Category Archives: Adoption

Adoption, Literature

Love at First Sight

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“I felt that God made it clear to me that I was to raise them and this intensified my love into a fierce, protective, sacrificial love, but it didn’t change the fact that it takes some time to make strangers into family.”

–Katie Davis

I didn’t expect to be able to relate to a Mother’s Day post for at least ten years, but having siblings that are six or eleven years younger than you puts you on a whole different set of charts.  Katie Davis’ post to mothers (linked to above) was one of the most encouraging things I think I’ve ever read.

“And for us, this is the miracle: not that we experienced love at first sight but that God has given me a love for these once-strangers that is just as strong as if they had grown in my own womb.”

Yes.  Yes, yes, yes.

Things will get better.  There is hope.

And it’s still a miracle.

It’s still beautiful.  It’s not worthless, and it’s not hopeless.

“Mommy.”  She said it and I knew.  She was mine.  I was captivated.  Because Mommy is forever.  It’s such a powerful name.  Mommy means “I trust you.”  Mommy means “You will protect me.”  Mommy is for shouting when you need someone dependable and for laughing with when you are excited; Mommy is for crying on and cuddling with when you are sad or giggling and hiding behind when you are embarrassed.  Mommy is the fixer of boo-boos and the mender of broken hearts.  Mommy is a comfort place, a safe place.  Mommy means you are mine and I am yours and we are family. (57)

Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

 

P.S. I decided to use the name “Brian” for the boy in my next science story.  I just need to figure out how to end it, and I can post it!

Adoption, Life, Literature

A Little Randomness

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A post I wrote was featured on the Sparrow Fund blog again!  You can read it here.  I just wrote it recently, and I didn’t post it on here.  (Unlike “Broken”.)

Also, I need more help with names. (What on earth is my problem with names???)  In my next science story the main character has a little brother who is eight, and I need a name for him.  I’m looking for a fairly ‘normal’ name, but something a little exotic would be fine too.  Once I get a name for him and come up with a really strong line to end it with, I’ll be ready to post it! (Yay!)

Also, sorry I never got back to you guys on this post.  I’m still deciding on what names I’m going to use, but Christina suggested Amy and I know I’m going to use that one.  I’ll probably decide on the rest of them when I get to the characters in the story.

Thanks!

Adoption, Family, Life

Our Chinese New Year Celebration!

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Michael and Lucy helped make red, paper lanterns with Mom.  The ones on either side are store-bought, but they made the middle one.  (They made more than that; I’m not sure what happened to the other ones.)

 

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Mama decorated our table the night before.

We had Asian food for dinner, and then lit off fireworks:

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Preparations!

Michael stomping "snaps" with his little lawn-chair. Sooo cute! :)
Michael stomping “snaps” with his little lawn-chair. Sooo cute! 🙂

The noise was a little too much for some of us, so Mom and Becca went inside with the littles to watch out the window, while I stayed outside and took pictures.

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I cannot believe I got such a good picture!  I was just randomly snapping!

Sparkling juice:

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Xin Nian Kuai Le, folks!

Adoption, Life

Happy Chinese New Year!

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Today is the first day of Chinese New Year!  We got Chinese food last year (the Hy-Vee kind ’cause all the real Asian restaurants were packed out) but we’re going a little more all out this year with Lucy.

As it’s a two-week festival, we’re actually celebrating tomorrow night because Becca  and Spencer work on Thursday evenings.

 

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Happy Chinese New Year, folks!

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I never thought I’d be the girl that posted about this… but I’m a lot of things I never expected to be.  I’m a big sister, I’m a world traveler (kind of 🙂 ), I’m a blog-writer, and I’m crazy about China.  Who would have thought?

Adoption, Life

Two Weeks

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You know that scene in “Frozen” where the king and queen are packing, and Anna comes skipping in and is like “See you in two weeks!” all bouncy and cheery?

Well, two weeks is seriously a LONG time, Anna!  Don’t be so chipper about it!

We ordered Jimmy John’s like weeks after we got home from China or something, and there was a piece of lettuce stuck to my sandwich and I had this wait-can-I-eat-this? moment, before I realized: I’m in America, I can eat anything!

And after we got home I didn’t want say thank-you to people: I wanted to say xie xie–which seriously would have made me look crazy back here! 🙂

Two weeks is truly an awfully long time–but even after two weeks things wear off fast.  I’m honestly glad we have pictures so I can’t forget how things were!

China at its fullest
China at its fullest

Yes, those are eggs! 🙂

 

P.S. And no pressure, but seriously if there’s something I’ve posted about that you want to hear more on, comment.  Any time, any post; if there’s a tag or just a subject you like the best, by all means tell me.  I write because I like to, but this blog is for you.  There’s no point in it, if you guys are bored.  I want your in-put!

Happy Wednesday! 🙂

Adoption, Family, Life

It’s a wonderful, wonderful life!

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I’ve got a double-helping of sweetness in my life (literally—double) and I thought I’d let it overflow a little here!

It was really warm today, and Mom and the littles went outside.  I posted this on here and then joined them.  As soon as I came outside Lucy grabbed my hand and took me around back to swing with her.  While we were walking L asked me to sing a song I’d played on the piano that morning with her.

Walking calmly in the sun hand ‘n hand, singing together–the sisteriest thing in the WORLD!!!  Sweet.  Beautiful.

“Lucy is a sister.   She belongs; as much as I do. And someday I’ll probably forget sometimes that we had to do without her for eight years. Someday she’ll just there. The seven of us. And it will be the most natural thing in the world.” -Yours Truly, “Broken”

(always “Broken”)

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And after Mom and Lu went in, Michael and I stayed outside and played Hide ‘n Seek–little brother’s new Thing.

M would cover his eyes, move his hands just enough to see me hide, then count to ten, and wander around saying, “Hmm, where’s Hanna?” while he went right to me.  Okay, okay, fine: I’ll allow it. 🙂

And when I was It he would make me wait to count until he hid… I think you’re missin’ the point, Michael-boy.  Maybe he didn’t like the pressure of being timed.  🙂

My favorite was when he hid  in (pretty plain sight) and I looked up from “searching” and made eye-contact to say, “Have you seen Michael?”  He laughed pretty hard about that one. 🙂

P.S.  Do you feel out-smiley-faced?

Me neither! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Adoption, Life

What we did and didn’t eat in China

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A while back Dad did a post on the family blog of pictures of things we ate in China.  You can read it here.  And just for my own bragging-rights, I did eat one of the fermented shrimp chips.  In all honesty though, I didn’t know what it was.  I thought it was just some ordinary potato chip, so when Lucy offered me one I ate it–and then got a drink as fast as I could!  Though considering, it wasn’t that bad; as I realized when Dad read me the package! 🙂

And then last night Dad did a post of things we didn’t eat.  And (for some odd reason) it’s shorter! 🙂

P.S. The little pita-thing and the live seafood and amphibians (except the salamanders) are from the restaurant I said was our default.

Adoption, Life

Sweetest. thing. ever.

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We were listening to A Little Mandarin last night with Lucy.  Most of the songs are traditional Chinese kid’s songs, and Lu had heard some of them before.  Several of them went along with little games or dances, and Lucy started trying to teach us the actions yesterday!  It was SO sweet!

For one of them she had Mom hold onto a chair and “pull” and then started pulling on her shirt; proceeding to tell me to pull on her dress, etc.  From the English lyrics we found, we were apparently pulling a radish.

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Lucy loves dancing!  It’s beautiful.  She was dancing to Daddy’s guitar music the other day with a couple of ribbons hot-glued to wooden skewers.  She doesn’t appear to have a lot of depth-perception, and she was getting a little too close to her audience while waving sticks…

But go ahead.  Poke my eye out–just don’t stop dancing.

Never stop dancing.

Adoption, Life

China

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There were lots of things, about China in general, that I wanted to post. And maybe I will sometime. I was going to now. But something happened. Lucy happened. She is everything now. Lucy is the world.  –Moi

My post “Broken” was featured on “We Are Grafted In”, which is The Sparrow Fund Ministry’s blog, this week!

And in the in the meantime, I decided I’d share some of the things about China in general that I  said I might.

First off, this being about China in general is not strictly true: China’s a big BIG country, and I was only in three cities.  I meant my experience in China in general.  Which, by the way, was a good one.  I like China.  Honestly.  The culture-shock was hard, but I liked it.  I want to go back someday.

Oh.  Now I’m getting hooked on countries before I can drive across town.  Delightful.

And I wasn’t going to post all this in the beginning, but here. we. are.

Moving on:

We were in two pretty western areas, but Guangzhou was more western.  Which is why I’ve been running around telling people I liked it better.  But I think that’s just because the western-ness was refreshing after spending a week overseas when I’d never been out of my country before.

But I really liked Xi’an.  The experience.  The people.  Even the waitresses at that restaurant next door that would start giggling every time us out-of-place Americans who spoke no chinese walked in… which was often, as it was our default after we figured out what we liked there.

Yes, Xi’an was wonderful.  It was beautiful.  Not like Guangzhou wasn’t, but it had a unique beauty about it.  An less-American beauty.  Where do I even start?

Lots of people walking around with face-masks on.  Lots of bikes.  Lots of buses… not to mention motorcycles, taxis, cars, and these weird bike-things with beds like a pick-up truck.  The traffic made me nervous! 🙂

Also, lots of unbelievably small shops and people who hung their laundry out to dry from their balconies.  And people selling food along the side of the street.  Usually roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes, or something on a stick–sometimes you could tell what was on the stick, and sometimes… you couldn’t.

Also, they don’t appear to have play grounds: “park” in Xi’an meant a path through a truly gorgeous landscape, with pool tables and carnival games.  And sometimes it meant little tubs with goldfish in them that kids could catch fish in and take home.  Apparently.

And almost all the menu’s in the restaurants had pictures, which was SO nice for those of us who don’t read chinese! 🙂  Though our guide informed us that the locals like the pictures too, because in China they name dishes things like “Dancing Eggplant” (I’m not even kidding).

What else made it unique?  The big signs covered in chinese characters.  The fog.  The incredibly tangled telephone wires.  The palm trees.  The tall buildings…

I could go on foreeeever!

I’m hooked.  Totally.