Ukraine Adoption

What are you looking at, Mommy?

Sometimes we forget to slow down and live in the present. We are too busy planning and scheduling our lives. It's been a long time since I had a "how cool is this" moment when I stop--and take everything in.

You watch your little girl change every day, but you change too.

Tara likes to pick up inchworms and find them a comfortable home on a small leaf. She catches toads and puts them in her little pink cage for a day, but then sets them free before nightfall. She cuts out little paper hearts without even folding them first. She takes off her shoes to run barefoot on the little stones at her Grandma's park. She lays on her tummy on the kitchen floor to watch the cat eat his can of food (he used to glance at her, now he is used to it).

Last week, Tara convinced me to take her for a ride on her new bike. Of course I was too busy to do this, but I went anyway. At the pond at the park where she fed crackers to the ducks, the sun setting on the water, the sounds of a boys' baseball game nearby, I felt myself exhale. There were a million things I should have been doing but suddenly I didn't care.

This little girl was showing me a glimpse of her world, where she takes everything in and lives each experience to the fullest. I think I was having one of those "how cool is this" moments. Tara turned back to look at me as I gazed at the water. Then she asked, "What are you looking at, Mommy?" Nothing, I said. And everything.