Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Maybe I'm just weird!

Over the weekend, I realized that we're just cruising along doing life.

For a long time it seemed like this blog was about me waiting. Waiting on the whole adoption thing. The journey. Now, here we are- just doing life.

We went to the UD women's basketball game the other night. The five of us. We met up with about 12 of our college friends. And there we were, just being us.

A lady a few rows ahead of us kept doing the goo goo eyes thing at Quinn and I could just tell she was DYING to ask about him. She finally got her chance. It was fun to share the brief 1 minute version. Turns out she really just wanted to talk about her sight seeing trip to China this past summer. Whatever. It got me thinking.
I don't think I'm a normal "adoptive mom." I don't think I'm an adoption crusader. While I love and live adoption and I have a heart to see all kids have permanent families, I'm not sure I live in a personal world driven by the adoption cause. I don't belong to a bunch of adoption websites or chat rooms. I don't even read a ton of adoption blogs. I think I'm just doing the life God's called me to do.

I realized I haven't even given a Quinn specific update in a long time. I haven't bragged about how great his English is or how much he fits in with our family. How awesome his lip revision looks. Or how he irritates me just as much as the other two do at times. I haven't told you about what a kind and generous 2 year old he is or how we consider sending Olivia and Turner for a stint at an orphanage so that they can become as obedient and tender hearted as their brother.

In all honesty, I forget that he's Chinese or that he looks different than I do. I forget that 5 1/2 months ago he turtled up and wouldn't eat, drink or talk for 2 days. 'Cause now he's just Quinn. He's my son. He lives here and he belongs here. But it's kinda no big deal. I don't really think about it and I certainly haven't been blogging about it. It's just life.
So you can imagine my surprise this afternoon when I was eating my lunch while the kids were watching some show on PBS and out of nowhere I started tearing up.

The show had a segment about China. Olivia and turner were glued to it (Quinn was still at the table finishing lunch, naturally... he's the last guy down from each meal!) Olivia yelled, "Hey mom, look its about China." Then Turner got super excited and super animated.

He started running and dancing and saying, "Mom! LOOK! CHINA!" He was running around the room smiling and yelling, "China!" I asked, "Hey Turner do you love China?" He yelled back, "Yes! LOVE China.!"

I'm no fool. I know that Turner had little to no clue about what he was excited about. But the fact that my kids, all three of them, celebrate China brought joy to my heart. They've ALL three been to China. They will all three go back. We will continue to develop that love and enthusiasm for China through out ALL of their lives.

It was good for me to remember that we are an adoptive family. I may not be a deep thinker on the subject or spend a lot of time meditating on that fact or engaging in the adoption world. But I don't want the day to day life to go by too much without re-visiting the reality from time to time.

I still maintain I'm just weird. But hey, so is the rest of my family! Did 'ya notice those pics???

2 comments:

Megan said...

E, I love your blog. It makes me smile.

eva said...

i loved reading this. it made me think of that summer when china was hard and you really didn't want to return. and then you did and now china is a part of the history (and future) of you and your family. what a beautiful thing. :)