A new child joins the Williams family in California.
We have a brand new addition to our family! She came Saturday, and already the girls are fighting over who will take care of her!
Little Anna Grace came to us on Saturday from Africa, from the country of Kenya; and she is as adorable as they come! She is seven, the same age as Mia Rochelle (who is also from Africa, by the way, and like Mia, she also lost her legs when she stepped on a land mine), and she has the biggest pair of black eyes and the fattest cheeks you have ever seen! Her hair is cut close to her head, and if it were not for the tiny gold hoop earrings adorning her ears or the frilly red blouse she is wearing, you wouldn't even know that she is a little girl! She is tiny for her age, looking more like four than seven, but she is a very sweet child with a shy personality (but we are sure that this will disappear once she gets to know us more and gets used to being in America as our brand new daughter!). She will also have to get used to us calling her Anna Grace; she isn't used to her "American" name yet; and she will adamantly say to us, "My name is NOT Anna; it's Abayomi!!" in her high, clear voice. But we tell her that her name is Anna, and she gets mad! It's funny to see her get so worked up over it!
Anna walks on a walker now, but we are sure that once she gets more therapy and used to getting around, she will soon graduate to crutches--or perhaps, to nothing at all! I know she will succeed because she has such a winning personality, and I am sure that she will do well at all she does!
Anna is learning all the time; everything seems to pique her curiosity, and she is content to stay by my side a lot of the time. She will ask me what something is, and she will ask me who that is, meaning her sisters; and I will tell her that the girls are now her sisters, and I tell her their names, so she will get used to them. I tell them that they love her, too, as I do, and they are happy that she is an important part of our family, and that they are happy that she is with them, as their brand new sister. I tell her a little about each of the girls, and that they came from other places too, including Africa.
Anna also got her first piece of mail yesterday: a girl in Tennessee wrote to her, and after we got the mail, she and I wrote a letter to this little girl, and we are seeing if she will write back. The little girl in question is the adopted daughter of my friend, Louisiana Sandusky, and she is 11 years old; and she is in the Gifted/Talented program at her school, where she is in the fifth grade. She is very smart, according to her mother. Her name is Ronee' Le-Anne Reaux, and she is an amazing child with an amazing story. Someday I will tell Anna Grace about Ronee', and someday the two girls will meet face to face. Then Anna can see her first real friend since coming to America, and I am sure that the two of them will click immediately upon meeting each other!
Today Anna is looking at me, trying to figure me out, and she seems fascinated with my wheelchair. (I use a wheelchair, or a walker, because I was born with a damaged spine that left me paralyzed. I also get headaches, but I recently had surgery, and now the headaches don't seem as extreme. But I am a mama, and I adopted twelve beautiful daughters, all born with special needs; and they are all lovely young women! I figured if other people can adopt, then I can too, even though I am physically disabled!!) She asked me if I was hurt, and I told her no; I told her I was born this way, and because my legs don't work, I have to use a wheeled chair to get me places, and I can do anything I set my mind to, except I do most things sitting down instead of standing up. But I told her that was okay because even though I can't walk (much), I still can love my girls, and I still can be a good mama to them! That seemed to satisfy her question; and she then put her tiny little arms about my neck, and she made me cry when she told me, "Mama, I love you! Thanks for taking me in to be your girl!" She is such a precious little spirit, and I am indeed blessed that God has been good to me by bringing yet another Miracle into our family!
These timeless quotations culled from the celebrated corpus of writings by W.E.B. Du Bois are presented with illuminating introductory essays by Aberjhani. Narration of the Audible book performed by Catherine Byers.
