Year of the Ox

January 26 marks the Year of the Ox. To celebrate and teach Lily abut her heritage, we went to her preschool class with a dragon we made, did the dragon dance, talked about the traditions and superstitions and let the kids jump on bubble wrap to pretend it was firecrackers. Lily was thrilled to show off her Chinese dress and jade bracelet and to explain red envelopes to her class. Last weekend we had the great pleasure of celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year with our local FCC group. Grandma Donna, friends Jim and Vicki, Aunt Kristi and Uncle Joey joined us as did Andrea - Marshall's best buddy's older sister who was born in Hong Kong and who Lily adores. We had a huge turn out with about 70 adults and 40 children. What fun when all the children shrieked when the lion dancers entered our banquet room! My mom got teary eyed thinking abut all these kids so far from their homeland. We struggle with wondering if we are doing enough to hep Lily understand and value her heritage. But it was a joyous event and humbling to think about the privilege these families all have with these amazingly resilient kids in their forever families. Every beautiful face there was one less facing a future growing up in an orphanage or foster care. We have made so many wonderful friends through Lily's adoption and now through Hung's as well. Next year we will have fun combining Tet (Vietnamese New Year) traditions and our Chinese ones!