No small thing

Tonight I am preparing paperwork for our girls to get official Ohio birth certificates. This is not a big deal in my book. Ohio birth certificates could be helpful down the road. It's one more piece of the huge paperwork puzzle that I had yet to get to. 

But as I pulled out those Chinese documents, I started to read. (A huge benefit of studying the language for so long! I couldn't understand it all, but I can understand enough.) I read Elsie's abandonment article, what was published in the paper in the area where she was found. Infant girl found on this seat on this train about one month old. I read Emma's daily schedule in the orphanage. Wake up, snacks, play times, meals, all so regimented and routine because there were so many children they were caring for. I read a questionnaire we sent to Elsie's orphanage. It was partially filled out and there were lots of 没有, meaning doesn't have. She didn't have favorite toys or something she always slept with. She didn't have favorite foods because at two and a half years old she was still drinking formula. 

Reading these documents and papers we'd received from their orphanages reminds me... these girls used to be orphans. They were both abandoned. They lived for years without a mother and father and sister. 

But now! They belong to us. They are ours. We operate like a typical family with giggles and tears and joys and frustrations. Even though they are distinctly Asian beauties sometimes I forget who they used to be. They're now my girls. They are orphans no longer. They are thriving in our family. And that is No. Small. Thing.