9 months old!

Grace is 9 months old today. As everyone who has walked the adoption road ahead of us says, it's hard to believe that she has only been home for 3 months. - it's like she's always been a part of our family. Adoption has truly become a past tense verb at our house. A funny thing is happening for me; the farther away from our trip and the day she became ours, the less I am inclined to distinguish her and her unique story. When we first came home, I would tell anyone who noticed her, "This is Grace. She just came home from Ethiopia." I felt like I should explain it all. Now, I'm certainly happy to tell varieties of her amazing story as we really hope the Lord uses it to inspire others to adopt. But I have to say that now I prefer to just introduce her as my daughter, Grace. Adoption is what happened to Grace, not what defines her. She is an Anderson through and through now.

And yesterday, In honor of Grace's 9 month birthday and her Anderson heritage, we had our annual trip to Sky Top Apple Orchard. We have been going every fall for 9 years and, as in just about every other way too, Grace fit right in!