Bobbi's "baby"

So, I'd been wondering lately if it was time to modify the title of the blog, but then just this week realized that it's still plenty appropriate. First of all, we're still building that new bath"room." (Believe it or not - because I'm still not sure I believe it! - Matt got the last few spots that needed a last layer of sheetrock mud completed last week, then he sanded those few spots, and this evening he and I got to 1) work together (yay!) at 2) painting the walls and ceiling with primer!!! That whole thing deserves a post in itself, but it's not likely going to happen. There has been SO MUCH going on to fill the available hours in each day, which is why having a coat of paint seems like such a miracle.)

And secondly, we've just added one more to our household!

Meet Tsvetani Brianna Potter*! We had told Bobbi that she would be able to pick out a cat when one of ours died (city ordinance allows three cats at any given time, so we needed to lose one before we could get one.) Last summer Bridget, the cat I got a year before Matt and I were married, died after nineteen good years, and we'd been waiting since then for the right time to get a new one. Obviously, much of the fall was Not. A. Good. Time. But a little over a week ago we met new neighbors who just happened to be fostering kittens, and one of them turned out to be just right for Bobbi.

Bobbi's sisters are pretty excited about a new kitten, too!

One of the neatest things so far has been hearing Bobbi talk about adoption in a whole new light. I have always personally disliked using the same term for adding a child to a family and getting a new pet, but there are so many parallels. Just like becoming a parent broadens one's understanding of God's love for his children, I think "adopting" a cat has in just a few short days opened Bobbi's eyes to some things about our adoption of her that she has not been able to really understand up to this point. She talks regularly every day about how much she loves her kitten, and I've pointed out to her that it has nothing to do with DNA! She may not be genetically related to me and Matt and her siblings, but we're at least the same species!!! I think it's been difficult at times for Bobbi to have come into a family with both adopted and biological children, and to every day see the faces of those who do look like us and know that she doesn't, and God is using this tiny kitten to fight against the lies that "adopted" means "second rate."

This kitten is surely not second rate in Bobbi's book!

*'Tsvetani' (Цветани) is in honor of someone special from Bobbi's years in Bulgaria. 'Brianna' is Bobbi's middle name, in keeping with Bulgarian naming practices of having your mother or father's name as your middle name. 'Potter' is because Tsvetani has a little spot of white fur on her forehead, just like the scar that Harry Potter has.