"Easter Luck"

What a perfect Easter weekend!  First we went to J.J. and Uncle John's house and painted eggs with Annalena and Addison:

(Can you stand the cuteness of this little bunny?)

I remember painting eggs with this now-man when he was Bea's age, and now he's a Dad, and an awesome one at that! 

Sunday morning we got gussied up and headed to the Vietnamese church in Worcester for their bilingual Easter mass:

When we got home, Beatrice decorated this card and decided against "Happy Easter," "Easter wishes," or "Easter Blessings,"  instead choosing:

Yup, a lucky day indeed!  After we Skyped with Lolo, Lola, and the Dirksens, we headed to Aunt Denise's for lots of cousin time, and an awesome Easter egg hunt.  (The real camera's at the shop, so we're lacking in pictures once again. )And now she has  a week off to enjoy her candy, spend some time at my school, and have some Daddy time.

Spring Portrait

The Albanos Visit!

Anthony's cousin Tony and his family were up for the weekend, and it was simply a perfect start to my vacation.  17-year old Ted was in a music competition with his high school (which so happens to be the same school Anthony and Tony graduated from) in New Jersey, so we played hookie on Friday and drove down to hear him.  The band was A.MAZ.ING to say the least.  I was too engrossed to snap one photo or any moments of video.  Actually that was the case for any of the multiple times that our home was filled with music this weekend, and I only have one short video of 10-year old Marco on the piano as well, and it's too big for blogger.  Beatrice and the younger boys played so, so nicely together.  Not a moment's discontent.  They could move in and I'd be thrilled!

Here's Marco and Lorenzo enjoying the playset:

Ted gave up a trip to Six Flags with his bandmates to spend time with us.  Not only handsome, not only talented, not only cool, but the kindest teenager I know:

Who needs Six Flags when you can climb rocks like these?

Or skip stones into the lake?

Tita Ninette and Beatrice have a beautiful bond:

Top-10 Cutest Family!

I made pancakes for the early-birds Saturday morning:

Beatrice introduced Tita to her iPad games:

The kids played outside blowing bubbles, drawing with chalk, swinging, playing hopscotch:

and our living room was a dance studio:

What a wonderful but too brief visit.  I'm so excited that we're spending time again with them during the 4th of July during our Maryland beach trip!

an attempt at a post

I'm on vacation, so hopefully I have some time to catch up with life this week!  (Beatrice's week isn't until after mine, so that catching up and relaxing might really happen!) Yesterday we went to see cousin Ted's DeMatha High School Band, Anthony's alma mater, in New Jersey, and the family followed us back for the weekend so there'll be another post with pictures of our time with them coming soon.  For now though, here are two moments from our stop in New Haven yesterday.  We went to Ikea, the Atticus book store, which Beatrice was ridiculously excited to revisit, the Yale Art Museum, and Tandoor diner, one of our favorite Indian restaurants.  Here's the artsy girl at the museum.  She'd have much rather stayed longer at the book store or headed out to eat, so she only partially obliged with photos:

My daughter's vocabulary not only includes recent words like transform, embankment, chamber, and savory, but she also is well-versed in Indian food, exclaiming "Samosas are a little bit good, but kheer and gulab jamun are my favorite!"

Five Years Ago Today....

We packed up our gifts for the nannies and for the children at the orphanage, 

drove 45 minutes to Bac Ninh and arrived with with the other families,

got our first glimpse of Ngo Minh Hanh and one of her nannies,

witnessed those who cared for her for eleven months as they said their goodbyes

and placed my daughter in my arms.

Then the government of Viet Nam did the same legally and officially.

One person in this photo is in heaven, and  I'm guessing the other is thinking, loosely translated,  "What the hell is going on and who is this man holding me like he's known me his whole life?"

We were encouraged to bring a pacifier to soothe her, so we stuck this in her mouth.  She obliged for a couple of minutes and then spit it out, never allowing it in again. 

It wasn't clear to us at the time, but now we easily see the confusion, aloofness, and fear on her face from those first moments and days.  

Flash forward five years:

While we were eating breakfast the other morning, Beatrice-out of the blue- stated "I wish I was born from your body Mama."  After my gut unwrenched, I asked her what would be different if that had happened?  She said a few things that were tough to hear because for five years we've tried to normalize, celebrate, and at times even glamorize, her adoption, different types of families, and her cultural identity.  But in this moment of time  she was wishing for a different beginning.

  I don't think she feels that way most of the time, and I don't want to react negatively to these moments and make her stop talking and letting me into her heart and thoughts. I know it's a normal and necessary journey as she sorts out her identity. Since that breakfast talk, she's asked me a dozen times to tell her about the day she was born and/or the day we picked her up from the orphanage. 

I tell her the truth, that I don't know much about the day she was born, but that I was certain the moon shone bright and the stars twinkled brightly and that her presence immediately improved the world. 

  I tell her moment by moment of April 8, 2009, and focus most on the second we spotted her, how we knew who she was by her "pineapple ponytail," how she was shy but came to us willingly, how she put her head on each of our shoulders within minutes,

 how she was the only baby who was allowed to sit with the parents during the G&R, how she fell asleep on the hard table, how she stared at me in the van and sat contentedly with Daddy, how she slept soundly that first night and had congee and yogurt for her first breakfast with us, how she finally showed us her 8 teeth during her first smile nearly 24 hours later, how Daddy and I were in love with her right away.

Almost two thousand days have passed and nearly as many photographs and one thing is nearly always clear:  Beatrice is a happy girl.  Countless people have commented about that. She's happy with her house, toys, books, pets, extended family and friends, but she'd be the first one to tell you what makes her happiest:  Mama and Daddy. The three of us clung to each other those first days in Hanoi and we haven't really stopped since.  G&R, "Giving and Receiving".....I don't remember giving much at all that day or the months preceding,  but what we received was the extraordinary blessing of sharing this life and day to day existence with the most precious human being on the planet.