Year of the Ox, Revisited

Today was the beginning of the Chinese New Year, and you can see some of the gift items we got for Madison in celebration.  There was a definite theme to this year, as you can see from the red envelope we made to the Mulan figure and the movie of course.  Yes, we watched the movie tonight, although we did have to watch "WandaVision" first.  But afterwards, we all sat together in front of the roaring fireplace to watch "Mulan" once more.  Of course you can find it on Disney's channel, but we just wanted to have a physical copy of it to add to the collection, as it's a good movie for us to own a copy of.

We went to taekwondo tonight because we were able to.  The earlier start time typically prevents us from making it there on Fridays, as Madison's school schedule gets her out late.  But she had today off, and so she was wanting to go.  We went over with Nana, and enjoyed the fourth night of taekwondo in five days, something Madison obviously enjoys.  While there, I placed an order for some Chinese food at a place called Wang's Chinese Restaurant.  First of all, I love that the words "Chinese Restaurant" are part of the title of the restaurant, just in case there's any confusion there.  Humor aside, the food there was really good tonight.  We picked up some various items, and got home to a splendid happy family of a feast.  Mom pulled out all the wonderful Asian plates and bowls, and had brewed some special tea, and on top of that had her own shrimp and fried rice.  We had this amazing dinner tonight!

It was a good day today, and thus the Year of the Rat has ended.  There was a lot to complain about in the Year of the Rat.  But there was good in it too.  It was the Year of the Rat when we met Madison for the first time, although that year too had some very unfortunate things going on.  But it all worked out in the end.

And here we are in the Year of the Ox.  My memory of that year is that we finally got to take our daughter to the Chinese New Year event the parents with children from China put together each year.  We'd been attending that for years, and familiar faces would be there, and the inevitable question was put to us, "Do you not have your daughter yet?"  We'd have to confirm that, and year after year, we'd be there thinking someday we'd be at this event with our daughter.  The log jam and slowing down of the process made things drawn out for us, and we found ourselves waiting for two and a half years from the log-in date.  The Year of the Ox, we finally got to bring our daughter to this event.  And ironically, it was the last time the event took place.  The slowdown affected that event too.  But at least we got to go to one with her.  And at last we could present ourselves as a family for the first time.  The following year, the event was more of a dinner together, and then after that, things sort of faded away, just as the idea of Chinese adoption did too. I'm not sure how many children are even adopted from China currently, actually.  It was a good number back in the day.  I remember going to a fact-finding event at a library in Roswell, maybe in early 2005.  That was the start of our association with Great Wall Adoption.  There was always an attraction to the process because it was so streamlined and efficient.  Six months after "the paper chase," you go to China to get your child.  Boom.  Of course, that didn't pan out for us the way it all was advertised.  And that wasn't necessarily the blame of anyone in the agency.  For years, that was the process.  Suddenly, things changed.  And again, it all worked out for us anyway, as Mom had developed cancer during the paper chase, and that was revealed shortly after our log-in date.  It would take her those two and a half years to recover, and by the time we were told to go to China, the timing was just right, as she had just recovered well enough that she could make the lengthy trip overseas.  The story of the invisible red thread was a huge part of our patience - we knew if we went any sooner, we would not have the right daughter for us.  God had the right child waiting for us.  There was an invisible red thread, one that could not be cut, stretching from Mom to Madison, and apparently it was several thousand miles long.

Several months later, we brought Madison, now two years old, to the Chinese New Year celebration of the Year of the Ox.  There were strips of bubble wrap on the ground so kids could pop and make noise.  There was a Chinese dragon dance.  There were other dances and musicians.  There were vendors, and there was Chinese food of course.  And there were families all over, each with children from China, all of them dressed up in beautiful Chinese clothing.  Madison was adorable - I have to find those old pictures.  That first year predates this blog, so those old pictures might take some time to find.  But I'll be looking!

Before bed, we read tonight from the book Matthew - almost done there.  And we read from "Black Spires" as well, slowly moving forward with that story.  We said our prayers, and not long after that we were all fast asleep.