Our Tiny Dancer

To all our surprise this last year, Ava decided to take a year off from ballet and focus on her horseback riding.  And Amelia decided to join ballet and focus on coming out of her shell!  Well, maybe that last part was my focus for Amelia...

But you know what?!  She's done WONDERFULLY!!  Not that I'm surprised as I knew she could; but what I'm most surprised at is that she never complained about going to ballet practice, that she didn't retreat into her shell and refuse to participate, but instead, jumped in with enthusiasm!!  

She practiced hard all year and I truly believe that participating in ballet has helped her become more outspoken and has in a way, helped her find her voice!

I've heard consistently from her ballet teacher, Mother's Day Out teachers and Sunday School teachers, that Amelia has become more outspoken and gregarious in class.  For the first half of the year, her Mother's Day Out teachers didn't even know what her voice sounded like because Amelia would never talk!  Just nod and obey instruction ;-)  

But now this girl is finding that it's okay to speak her mind sometimes!  This has also resulted in some disruption at home.  You see, she's not just going along with every single thing Ava tells her to do anymore.  But this is a good disruption for Amelia.  It may be creating some friction between the two sisters, but they still love each other and get along very well; it's just that Ava is having to learn to share and do some giving instead of just taking.  Ahem.

So now we come to the end of the year ballet performance.  This year the show was "Alice in Wonderland."  Amelia was a green parrot.  I know, you're thinking, "I don't remember any green parrots in that movie..." but Amelia's ballet teacher has always taken the classical interpretation of whatever ballet they are performing and little details in the original works become vivid characters onstage.  It's always a beautiful, professional performance!

We are only allowed to take pictures or video on dress rehearsal night so that everyone can enjoy the actual show and you don't have parents popping up every second to snap pictures.  And what did this mother of a green parrot do?  I forgot her cute little cap!  So all pictures of her on stage are sans cap but she's still cute!  And she LOVED being out on stage, performing to applause and hoots and hollering!

I don't know what my problem was this week but I was forgetting things left and right.  I even forgot her ballet shoes on the Saturday evening performance!

 

But I did remember her hat!  And her Dad was following shortly so he brought her ballet shoes.  Here's a picture of her before her first performance, in full parrot regalia:

I have to admit that when I saw her on stage, dancing so freely without a care in the world...

I couldn't help but think back to the scared, deeply grieving, sad little girl we first met almost 3 years ago (to the day)...

...and tear up when I thought of where and who she is now...who God is shaping her to be...

What a privilege to witness this beautiful flower blooming; to know God has blessed and continues to bless us by allowing us to be a part of the miracle of adoption!  Soli Deo Gloria!!