All About Joy

Ten.  

She has come a long way.

She had such a temper when she first came home.  She also had lots of happiness.

She loved to be loved.  Still does.  

She's has grown into a sweetheart.  Now she is double digits.  Never to be single digit again.  It makes me somewhat sad that this time has quickly passed by.  Oh, to just rewind for a little while longer.  My youngest is 10.  Yep, 10.

We delayed celebrating because we had just returned home from Hawaii.  And she was perfectly fine with celebrating her big birthday a few days late.  

At age 10, she is still my tiny girl.  She is 47 pounds (but was 45 pounds before she had steak and potatoes at dinner) and 49 inches tall. 

This year, she worked hard at learning how to ride a bike.

I have to admit I was thinking her "day" would never come.  She was so timid...afraid of falling.

Her tiny had isn't large enough to grip the handle.  So, she really is riding her bike mostly with her rock hard abs and right hand and arm.  

She had surgery on her hand about six months after coming home to us.  The doctors hoped to widen her grasp.  

Just 24 hours after surgery, she removed that cast, exposing her stitches and skin graft.  This mama panicked a bit.  

Joy continued removing cast after cast until...

...the doctors gave up and told me just to keep her bandaged instead.  She went through 5 beautiful casts in 2 weeks.  Her doctor called her Houdini.

Of course, Joy has no recollection of any of this.  She is just a sweet, intelligent, happy 10-year old girl.  Loving the sweet life that God has so blessed her with.