PLAY.

As an adoptive parent I echo the words of [Author, Deborah Gray]…

As parents we passionately want to succeed in raising emotionally healthy children, both the children that came to us through birth as well as through the miracle of adoption. We also want to enjoy our little ones. When children arrive later in infancy or childhood, we are more aware that we need to do more careful parenting. We are nurturing not only to build a relationship, but to help mitigate any impact of losses or maltreatment.
Many of these little ones have missed the joys of play. Most have missed the experience of having parents express joy as they played. Because of this, their reward centers were not stimulated. This restricted the association of exploration and play with pleasure. 
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We've been home 14 months now with our 5 year old daughter, T ... And with much practice and patience, we've seen a new (if even small) trust allowing her to more freely begin to engage in play.

 So today we're celebrating the gift of "learning to play." Praising the Lord for our big & small successes in the journey.

 To Him be the glory,
~Becky