Happy Memorial Day/Weekend!

Maliana ~ Whew! What a great big busy yet relaxing family weekend!

The shenanigans all began on Friday when I got home from work. We jumped in the car and headed to Cleveland where the adoption agency has their annual reunion, with a little carnival on Friday night at their offices, and then a huge party at the zoo the next day. It was so nice to see all of the families there, and get to see several of the girls from our own travel group, (Joy, Christina, Ruby and Willow). You are all getting so big! There’s such a great bond and sense of camaraderie with all of the people that we traveled so far with, it’s a neat feeling to be together again. We got to see several of the staff at EAC who helped us find you, and we were delighted to see you warm up to Uncle Zhou quite a bit more this year than last year. I think his miniature lesson with you on the proper Chinese way to hold a ping pong paddle helped you realize “Hey, this guy is pretty cool!” And when it comes to table tennis, Uncle Zhou definitely doesn’t mess around. He schooled Daddy big time! Ha ha.

striking a pose by the "wall o' referrals" at EAC

in the bounce house with the twins, Ruby and Willow

girlfriend got attitude

lesson on the Chinese grip in table tennis

the face of determination

Uncle Zhou's my friend!

When we got back to the hotel, we were all very, very tired. We met a few of the families from our travel group in the restaurant for a quick bite then headed up to bed. After being around these families again, it made me feel so grateful all over again. As we got ready for sleep, I paused a moment and made you really listen to me and said, “Mali, Daddy and I are so so so lucky to have you as a daughter, and we love you so much”…to which you replied, “I know Mom”, then gave me the biggest longest hug. All I could think was, “Good”…I’m so glad that that is such common knowledge to you already.

Saturday morning we got up early and grabbed breakfast at the hotel with Maya and her family (from our travel group). Then we all headed to the big zoo party. We all were running a bit on empty when it came to sleep, but we managed to make it through the day and have a blast in spite of being a bit delirious. We saw lots of animals, rode the train, and marched in our agency’s “Coming to America” parade through the zoo. You loved seeing the elephants this time, and thanks to our straight-forward anatomy lessons at home, happily pointed out which elephant was proudly displaying his manhood by saying very loudly, “Hey, is that his penis?!” You also loved the kangaroos we saw while riding the choo choo train, thankfully none of them were flashing us and needed no big announcements from you. Once again, it was really heartwarming to see all of these wonderful families again, and Daddy and I even talked to Ruby and Willow’s parents about trying to road-trip it up to see them, along with Maya and her family too, in Rochester this summer. Wouldn’t that be fun?! I sure hope we can work that out! Once leaving the zoo, you were “out” before we even hit the freeway, sleeping nearly the whole way home.

after breakfast at the Embassy Suites

bright and early at the zoo, still rubbing the sleep out of your eyes with Joy

checking out the elephants with Mom

riding on Daddy's shoulders during the parade

Maya was pretty pooped even before the parade began

family shot on our way out of the zoo

fueling up on kettle corn

last big burst of ornery before crashing in the car

Before heading to bed on Saturday night, I had another one of my really grateful moments after reading an article in Adoptive Families magazine. It was an essay about the fierce feelings of motherhood where a woman is pondering (during a conversation with her daughter) all the ways that having a baby changes your life and none of them are what the daughter expects. It’s a very tender and real account of how elated yet vulnerable you feel as a mother, fearing the worst anytime you see a tragedy on the news while cherishing and celebrating all of the big and small moments with your child. Everything takes on new meaning and nothing is the same again. After reading this article, I turned to you with tears in my eyes, told you I loved you, and gave you the biggest hug I could. Of course, when you saw my glassy eyes you wanted to know what was wrong, but by now you are used to my “happy tears”, hugging me a little longer than usual and then went on about your business. Not only am I glad that you know how loved you are, but I’m also glad that you’re already so used to how sappy your mom can be at times. That’s good, because I don’t see myself changing much in the years to come.

Sunday morning as we got ready, you yelled downstairs what you yell to me often right now, “Mom, I need you!” And this particular morning, I paused and took it in…realizing that you won’t be yelling this to me forever and I should savor these times when you readily admit to this. While it’s nice to see you do so many things for yourself and become more independent every day, it’s also nice to feel needed sometimes too. Especially knowing that these days won’t last, I try to remind myself of this and cherish every second I can, even when these requests come at slightly less convenient moments.

After putting on some nice breezy clothes, we headed into the heat to enjoy the local Asian festival. We brought a big sheet and set up camp under a tree near one of the stages and sipped bubble tea, lemonade, and ate a snow cone while we listened to/watched some of the entertainment. It was very relaxing and we met and chatted for a while with a really neat couple who came here from China nearly two years ago to study at OSU. You liked relaxing in the shade, listening to the music, looking at the dancers’ costumes, and were silly and laughing, wrestling with Daddy and rolling down the hill in the grass. Lao Lao and Uncle Forge came a little bit later and we walked around for a while until we had to leave. We didn't get close enough to the stage to get a real good shot of the entertainment, but I did snap these beauties...

 

 

an early salute to our service members for Memorial Day

Daddy's always up for a good toss in the air to get you to laugh

listening to the music while looking up through the trees at the clouds

 

We had dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Papaw Rick’s birthday and while our service was very slow, you kept the table entertained with your silly antics.

making silly faces with Uncle Flint

with Lao Lao and Inay Wanda

And recently, here is the latest “Mali-ism”…instead of saying you would like a lot of something, like “a lot of milk” or “a lot of popcorn”, you’ll say you’d like “big big milk” or “big big popcorn”. It’s pretty cute, even if technically incorrect.

Since Monday was Memorial Day, we celebrated our thankfulness for all that our military has done and still does to protect our freedoms the typical way most Americans celebrate this day, with a cookout. We were lucky enough to throw together an impromptu pool party and cookout with some of our dearest friends, Uncle Joe and Aunt Tina, and their littles Sam and Erin, who invited us swimming at their pool and to hang out at their house into the evening. On the way home, Daddy and I said we couldn’t remember the last time we had such a nice relaxing “do nothing but enjoy the moment” kind of day. It was the perfect way to end the long busy holiday weekend. You had a blast at the pool, laughing maniacally and loving every second in the water. I realized that I am also the typical "pool mom", saying "Slow down! Walk slowly when you're by the pool!" to which you replied, complete with eye roll, "I am walking slow, Mom!" Ha ha. It was so fun to watch you play with Sam and Erin and feel so comfortable with Joe and Tina. There’s nothing better than watching you interact with these friends, who so readily embrace you so sweetly. As the saying goes, Joe and Tina (Sam and Erin) are “good eggs”…truly truly “good eggs”.

goofy goofy goofy

here comes the sun!

new lifeguard on duty, and she means business!

hugs from Aunt Tina

hey Sam, you don't mind that I completely invade your room with my nakedness, do you?

uh Tina, that's not exactly what Mali meant by "stick 'em up!"

So, if that was our weekend…I’ll have to back up a bit and recap the actual week too. It started off a bit rough, staying home with Dad on Monday and paying a visit to Dr. Dan who said you had an ear infection. Poor thing. You never complained once about your ear, and Dr. Dan even said you must have a pretty high threshold for pain. Tough little cookie. We got you on some meds, and you seemed to be feeling better by evening. When I got home from work, we took you on our first family bike ride of the year, if for nothing else but to get your mind off being sick. It was nice to get back out on the trail again on our bikes.

By Tuesday, you were back at school and did great. After school, you came along with me while I went running, we played on the playground for a bit, then came home and ate watermelon and played baseball/catch in the front yard until Daddy came home.

Then you helped Daddy organize the garage once he was home. You really love to be helpful. Then later that evening, we went to the airport to welcome Joe and Tina home from Italy, where they had gotten MARRIED! It was neat to see them get off the plane and, as we well know, it's always nice to see familiar faces when coming home from a long journey. Hopefully we can all go back to Italy with them next time, maybe even celebrate their first anniversary there! Wouldn’t that be a hoot?!

We started packing for our big weekend on Wednesday night, with you insisting on packing your own random little toiletry bag, the whole time saying “Hurry! Gonna be late for our trip!” Like I said before, you love to be helpful!

Thursday was picture day for you at school. Poor Daddy called me after dropping you at school, saying it was so tough to get you in your dress. The teacher had to help fix your hair because, wow! Did you put up a good fight! Daddy said you kept insisting on wearing your AC/DC shirt for pictures, which I guess probably would have gone better with the temporary tattoos that we forgot to wash off your arms anyway. Perhaps next time we should just let you pick out your own outfit regardless. After all, that is the real you, right? Ha ha. As soon as you got home, you changed into your outfit of preference, green athletic shorts, orange surfer shirt, and pink slip-on tennis shoes. No one can argue that you definitely have your own style!

So anyway, in a nutshell, this week and weekend were awesome. In spite of a lack of sleep at times, an ear infection, and your strange unidentifiable rash that kept springing up (then going away) at different times, we had a lot of fun together. This family time together is so precious…the memories that are made are priceless. At one point this weekend, I thought I had lost my wallet and camera. I remember thinking at that moment that I wished it would be my wallet with all of my credit cards and identification that were lost, and not my camera. I’d be miserable if I lost my camera containing the huge memory card of pictures. It made me realize how much more important times spent together making (and capturing) memories are, than any material goods or inconveniences posed from having to replace a driver’s license or credit cards. I was thankful to have that realization. It made me realize that my priorities just might be in the right place after all.

Love,
Mama