A milestone.

Of sorts. Today, as I was getting B ready for church, she started babbling. Now, usually when I'm concentrating on trying to get a clip to stay in her hair, I just nod and smile at whatever it is she's saying. (Sidenote - B is at a frustrating point right now. She's forgetting her Amharic, but English is not altogether there for her yet. She understands very well, but a lot of stories include her saying "this is". "This is E, this is mine take, E this is." Yep. So you can understand the nodding and smiling thing, right? But I digress...)
But this time, she caught my attention.
"M, this is, my dad, this is M my dad."
"Your dad, B? You mean, your Ethiopian dad?"
"Yah. This is my dad, bye bye."
"Your dad went bye bye?"
"Yes. Dad, bye bye, all gone."
Now, B and M are biological siblings whose parents both died of "unknown illnesses". Their father died a few months before M was born, and their mother died sometime last year. Since there has been such a big language barrier, we've not tried talking to B about her parents. This was something new. She was talking about the fact that her parents were gone.
"What about your Ethiopian mom?"
"My mom, gone. *closes eyes, and goes limp*. Mom, bye bye. This is gone."
"Your mom in Ethiopia is gone?"
"Yes."
"Does that make you sad?"
She shrugs her shoulders, then points towards the bathroom where Mother was getting ready.
"This is mommy, bathroom."
"You're right, mommy is in the bathroom, and she loves you very much."

Now at this point, I could feel the tears stinging my eyes. I was trying to imagine knowing your parents had died, and living though all this change. It was seriously heartbreaking. Through this conversation, she made it clear she knew her mother had died, and her father was gone. I explained that it was OK to be sad for her Ethiopian mommy and daddy, and that was something she could always talk about with Mother and Daddy. I also explained that she now has an American family who loves her very much, and will be with her forever.

I hope that God will continue to open her heart, and heal it enough to be able to continue talking about her life in Ethiopia.

As I said. A milestone. Of sorts.

God is so good!