Back into the groove of things and what better way to get back into our blog than to start with Love Thursday?!?!
So many of you know - we moved this past week. What a feat! What a lot of work! But we are not complaining - we are beyond blessed with not only our new and improved space (lots of it we may add) but with our new yard and best of all our new community!
When we first purchased our new home, back in March, we asked the previous owners if the area was diverse. It was important to us that Ben not be the only person of asian descent in our new community. He said, "its diverse, and you shouldn't worry - Ben will fit right in". Little did I know - Matt and I would be the minority ;-)....
Our new home, albeit a townhome, has a huge backyard with a new playground about 100 yards out of our back door. On Tuesday Tara, our babysitter, came over for dinner. She needed a Ben fix and was missing him terribly (Matt and I have off this week so no babysitter needed!). After dinner Tara and I took Ben to the new playground. Tara and I could pass as sisters, both very Irish / Scottish looking. At the playground were 4 children and 2 sets of grandparents. Everyone was Chinese. Then about 10 minutes after getting there - about 5 more kids and 2 more sets of grandparents showed up. 10 kids (including Ben), and 5 adults - Tara and I being the only non-Chinese people there.
All of the grandparents were checking Ben out. I know they were wondering...Chinese or Korean? Adopted? Dad - chinese? They were talking but I had no idea what they were saying. We all smiled (the universal language of hi, bye, and more) and we went home as it was getting dark. About an hour later I hear a whole bunch of clapping outside my bedroom window. I look out and see all of the grandparents doing what I think is Tai Chi at the playground....it was BEAUTIFUL!!!
Took Ben back to the playground again this morning and again - the same set of grandparents were all there with the grandchildren. We all smiled again, but the language barrier prevented any lengthy conversations. Then a lovely woman, probably late 60s showed up. Her name is Yamin. She is Chinese but knows enough English to get by. She introduces herself, asks about Ben and strikes up a conversation with me. She tried teaching me a number of Chinese phrases and was very welcoming of me to their intimate community.
I've always been drawn to the Asian culture, well before adopting was even a consideration. The fact that this beautiful community of Chinese people congregates in my backyard was so exciting to me I wanted to cry.
I could blog and blog about how I felt regarding this new found community - but I'll save all of my thoughts for another time. What I will say is...
I LOVE my new home
I LOVE our new space, yard, playground
I LOVE our new community!
Each would be a wonderful addition to our lives independent of the other - but the fact that we have all 3 is so exciting!!! More to follow....
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
