Anniversaries and Memories

Today is the day many years ago that my sweet husband proposed to me under an enormous oak tree in the wine country of northern California. It was a day like no other and a delicious memory for the two of us. We celebrate it every year. This year we happened to celebrate it in New York City and the kids made it a special day for us, complete with enforced smooching.

While we were in NYC we also got to re-enact another great memory and pull it around full circle. When we were waiting to travel to adopt our youngest we, 4 at that time, went to Manhattan to get our Chinese visas in our passports. We made a sweet memory by stopping by the giant mega-store of Build a Bear to create a soft lovey for the sweetie we were waiting to meet. We made a bear which later became MoMei and is a much loved rascal having nightly escapades with our youngest. Our two olders remember that day very well and now to return and make a new lovey bear for Sweetpea was a delight to them. For our youngest it was her first time and quite the retail eye-openner!

We had such a nice time together making the bear and choosing an outfit. We really hope that this lovey will be as much a comfort to Sweetpea as the other bears are to her waiting sisters. She will come to us with nothing, perhaps only with the clothes on her back. We do not even know how tall she is or how much she weighs so buying clothes beforehand is futile. We want to lavish her with love but recognize that she will not be able to receive that right away because of what she has been through. Slowly and steadily we hope to win her heart and make her a true daughter of our family.