Family

Family

Yesterday, just before our social worker arrived at our house for our 6-month post-placement visit, Isabel asked me in Chinese "why did I come here?"  She was referring to coming to join our family, since I had--just minutes before--explained why Daddy hadn't yet left for work since he was waiting for our social worker to come and talk about how things were going with Isabel in our family.

"Why did I come here?"  An interesting question, to be sure.  One that most children never need to ponder or ask their parents. 

So, I turned off my hair dryer (I was actually taking the time to do my hair before meeting with the social worker...summer ponytail on hiatus for 24 hours), squatted down to Isabel's eye level, and told her she came here because we loved her.  We had seen her photo and read about her, and knew that in China she didn't have a mama and baba and we really wanted her to come and be our daughter.  We wanted to be her Mama and Baba.  And so we worked really hard at all the paperwork and were so excited when China told us we could come and meet her and bring her home.

Isabel soaked all of these words up, looking me straight in the eye with a sheepish smile, and leaned into me.  "I love Mama and Baba" was her response. 

Family. 

We have had a lot of time with our families this summer, and it has been wonderful. 

A week at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland with my family was a fabulous blend of outdoor fun, yummy shared meals, late night card games for the grown ups, and just doing life together with cousins and Aunts and Uncles and Nana and Pap Pap and the "grand-dogs" for a whole week.  We had our own "red neck spa"--a blog post in and of itself for another day--but let me just say that spending time picking nits from little girls' heads with your family brings bonding to a whole new level.

Jared and Joshua's night to cook--tacos!  Well done, lads!

We pulled it off--despite the rain--everyone dressed and smiling!

AUnt Ollie and most of the girls...they LOVE their Aunt Ollie!

My girls and me...I am so blessed.

Everyone got in the water--even the dogs.  No wait, Nana didn't get in!



After a week at home to do laundry, recover from our vacation, and finish up Anna's summer swim league meets, the kids and I headed north to drop Anna off for a week of camp at Mount Gilead--a Christian girls' camp in Pennsylvania at which two of our nieces are currently counselors.  The drop off at the camp was easier emotionally for Isabel than the drop off for Jared earlier in the summer, since she had seen Jared happily return home three weeks later and she now better understood the permanence of our family. 

After dropping Anna off, we headed to Grammy and Pop Pop's house in New Jersey, where the kids and I spent the ensuing week hanging out with Uncle Jer and Auntie Em, Peter and Naomi, and Grammy and Pop Pop.  We also got to see several other cousins and other Aunts and Uncles. We had lots of fun doing summer things--like the County Farmer's Fair, swimming at a local lakeside beach, swimming in the pool, shopping for back-to-school shoes, and a fun day of hiking for Jared and me at a place called Hawk Mountain Preserve.  During the week, we got to watch how family cares for family as Pop Pop had knee replacement surgery early in the week--and Grammy stayed at the hospital for many hours with Uncle Jer and Aunt Judi taking turns checking in on them there.  And we got to be amazed by Pop Pop's determination to bounce right back and faithfully do his PT exercises to strengthen his leg.   Most of all, we got to simply enjoy *being* with our extended family, something that many years of military moves all around the world has made scarce.