Chinese New Year pictures

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today we went to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our international adoption group. It was lots of fun! Hope wore her pretty purple silks that I found for her in Chinatown, NYC last spring. She looked beautiful!!!

There were all sorts of crafts to do. She made a necklace, an Ox puppet (since it is the year of the Ox! There was Chinese music by the MSU students, Chinese Ribbon Dance, children singing in Chinese, The Chinese Dragon made an appearance, great food and lots of fun! We sat with some dear friends of ours, The Paces. The girls had a great time eating noodles and fortune cookies!!

It is so great to be able to get together and celebrate such a wonderful culture and heritage of China! The children all looked beautiful in their beautiful Chinese outfits!

I'll be posting a few pictures in just a little bit!

Hard Question!!!!!

I have always heard from other adoptive families that the hard questions come. Well last week the first hard question came. I was not expecting it at all! We were on the way home from taking Stephen to school. We were just a couple of minutes from the school and I heard in the backseat.... "Mom, where is my China mommy and why can't I see her anymore?" I was stunned!!! My first smart answer was.."I don't know!" Then I thought for a few minutes and told her, PRAYING that she would understand, "Your China mommy still lives in China and she couldn't take care of you like you needed, so she took you to your orphanage (she knows about her orphange)until Mommy and Daddy could get there to bring you home." She said..."OK!" I sighed a huge sigh of relief that she was ok with that answer.

We have always been very open about Hope being from China. We read about China, watch movies about China, read adoption stories...so she is very aware that she is adopted from beautiful China!

My mind wonders what questions will be next, when they will come, will I be ready for the answer????? I will cross that bridge when we get there!

All I know for now is that this little girl is thrilled to know that she will be able to go to Kindergarten in the fall!!!