Believe it or not, it was 5 years ago today, in Nanning, that I met Dumpling and became her mom. She didn't get to meet her dad til 2 weeks later, but we still celebrate May 31st as her adoption day because he was there in spirits.
It doens't seem possible that it's been 5 years. She is such a grown up young lady. She is an incredible artist and a budding singer/actress (we tried so hard to keep her form HSM, she became a Hairspray fanatic instead and does a killer Tracy Turnblatt). She is now (finally!) a great eater and is very interested in cooking and baking and helping in the kitchen.
Most days, she is a fantastic big sister, though she is quite devious and can manage to convince her little sister to do all kinds of things she knows she shouldn't be doing!
Of course, on a day like today, I want to celebrate all that is wonderful about Dumpling. The truth is, it took a lot of work and patience and sometimes tears to get to this point. There are days when I just don't know if I will ever truly understand her. But we have persevered and all of us together, we are a family.
if you scroll down this page, you'll find my entry from 5 years ago ( I seriously need to import that diaryland blog!). Apparently, I didn't write anything down on our first anniversary, but here is year 2, year 3 and year 4
and tonight, we continued our tradition of taking a picture every year in the dress that I wore 5 years ago in China. When she is big enough, Dumpling will start wearing it.
Right before bed, we read Happy Adoption Day, a book Dumpling received as a baby git from our friends Susan,Gord and Cara-Li. Cara-Li is 1 year older than Dumpling and from the same orphanage. S and I became friends online and then in real life and now, 5 years later, we see each other regularly. As a matter of fact, CL and G came with us to the movies yesterday morning. So when I read the book tonight and pointed out the inscription to Dumpling, she was very pleased and expressed genuine gratitude for their friendship and the special bond that we have formed with that family.
