In A Grocery Store

The other day, in a grocery store, we saw a little Chinese girl shopping with her mom. Emilee and this little girl were quite interested in each other and a lot of staring was happening on both sides. Finally I said to Emilee ‘why, She’s Chinese like you are.’ Emilee replied ‘Yes, but I’m not that Chinese!’ So our girls start their lives – Chinese but not that Chinese.

The time has flown by, hasn’t it. The last two and a half years a flurry of all the sweetness of life – sticky jam kisses, training wheels, dozens of trips to the park, Calillou and Arthur videos, a little helper for cooking, a sleepy warm body cuddling with me in a rocking chair. I am in awe of how children grow and change, and develop their own personalities , blended with aspects of ours. My Emilee is much tidier than her mommy. She has a keenly developed sense of humour, and she is an excellent negotiator.

She has not worn more than 3 dresses in public since she turned 2 last year (dashed are my dreams of making frilly dresses for my grateful daughter!) We have a great selection of T-shirts, shorts, jeans and sweatshirts – shades of China – every day it’s a leyred look with one or two of each item. She went through a phase of wearing 3 T-shirts and peeling them off one-by-one throughout the day.

Emilee loves to sing, and we do so all the time – songs she’s learned and ones she’s “adapted” to fit the activities of the moment. She has friends of all ages everywhere she goes. We got a “class picture” from the preschool she attends two mornings a week (it’s a the school where I work – I’m so lucky!) And she could name all but one of the other 23 students and teachers. She’s cautious – she watches an activity for a long time before she joins in, but then she’s wholehearted in her participation.

Recently she has started talking about having to do her “homework” – usually drawing circles and lines on copious amounts of paper.

We made an emergency flight to Vancouver in February to visit my dying nephew one last time, so Emilee had her first plane ride that she remembers. She didn’t mind and she was very cooperative, but she likes to sleep in her own bed, so she doesn’t want to try to do that any time soon.

Sometime in the last year, I printed off some pictures of Emilee’s orphanage from the Lanxi website, and e-mailed the woman who had posted them. Turns out she was in China two or three weeks before we were and adopted her 18 month old from the same orphanage we did (Lanxi). She had sent a camera ahead and had actual pictures of her daughter in the orphanage – I got copies and I’m pretty sure Lianna is in some of them. It was one of those spooky moments when you realize that there are ties out there for our girls to dozens of others, not just our group.

We watched the video we took while in Chine , and Emilee was so interested in herself as a baby. I was very cool to see the babies arriving again – it happened so fast, and our lives have been forever changed by those moments in time.

She says to me, ‘I’m going to live with you forever, except if your’re very bad, I’ll go live with Lala (Linda) or Mary Joan (another good friend).

So I’ll try to be very, very good!

Linda and her family are well. She sends her hellos, too.

I have seen some of you this past year, but not often enough. There’s a play group that meets once a month in Cambridge (20 minutes away) but we’ve only been once –something’s always come up! We’ll keep trying!

Please come and visit Emilee and I in the prettiest little town in Ontario!

Until then, take care, and may your lives be filled with love and laughter.

Beth & Emilee