Thursday, April 23, 2009

Our Red Threads To Lina

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."
Chinese Legend

As I think back to a year ago today, the day we got the “call”. I can’t help but notice many red threads that connected us to Lina.

I remember the social worker (our social worker was not in the office that day) actually called Ken to tell us of a possible referral. She called Ken because they assumed I would be teaching, though I was on spring break at the time. This referral was not a sibling group (as we wanted), but Ken still told the social worker that we would need to talk to me first. I know that, indeed, if the woman called me, I would have said no thank you right away. Her calling Ken would be one of many red threads that connected us to Lina that day.

After Ken had called me with the (as he put it) interesting phone call, we decided that it would be better to stick to the original plan of waiting for a sibling group. I called the social worker back and declined the referral. After that, I called my parents who ultimately convinced me that we really needed more time to think about this longer. With the possibility of this becoming very real, the butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Perhaps they were carrying another connecting red thread to my heart.

I called the social worker back and told/begged her that though we said “no” already, we actually needed more time to think about this referral. She told me that since they had not yet called another family with regards to this child, we could still have some time to think and decide. When speaking of red threads, this was the point of the day that made me think “it was meant to be.”

All we knew at the time was there was a child who was 16 months old waiting in Russia for us to be his/her parents, and that we had 2 hours to decide. We were told by a friend that either decision we made that day was going to be the right decision, and with a blessing from another friend and our parents, we finally decided to accept this referral.

Perhaps the thickest red thread of all was knowing that though we would never be able to announce we were pregnant, from that day on, it did not matter anymore. Even though all we knew of our child was that he/she was 16 months old, we felt as connected to him/her as if they grew inside me.

For red threads, I will forever be grateful. They connected us to Lina, who as destiny would have it, would turn us from a couple to a forever family.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter and Other Ramblings

We had a very busy but fun Easter weekend. Karen, Lina’s day care provider did an egg hunt with the kids both Thursday and Friday. I was happy because at least she would know what to do when it came time for the “real” thing! Lina absolutely loved looking for Easter eggs. She was pointing around in all different directions saying “egg”, then would run around to try to find them. She was so cute, and it just made me so content to watch my daughter get so much joy out of such a simple thing. What a wonderful first this was for our family.

Our Easter weekend started Friday night when Lina and I colored eggs. She mostly liked watching me do all of the work while she sat and marveled at the eggs coming out of the colored water.



On Saturday, we traveled to Ken’s parent’s house to celebrate the holiday with his side of the family. Lina and her cousins had a blast looking for eggs, and breaking them (the plastic eggs) open to find chocolate inside. The weather was warm enough that we were able to hide the eggs over and over again.


The Easter bunny delivered Lina’s basket during nap time. He knew that since Ken had to work in the morning it was okay to make a special late delivery! Lina came downstairs and had a great time ripping through her basket to see all of the goodies. She loves her new jump rope but cannot figure out how to jump with it! We spent time outside for a short while looking for eggs, but the weather was too cold to re-hide them over and over again. Picture this: at one point, she had an egg (hard boiled) in each hand, went to clap and practically made egg salad right there outside. It was just so innocent. We had a nice low-key dinner with my parents and one of my brothers who dropped by while driving through our town.

I hope that everyone had a great Easter weekend, and if this is your first one with your child that it was as special for you as it was for us.

In other news, I will be eager to post next week with how Lina does at her first sleepover at grammy and grandpa’s this weekend. Since tax season ends this week, Ken and I are planning a day away. We both are looking forward to this so much, and though Lina does not know it yet, she will just love being spoiled.

Also, over the past few months I have been feeling the blogging blues. I’m sure you have noticed with my lack of posts! I contemplated ending the blog and changed my mind again a number of different times. I am happy to say though, that I am finding my interest again. Truly, it is not fair that I follow at least 10 different blogs weekly, get disappointed when they don’t update regularly then turn around and not update myself. So, here starts my new leaf!

And just because I can’t resist…here is one more cute picture…