saw this picture and I used it as an opportunity to teach him some emotion words in English such as sad, cry, and hurt. He repeated these words many times and I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. He got up and went to the freezer where we keep a pig shaped ice pack that we call Boo Boo Pig. He pulled it out and brought it over to the book and put it on the picture of the sad little girl (to make her boo boo feel better). What a caring and loving little man!!!

Fourth of July in Northern New York was cool and windy, so...... we decided to fly kites. I can't tell you all how much fun it is to do these fun activities with Lucas and see him experience them for the first time. After the kite flying, we went to my cousins' (Denton and Amy's) camp at Greene Point. We had a great time and Lucas Digafu loved to watch the "Pretty Lights" in the sky at night. Our family's newest American celebrated his first Independence Day in style.