Firecracker

 

Hadley turned 11 this week.  We should have known she was a firecracker when the first video arrived.  It clearly stated she was 6 months old, but it displayed a bright eyed, curly headed girl hopping from one foot to the other in her crib.  We were confident they were wrong about her age.  Of course they weren’t, that’s just Had.  By the time we left Russia, she was speaking in English.  And she is still talking, albeit with a VERY southern Kentucky twang.

Hadley once heard Josh Turner’s “My little darlin is a firecracker”  and was confident it said “My little daughter.”  And who could blame her.  By the time she was 3 there was considerable concern she would never live to see five.  She was and is a daredevil. We sometimes joke that we enrolled her in cheer to keep her from tumbling off the roof of the house.  She swam so well that her swim test at the YMCA is signed only with an “H” because she could swim the length before she could write her whole name.  At Hadley’s re adoption in the USA, she gave the judge her name, address and phone number- she was  barely 3.  I asked the guidance counselor at school to place Hadley with a teacher trained in explosives.  Hadley can be nothing short of dangerous, but in the hands of the right person, she can be an amazingly beautiful, colorful, night sky filling, celebration of life.

Ahh the tummy showing days.

We still see this expression.

Hadley is always willing to help with Lucy.

Bear.

Despite the Easter basket, it really was Halloween.  Hadley has been Kim Possible, a power ranger, an Incredible, a cowgirl…. and that one year she was too young to choose and Brianna made them matching princesses.  It is hard to imagine that now.

Hadley and friends.  Aren’t they amazingly beautiful.