There’s something so fun about taking the girls away–just the 3 of us–to stay in a special room with two beds and our own bathroom (oh, and air conditioning too). That in an of itself would be enough. Add in a bunch of other families who have come together through this thing called adoption, and things just got sweeter.
While the Raudenbush boys hit Lost River Cavern and learned about stalagmites and did other boy stuff like a Lego store visit, a diner dinner, and get introduced to Harry Potter, the girls headed up North a bit with a bag of camp snacks (aka goldfish, poptarts, and M&Ms).
Apparently, my weather channel app was in the dark since the 30% chance of rain translated into total. complete. downpour. So, no pontoon boat rides. And, no bonfire. But, we managed to find things to keep us busy inside.
(some more creative than others)
But, rain was not surprising to the One who sent that rain. And, all afternoon, conversations were buzzing and connections were made and little dark haired children were running all over the place with some blondies like mine mixed in. And, it was pretty neat to watch.
(Bouncing balls through stair openings is oh-so-much-more fun when you can do it with one of your Baoji sisters.)
As Lydia slept in her little portable crib in the corner, I snuggled with Ashlyn in her bed and we read a chapter of her fairy chapter book by flashlight and ate M&Ms.
“Can we come here again next year?” Ashlyn asked. “We’ll try, sure.” Pause for some crunching. “Do you ever feel strange that you are not Chinese like most of the kids here?” She thought a minute, “Sometimes, but it’s fun. I like it.” And, that was that.
After some (wet) golfing this morning, we had a little devotional time together which started out with some piano playing by two of the Chinese girls.
When everyone applauded for their second song, Ashlyn leaned over and whispered, “Their first song was SO good. Maybe next year, I can get up and do some Chinese dancing I learn in my class this year.”
