Ukraine Adoption

Tara's World

In Tara's drawings, there are rainbows and sunshine, her and her brother, her mom and dad, her cat and sometimes the dog she never met. There is a house and grass and some flowers. There are a few clouds next to the sun, with a few rain drops falling.

She draws the nearly identical picture over and over again. Sometimes she staples them together and calls it her book. These are all over the house, they are slid under our bedroom door on weekend mornings. Sometimes she tells me to take one with me, when she is being left behind. Sometimes she asks me to draw her a picture, and then dicates its familiar subjects: A rainbow, first red then orange, then yellow...right down to the last color. She shows me where I go wrong when I improvise with the colors.

She does other drawings and has big explanations for each line, each person, each square cut out. A few times, her art came back from school and it was all black finger paint blurred together like a scary night. I asked if she had a bad day or a nightmare. She said she didn't and that she just felt like painting something all black. But always, she goes back to drawing rainbows and her family under them.

I suppose a child psychologist could have a field day with this. Me, I just smile and hug her every time she hands me one.